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Best Ever Back-to-Backs

Going back the last ten years, the SDSU men’s basketball team has played back-to-back one-point games exactly once.

It just happened this past Thursday and Saturday. And these were not only one-point games, but both were decided by one of the greatest dramatic acts in sports: the buzzer beater.

There has been some similar two-game dramas in the past decade, but nothing quite like what we just saw.

2014 Regular Season

• Jacks win at Denver 74-73.
• Jacks win at South Dakota 70-68 two nights later, but both games are decided by the Jacks making late free throws and neither is decided by a last-second shot.

2016 Summit League Tournament

• Jacks beat Oral Roberts 73-70 in the first round when redshirt freshman Mike Daum scores 26 points and the Jacks come from 13 points down to win by three.
• Jacks beat Denver two nights later as South Dakota State comes from 13 down again to win 54-53 when Jake Bittle makes the go-ahead free throw, Deondre Parks commits the terrible foul and 90% shooter Joe Rosga misses the famous free throw at the end.

2017 Summit League Tournament

• Jacks beat South Dakota 74-71 in the semis when Michael Orris makes the shot with two seconds left to put the Jacks ahead.
• Jacks win the tournament championship over Omaha the next night when TraDeon Hollins’ three-pointer bounces off the rim at the buzzer, and the Jacks hold on to the 79-77 win.

This Wild Weekend

Those back-to-backers were exciting, but these last two have been maybe the best ever for the Jackrabbit men in the drama department.

Thursday in Omaha:

• It was the biggest basketball crowd ever at Baxter Arena to see the top two teams in The Summit League do battle.
• Jacks went up 16 early in the second half, but gave it all away as the Mavs went on a 21-3 tear to take the lead.
• David Jenkins kept SDSU in it by making 10 three-pointers, tying the school record held by Mike Daum.
• Daum made two free throws with five seconds left to put the Jacks up by one.
• Mitch Hahn got the ball with six seconds left, went the length of the floor, pulled up, fell away on the baseline, and drained a 10-footer over two defenders to win it 85-84.

And then less than 48 hours later on Saturday in Fargo:

• NDSU was the hottest team in the league, riding a five-game win streak.
• Bison dominated the first half.
• NDSU had the lead the majority of the second half.
  • A 17-point lead with 15:54 to play
  • A 10-point lead with 12:06 to play
  • A nine-point lead with 2:08 to play
  • A three-point lead with 26 seconds left
  • A one-point lead with 3.7 seconds left
• Rocky Kreuser made a free throw to put the Bison up by two, but the next one rims off.
• Tevin King passed it to David Jenkins, who took two dribbles, crossed half court, heaved it off of one foot from 40 feet straight away, and banked it in to win it 78-77.

Technically, South Dakota State never led the game. The shot by Jenkins went in with no time left on the clock. The game was tied 0-0 for the first 52 seconds, and NDSU held the lead for 39 minutes and 8 seconds after that.

And, as Midco Sports Network’s Brian Shawn pointed out, Rocky Kreuser hadn't missed a free throw since December 29, 2018. He had made 24 in a row before the miss that led to the improbable heave by Jenkins.

Bison head coach David Richman was down but profound in the press conference after the game: “You’re around this game long enough, it’s like life. It will take you a lot of places. It will treat you a lot of ways.”

Amen.

Jenkins Adds to Rep and Resume

David Jenkins plays on the same team as a Jackrabbit living legend. Mike Daum has broken every school record at SDSU and is going to be just the 10th collegiate player ever to score over 3,000 points. There is no argument that he is THE man right now in Brookings.

Jacks fans expect him to score 30 every night out, and he does. And yet even with the gigantic presence of the Dauminator on the floor, it is often Jenkins who grabs your attention.

It is Jenkins who has the ball in his hands at the end of the shot clock or the end of the game. It was Jenkins who kept SDSU in it in the second half at Omaha when Daum was cold and the Mavericks were making their move. It was Jenkins who fueled the comeback in Fargo, and Jenkins who got the ball for one last chance to make a play and steal a win.

Fans behind the hoop in Omaha got loud and taunted Jenkins late in the game instead of Daum. North Dakota State fans roared when Jenkins messed up, got out of control and turned the ball over or had it stripped away by a Bison defender.

Jenkins is tattoos and hair and flash and dash and takes some shots that make you wonder what the hell he his thinking. But he is always sure the next one is going in.

He reminds me of one of my favorite college players ever: Alfredrick Hughes. Hughes played at Loyola-Chicago and finished his college career with 2,914 points. (Mike Daum just passed him on the all-time scoring list.) Like Jenkins, Hughes “never met a shot he couldn’t get off.”

He said, “The misses don't bother me. Some go in, some stay out. I know me. I believe in myself.”

The similarities to Jenkins are definitely there. Read this Sports Illustrated story from 1985 and see if you agree.

The Home Stretch

The Jackrabbit men play their last three regular season games at home.

• Purdue-Fort Wayne on Thursday, February 21
• South Dakota on Saturday, February 23
• Western Illinois on Saturday, March 2

Mike Daum currently sits at 2,943 career points and will most likely reach 3,000 and move into the top 10 all-time in these next three games. He recently broke Reed Tellinghuisen’s school record for career three-pointers made. Daum has made 260 triples in 132 career games.

David Jenkins recently broke Daum’s school record for three-pointers made in a season. Jenkins has 98 makes so far this season. He leads The Summit League and is 5th in Division I.

Beau Brown has been ill and out of uniform for the last two games. We hope to see him back this week against the Mastodons and Coyotes.

This is the exciting time in the season, right before The Summit League Tournament, and I think we can all agree that we’re looking forward to seeing other buzzer beater moments in March.