Zimmer: South Dakota State's Summit League winning streak is reaching ridiculous levels

BROOKINGS — Saturday’s win over the Omaha Mavericks was the 14th in a row for the South Dakota State women’s basketball team. It was also their 20th of the season, a benchmark they’ve reached in 21 of the last 23 seasons (they won 19 in the other two).

When they visit Denver on Thursday the Jackrabbits will be looking to improve to 13-0 in Summit League play with what would be their 15th straight win.

Impressive, right? Well it’s not even the most impressive streak the Jacks have going right now.

No, that would be the Jackrabbits’ winning streak against conference opponents, which now stands at an embarrassing-for-the-rest-of-the-league 43 straight. SDSU’s last loss in a league game came in January of 2022 when they were routed by the rival Coyotes. The streak does not, it should be noted, include the Jacks’ second loss to USD that year, in the conference tournament championship game. USD went on to the Sweet 16 after that win, while the Jacks settled for a WNIT title.

Then the Jacks went 18-0 in the Summit League last year, reaching the second round of the NCAA touranment. And now they’re 12-0 this year, despite a freak barrage of injuries that should, it would seem, leave them as vulnerable as they’ve ever been. So far, no team in their conference has shown any inclination to take them down.

The Jacks are 61-1 in Summit League action over the last four seasons.

That’s 12-0 this year, 18-0 last year, 17-1 the year before that, and 14-0 the year before that.

Players and coaches both insist records and streaks aren’t a motivator for them, but there’s something to be said for the incredible consistency this program continues to exhibit, and even moreso in a season where nobody would be holding it against them if they faltered under the weight of injuries and weren’t able to contend in their conference.

“When you reflect on it in a broader sense, just like 20 wins a year, it’s still significant,” coach Aaron Johnston said. “It still says we’re on the right track and we’re doing really good things. And when you hvae a streak that long, that’s a lot of different players, too. It’s not just one player carrying us along. It’s several different classes — senior classes, freshman classes. It’s a good benchmark that we’re on the right track.”

Johnston said that pride in the achievement comes regardless of this year’s circumstances. Twenty wins in a year is a big deal any year. But for the players who have seen teammate after teammate go down with a season-ending injury, only to stare down that adversity and plow right through it, there’s certainly some extra satisfaction.

“With all the adversity and all the people who’ve got hurt, and seeing those people on the sidelines cheering us on, still doing the best they can in practice — that helps us not take anything for granted,” said sophomore post Brooklyn Meyer, whose emergence as a top-flight center has keyed the Jacks success. “That’s what this team focuses on — taking it one step at a time and doing it for each other.”

If we’re being honest, though, the Jacks’ continued dominance isn’t a great reflection on the rest of the conference.

Do their opponents even allow themselves to fantasize about winning when they come to Frost Arena? The Jacks haven’t lost a home conference game since 2020. When teams (particularly ones other than USD) have managed to knock off the Rabbits, it’s pretty much been a fluke, not an indication that said team has closed the gap between themselves and SDSU.

Just go down the list of how long it’s been since the Jacks’ conference opponents beat them:

USD: Jan. of 2022
Denver: Feb. of 2020
Omaha: Jan. of 2017
UND: March of 2004
NDSU: Jan. of 2015
UMKC: Jan. of 2010
ORU: Jan. of 2012

Former members IUPUI and Western Illinois both won their last game over SDSU in 2017. IPFW beat the Jacks once in 37 tries. Newest member St. Thomas is winless against the Jacks so far in just a handful of tries.

“It’s a testament to all of our personalities,” said junior post Mesa Byom. “We all want the best for each other and we play that way. So it’s not looking at it like ‘Oh, we’re better than them’, we’re just doing it for each other.”

But they are better than ‘them’. Every night, it seems.

USD became the Jacks’ primary threat in women’s basketball pretty much the second they moved up to Division I, and for a moment appeared to have equalled their standing. But they’re rebuilding now.

NDSU is enjoying one of its best seasons in years, currently 10-2 in league play. But they already lost to SDSU in Fargo. They come to Frost next week.

Perhaps the Bison are ready to snap the streak. And the Jacks are, unfortunately for them, probably just one more injury away from having a much tougher time sustaining the level of play they’ve impressively maintained this season.

That said, 43 wins in a row can imbue a team with an awful lot of confidence. And inspire a significant level of intimidation in their opponents, especially in front of raucous blue-and-yellow clad crowd in Sioux Falls.

Whether the Jacks’ conference winning streak is still intact by Summit League tournament time or not, they’ll be the heavy favorites. The business-as-usual approach tends to work well for them.

“(The winning streak) is another achievement but it’s not something we talk about,” Johnston said. “I don’t want it to be something that becomes a burden for our team to carry. We’re gonna try to play well on Thursday because that’s our next game and it’s an important one. If that continues a streak, great. If it ends a streak we pick up and move on.”

Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.