#18 /// MAR. 20, 2025
SDSU women:
Seeding gut punch
4
SODAK 16
Class AA leaders mixed on viability of regions
8
MACY MILLER
Jackrabbit legend returns in assistant coach role
10
6 State boys hoops takes center stage
Girls State B: Bennett County brought the hope, then the title
12
EDITOR
MARCUS TRAXLER mtraxler@mitchellrepublic.com
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
SARA LEITHEISER
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
JEN PHILLIPS
KATIE HASTINGS
MATT ZIMMER
ADAM THURY
TRENT SINGER
BLAKE DURHAM
LANDON DIERKS
NATHAN SWAFFAR
JUSTIN WICKERSHAM
MARCUS TRAXLER
Marcus Traxler is the assistant editor and sports editor for the Mitchell Republic. A past winner of the state’s Outstanding Young Journalist award and the 2023 South Dakota Sportswriter of the Year, he’s worked for the newspaper since 2014 and covers a wide variety of topics.
MATT ZIMMER
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.
LANDON DIERKS
Dierks covers prep and collegiate athletics across the Mitchell Republic’s coverage region area. He is a Mitchell native who graduated from South Dakota State University with his bachelor’s degree in journalism in May 2020. Dierks joined the Mitchell Republic sports staff in August 2021.
BLAKE DURHAM
Blake Durham is a Sports Reporter for the Mitchell Republic, having joined the newspaper in October of 2023. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in December of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications. Durham can be found covering a variety of prep and collegiate sports in the area.
TRENT SINGER
An Iowa native who grew up in the south, Singer is a 2012 graduate of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in photography with a minor in journalism. Singer was most previously the editor of high school sports at Just Women's Sports and, before that, was a sports reporter and editor at the Southeast Missourian and the Kentucky New Era, respectively.
Jacks not shown much respect in seeding, despite No. 23 national ranking
BROOKINGS — The Jackrabbit women waited a whole hour to get punched in the gut.
At least, that’s what it felt like to their fans.
South Dakota State sat through the entire NCAA tournament selection show on Sunday night — they were literally the final matchup of the bracket to be revealed — only to be given a 10seed. They’ll face the Oklahoma State Cowgirls on Saturday in Storrs, Conn.
The Jacks are 29-3, winners of 19 games in a row, the 23rd ranked team in the country, making their 13th NCAA tournament appearance since 2009, and they got a 10-seed.
When the show got down to that final pairing, showing a 7 in one box and a 10 in the other, every single soul in First Bank & Trust Arena assumed that meant the Jacks would be the seven. When that spot was awarded to Oklahoma State, an audible gasp filled the arena. Jaws dropped.
A 10-seed? For a team with wins over Oregon, Creighton, Wisconsin and Ball State? That was in the Sweet 16 just six years ago with a lesser resume than this one? That’s won five games in the NCAA tournament?
Long-time fans and observers of the Jacks were surprised when mock brackets leaked out earlier in the week that had SDSU as an 8 or a 9. A 10 just felt like a straight up insult to anyone who remembers watching the Jackrabbits (and USD Coyotes) make recent runs to the round of 16. It’s a head-scratcher, to put it mildly.
But don’t assume the players are going to use this as fuel to drive them in the tournament. If they felt any disrespect from the selection committee, they weren’t about to say so publicly.
“We would take whatever seed they give us and come out and play our best basketball and hopefully surprise some people,” said guard Madison Mathiowetz. “We’re just excited to be there and have this experience.”
How’s that for diplomatic?
Mesa Byom, you wanna give the committee a piece of your mind?
“We didn’t know what to expect and you just never know,” Byom said. “I think we’re excited to know who we’re gonna play and be able to play our best basketball.”
Guess not.
In fairness, once it got down to that final pairing, it didn’t really matter which team got which seed. Is there a huge difference between the 7-seed and the 10? Probably not. A 6-seed, which is what the Jacks were given back in 2019 when they knocked off 3-seed Syracuse in the Orange’s home gym to reach the Sweet 16, would’ve give them a better shot at advancing that far again, but an 8 or 9 would have only put them against a 1-seed in the second round. The Jacks played one of the 1-seeds already this year — a 103-57 loss at Texas.
That may have been what hurt the Jacks’ seeding the most. It was an ugly loss. Chances are if SDSU got another shot at the Longhorns things would go much differently. After all, SDSU also played one of the 2-seeds this year, Duke, and lost 75-71 to them in Brookings. But in the end, Jacks coach Aaron Johnston just thought this year the bubble teams from major conferences and top schools from the mid-major ranks created a glut of
strong teams in the middle of the brackets. Somebody was going to get left with a seed that seemed lower than they deserved. The Jacks turned out to be one of them. Their NET ranking of 44 ultimately doomed them, and what hurt their NET ranking was that neither of their two wins over ranked teams qualified as “Quad 1” wins.
“The NET ranking is not a friend of mid-majors,” Johnston said. “It is certainly skewed a little towards those power conferences, and that doesn’t help a lot of us, not just South Dakota State.
“We’re not going to be playing to prove people wrong. We’re going to be playing for the reasons we’ve been playing all year.”
“It’s a lower (seed) but at the same time, this year that whole group of schools, nationally, was just really tight,” Johnston added. “The deciding factors between 7 and 10 for us and any of the 7s and 10s or 8 and 9s had to be very small. There were some 8s and 9s I saw and thought some years they could’ve been a 6. That’s how deep the middle of the bracket was this year.”
Oklahoma State is a tough draw. They’re 25-6, ranked No. 20 in the country. They went 14-4 in the Big 12 and are coached by Jacie Hoyt, who knows the Jacks well from a five-year stint as the head coach of UMKC in the Summit League.
If the Jacks can best the Cowgirls, they’d then surely face UConn, nothing short of the most storied women’s basketball program in the modern era.
Many (OK, I) have long wanted to see Aaron Johnston and Geno Auriemma go head-to-head. It’ll take a hell of a performance on Saturday to earn that.
“Got to take it one game at a time,” Byom said. “What’s special about our team is we’ve played those top-level teams before. That gives us confidence going into this.”
Johnston put together as tough of a non-conference schedule as he could have this year. It was ranked the 10th strongest in the nation. Their only losses were to Georgia Tech, who earned a 9-seed, and the 1-and-2 seeded Longhorns and Blue Devils.
What would SDSU’s seed have been had they beaten the Yellow Jackets and Dukies and they were sitting here at 31-1? It just doesn’t feel like Johnston got a return on his investment by challenging his team. For now he says he’ll chalk it up as just an unusual year in which his team picked a bad time to have the resume that they did. OK.
But what if this continues to be the norm?
With the Big Ten and other leagues becoming giant superconferences their teams will continue to have a builtin advantage when it comes to their NET rankings and tournament resumes (this goes for the men and women).
Not to overreact too much, here, but between NIL collectives, major conference commissioners pushing for more representation in the Big Dance and the NIT eliminating its autobids for regular season league champions, it already feels like the mid-major schools are being squeezed out.
Johnston acknowledged those things are in the back of his mind. But for now he’s just encouraging his players to celebrate what they’ve already accomplished and get ready to play better than they have all year.
“I want our team to know they probably earned a better seed, but I also want them to know that right now we just have to focus on playing well,” the coach said. “We’re not going to be playing to prove people wrong. We’re going to be playing for the reasons we’ve been playing all year.”
ABOVE:
BY LANDON DIERKS AND MARCUS TRAXLER Mitchell Republic
The top teams in South Dakota high school boys basketball will take the court this week for the state tournaments at three sites around the state. Class AA teams will play at Summit Arena in Rapid City, while Class A will take over the Premier Center in Sioux Falls and the Class B’s best will play at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen to decide the state champion.
Twenty-four teams remain in pursuit for a state championship. Here’s what you should know about each state bracket, with the games set to tip off on Thursday afternoon:
■ Only three teams return to the Class B state tournament for a second year in a row, with top-seeded Castlewood, No. 3 seed Viborg-Hurley and No. 4 seed Wessington Springs. The Warriors had the best finish of that group, finishing third last season. Howard, which won the 2024 state title, was knocked out in the SoDak 16 by Freeman, and De Smet, which played in the last five state championship games, gave Castlewood all it could handle in the regional semifinals before the Warriors emerged with a 47-45 win.
■ Two Class B all-state first-team selections from 2024 are playing in this tournament, including 6-foot-9 Castlewood center Byron Laue and 6-foot-7 center Nick Hanson, of Viborg-Hurley. Dell Rapids St. Mary’s Trevon Beckman and Howard’s Luke Koepsell were second-team picks last year, while Wessington Springs’ Parker Graff was a third-team selection in 2024.
■ No. 2 Dell Rapids St. Mary boasts the top pair of individual scorers in the field, led by Trevon Beckman’s 25.5 points per game and Maverick LeBrun at 20.5. Similarly, Wall claims a high-scoring duo in Emmet Dinger and Teelan Kjerstad, who average 20 and 19.5 points per game, respectively. ViborgHurley senior forward Nick Hanson and Freeman freshman standout David Walter are also among the contingent averaging at least 19 points per game heading to state.
■ Among the teams surging into Aberdeen, Dell Rapids St. Mary has won 12 games in a row, Castlewood is on a 10-game win streak, while both Wall and Wessington Springs have won nine in a row.
■ The last 10 Class B state champions have all been East River teams. White River was the last West River squad to win a state title in 2013, the last of four titles in six seasons for the Tigers. Notably, White River missed out on qualifying for this year’s Class B state tournament, ending a streak that dated back to 2006, a streak of 19-straight state appearances, which tied Mitchell’s run from 1983 to 2001 as a boys state record.
■ Freeman, which scored a tournament record 98 points in 1999 in a win over Midland, is making its first state appearance since then, ending the longest drought in this year’s Class B field. (Like that 1999 tournament, Castlewood is the No. 1 seed again, and the Warriors went on to win that tournament.) Wall is making a trip to the Class B state tournament for the first time since 2001, qualifying for only the second time in school history.
■ There is one regular-season rematch in the Class B quarterfinals. Sixth-seeded Freeman will look to top ViborgHurley for a second time this season. The Flyers won the season-opening game for both teams 57-53 in Freeman on Dec. 13. In terms of potential title game rematches, the Cougars gave Castlewood its only Class B loss of the year 49-44 at the Hanson Classic on Jan. 25, while the Warriors defeated Dell Rapids St. Mary 63-59 on the road on Jan. 21.
■ For the fourth time in five seasons, Aberdeen Christian has qualified for the Class B state tournament in its own city. The Knights will be playing less than 4 miles from their home campus, which is the closest of any of the 24 state tournament teams this week.
■ Dell Rapids St. Mary, the No. 2 seed in the Class B bracket, leads the field in scoring at 70.1 points per game, while Wall (68.1) and Freeman (65.9) also rank in the top-five of all of Class B. For scoring defense, Viborg-Hurley allows just 39.7 points per game and Castlewood is right behind at 41.4 points per game.
■ The 2025 Class B tournament comes off the most upsetheavy SoDak 16 on record in the eight years it has been used to qualify to Aberdeen, with 10th-seeded Freeman, No. 11 Aberdeen Christian and No. 12 Lyman all winning to advance. Aberdeen Christian’s 2021 team is the only squad to be seeded ninth or lower in the SoDak 16 and reach the Class B state title game, finishing second to De Smet.
■ The Class A tournament features four returning teams from the 2024 tournament, including No. 1 Sioux Falls Christian, No. 2 Hamlin and No. 3 Rapid City Christian, plus No. 8 Groton Area.
■ The top-two seeds, Sioux Falls Christian and Hamlin, have developed quite a rivalry at the top of Class A. They have met four times since the start of the 2023-24 season and Sioux Falls Christian is 3-1 in those games, including a 75-60 win on Jan. 11 in Sioux Falls this season. But Hamlin won last year’s state title game 53-50 in overtime, spoiling the undefeated season for SFC.
■ One regular-season rematch is on the docket for the Class A quarterfinals, with No. 4 West Central and No. 5 Lennox set to meet in the second game on Thursday. The Trojans won the first meeting 47-42 at Lennox. That kind of game is West Central’s style, as the Trojans are the second-best scoring defense in the class at 43.1 points per game.
■ The top-seeded Chargers have made four of the last five state championship games and in five of the last eight in Class A, with titles in 2016 and 2021. In the last two seasons, SF Christian is 46-2, with the Hamlin loss being the only loss in South Dakota.
■ Four teams come to the state tournament with win streaks of at least 10 or more games. Hamlin has won 15 games in a row, while Lennox has won 12 straight, Hill City has won 11 games in a row and Rapid City Christian has won 10 games straight. West Central has ripped off eight
wins in a row, while Groton has won seven straight.
■ Hill City is appearing in a state boys basketball tournament for the first time in school history. West Central is in the state tournament for the first time since 2001, when the Trojans capped back-to-back state Class A titles. Clark/ Willow Lake, which won the Class B state title in 2019, is in a Class A bracket for the first time since 2015.
■ The top-three scoring teams in Class A and five of the top10 are in the state tournament, led by Sioux Falls Christian, which leads all South Dakota teams at 81.3 points per game. Rapid City Christian is averaging 69.3 points per game and Hamlin checks in at 68.4 points per game.
■ Rapid City Christian’s Benson Kieffer is scoring 19.5 points per game to pace the Class A field. Groton’s Ryder Johnson scores at a clip of 18.7 points per game, while South Dakota State’s Griffen Goodbary, who is the reigning South Dakota Gatorade player of the year from 2024 and is committed to South Dakota State, is averaging 18 points per game. A trio of guards average at least 17 points per game in West Central’s Connor Mebius, Hamlin’s Easton Neuendorf and Hill City’s Devin Buehler.
■ Goodbary and Hamlin’s Easton Neuendorf return from last season’s Class A all-state first team for this year’s state bracket. Dakota Valley’s Luke Bruns and Julius Frog, of Rapid City Christian, were second-team picks in 2024, while the Comets’ Benson Kieffer was a third-team pick and Simon Kieffer was honorable mention. SFC’s Cole Snyder was honorable mention last season, as well.
■ Already with the girls state basketball title in hand, top-seed Sioux Falls Christian is seeking to be the first Class A school to win both state basketball titles since St. Thomas More did so in 2012.
■ Underscoring the power Sioux Falls Lincoln has displayed during its 20-1 season so far, the top-seeded Patriots rank No. 1 in Class AA in points scored (65.8) and points allowed (46.5) per game. Their plus-19.3 average point differential is more than double that of the next-closest Class AA team, Harrisburg (plus-8.9). Lincoln and No. 6 seed O’Gorman are the only two Class AA squads scoring at least 60 points per game this season. Five teams, all of them state tournament qualifiers, are giving up under 50 points per game.
■ Five teams are returning to the Class AA state tournament bracket from 2024, with four from the Eastern South Dakota Conference. That includes No. 2 Brandon Valley and No. 3 Harrisburg, defending state champion and No. 4 seed Mitchell, and No. 5 Huron. Sioux Falls Jefferson reached the state tournament as a No. 8 in the 2024 postseason and qualified this season as the No. 10 seed, becoming the first double-digit seed in Class AA boys basketball to qualify for state since Huron in 2019.
■ Three quarterfinal games are rematches from the regular season. Fifth-seeded Huron won at No. 4 Mitchell on Jan. 14 by a 47-38 score, and the two rivals will meet for the eighth time in the last four seasons on Thursday. No. 10 Jefferson handed No. 2 Brandon Valley one of its three losses this season on Dec. 19 with a 6256 win in Brandon. No. 3 Harrisburg won the first matchup this season with sixth-seeded O’Gorman 66-51 on Feb. 21 at Harrisburg. Sioux Falls Lincoln and Spearfish did not play this season.
■ Four of the eight teams from the 2023 Class AA state tournament, which was the last in Rapid City, are in this year’s field. That tournament was won by Yankton, which topped Mitchell 65-61 for first-place honors. Mitchell had a 61-59 win over Lincoln in the 2023 state semifinals, and those two teams could meet in the semis again if the seeds hold.
■ All but one team in the Class AA field has appeared in one of the past three tournaments. Spearfish is in the tournament field for the first time since 2013 in Class A. The last time the Spartans were in the Class AA tournament was in 2009.
■ Spearfish’s appearance in the Class AA boys tournament also ends a drought for West River teams in the bracket. The last four state tournaments were held without a West River squad, with Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central the last to qualify in 2020, an event that was canceled by COVID-19.
■ Huron’s Blake Ellwein, a 6-foot-9 junior forward, who has Division I offers from North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State, is the leading scorer ahead of the Class AA tournament at 21 points per game. Mitchell’s Markus Talley, who is committed to Augustana, is second at 18 points per game.
■ Sioux Falls Lincoln has the longest active win streak in the class at 10 wins in a row. The Patriots’ season as the top seed is a far cry from last season’s playoffs, when Lincoln fell 31-28 at Watertown and finished with a 10-11 record.
■ Mitchell handed Sioux Falls Lincoln its only loss of the season, a 69-58 game on Jan. 31 at Lincoln. Harrisburg and Brandon Valley both own regular-season wins over Mitchell this season, while Lincoln beat both the Tigers and Lynx this year. Mitchell edged Brandon Valley 47-46 last season in the Class AA title game in Sioux Falls.
■ Three all-state first-team selections from 2024 are in this year’s Class AA state tournament, led by Mitchell’s Markus Talley and Colton Smith, plus Huron’s Blake Ellwein. Brandon Valley’s Landon Dulaney was an all-state honorable mention nod in 2024.
BY LANDON DIERKS
Mitchell Republic
After eight years of using the SoDak 16 format for state tournament qualification, some leaders within Class AA basketball have seen enough.
Introduced for Class AA ahead of the 2017-18 season, the current state-tournament qualification process calls for the top 16 teams in Class AA to be seeded No. 1 through No. 16. Then, they’re paired up (No. 1 versus No. 16, No. 2 versus No. 15 and so on) to play one another in a single game to decide the eight qualifiers.
But now, a movement is being made to revert to a prior method of qualifying for state based on regions (or districts, as they used to be known).
At the South Dakota High School Activities basketball advisory committee meeting in February,
a proposal favoring a regional structure in Class AA advanced out of committee. It will be voted on by Class AA athletic directors before the SDHSAA Board of Directors considers the idea in April.
Here are the basics of the proposal, which was submitted with the signatures of Rapid City Central athletic director Jordan Bauer and head boys ba ketball coach T.J. Hay:
• Split the 20 Class AA schools into four regions of five teams.
• Each of the four regions plays a regional postseason tournament, with seeding determined by seed points.
• The winner of each region earns qualification to the state tournament.
• Second- and third-place finishers from each region are re-seeded Nos. 1-8 to play a state-qualification game. No. 1 would play No. 8, No. 2 versus No. 7, and so on, with winners advancing to fill the remaining four state tournament positions.
At its core, the proposal scratches at one primary question: Should state tournament qualification center around merit alone or factor in regional representation?
Among the rationale listed with the proposal from Hay and Bauer, they cite creating better playoff atmospheres with local games as opposed to traveling across the state, the opportunity to save in travel expenses and affording a postseason opportunity to all Class AA schools. Because Class AA basketball now has 20 schools and only 16 go to the postseason, 20% of the teams currently aren’t going to the playoffs.
“The state tournament should be an award, not a gift,” said Jamie Parish, head girls basketball coach of Sioux Falls Washington. “If it’s about earning it, then base it on things like record, who you beat and seed points, and let those teams have the chance to compete instead of giving an advantage based on geography.”
Perhaps part of the reason Parish is so impassioned on the subject is how the proposal was presented. As the Class AA coaching representative on the SDHSAA basketball advisory committee, Parish frequently sees proposals ahead of meetings, and, in some cases, is approached to submit proposals to the committee on behalf of peers. But this time, Parish said he was caught off guard when the proposal was brought forward during the Feb. 5 meeting. He was quick to note there was nothing improper about the timing or process by which the proposal was presented, it simply caught him by surprise.
But Parish is far from the only one with strong opinions on the subject, and to say the proposal has mixed levels of support would be an understatement.
Parish’s boys basketball counterpart at Washington, Jeff Tobin, is also a supporter of the current SoDak 16 format over changing course back toward regions. On the spectrum of what should decide state tournament berths — merit or geography — Tobin and Parish both lean heavily toward merit alone, with geographic representation as a bonus, not a requirement.
“I like what we have now, and I think the representation in state tournaments has been pretty good,” said Washington boys basketball coach Jeff Tobin. “There’s no perfect way to do it, but I think (the current SoDak 16 format) is as fair of a way as we can have. It does a nice job of trying to get the best eight teams into the state tournament, and ultimately, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Spearfish girls basketball coach Dakota Johnson is in favor of a regional tournament format for qualification. Part of her belief is that playing in a region tournament as part of the lead-in to a state tournament seems like a natural fit. After all, it’s part of the postseason format for Class A and B basketball.
“It would be great state tournament prep, having that tournament style before you even get to the state tournament,” Johnson said. “I think the best teams in the state would still get to the state tournament, but regions would be a great preparation tool for all teams.”
Though some view the SoDak 16 as an extension of the state tournament, its one-and-done nature at non-neutral sites is a point of contention among coaches.
There are those, such as boys basketball coaches Derek Robey, of Sioux Falls O’Gorman, and Ryker
Kreutzfeldt, of Mitchell, who also don’t mind the idea of returning to a region-based postseason format, but for reasons not all di rectly related to state tournament qualification.
Robey, among the longest-tenured coaches in Class AA with well over 300 wins leading the Knights, said he dislikes ending the season and having to wait until the SoDak 16 is seeded to know what matchup awaits in the postsea son. Under the district format, this was hardly an issue. Meanwhile, Kreutzfeldt feels that not all schedules are created equal, and the seed-point calculation can be too easily ma nipulated for it to be completely fair. As such, he thinks it would be beneficial to afford all 20 Class AA schools the opportunity at a playoff game, something the region format would do that the SoDak 16 does not.
However, Robey and Kreutzfeldt both also expressed that having geography-based qualification on its own isn’t completely in the spirit of competition. It’s among the reasons that the MHS coach doesn’t expect the proposal to make it in front of the SDHSAA board later this spring.
“Is it fair?” Kreutzfeldt pondered with a lengthy pause. “No system is completely fair right now. The state really has to decide if it wants geographic representation or the best teams. Maybe this can be a mix of both.”
“Anybody who’s telling you (geographic representation) is not a big part of it isn’t telling you the truth,” Robey added. “... Everybody should want the best teams in the tournament, no matter where they’re from.”
Prior to this season, there were three consecutive Class AA boys basketball tournaments without a single West River qualifier. This year, No. 8 seed Spearfish snapped that streak. The steady presence of Rapid City Stevens has made it so every Class AA girls basketball tournament in the SoDak 16 era has included a West River school, and in five of the eight years, either Rapid City Central or Spearfish has also qualified.
The submitted proposal didn’t include a breakdown of how region boundaries might be drawn, but based on the district alignments used up until 2017, the five West River Class AA schools
Douglas, Rapid City Central, Rapid City Stevens, Spearfish and Sturgis — would likely be in their own region. Under the proposal’s guidelines, one would be guaranteed a place in the field for every tournament.
From both sides of the issue, there are several points for leaders to consider before enacting any major changes. If there’s one thing that nearly all coaches were in agreement on, it is that there is never going to be a system that caters to everyone’s wants.
But if there’s a better solution out there, Parish, among others, believes it’s to be found by looking forward, not falling back.
“You can put a bow on it and say that this is different than what we used to do, but it really is not. We’ve already been down this path, and we decided we didn’t want to do that anymore,” Parish said. “... There are absolutely great discussions we can have on trying to find ways to improve, but moving backward to the old system of regional representation is just not the right way to go about it in my mind.”
The Mitchell Republic’s Luke Hagen and Blake Durham contributed to this story.
BY MARCUS TRAXLER
Mitchell Republic
BROOKINGS — Macy Miller is back in yellow and blue but she’s wearing different shoes these days.
The South Dakota State University women’s basketball legend is in her first season as a full-time assistant coach for head coach Aaron Johnston.
Miller, 29, played five seasons for the Jackrabbits under Johnston, becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,355 points and was a two-time conference player of the year. After being a third-round draft pick and spending a training camp with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, Miller played one year of professional basketball in Spain before deciding to get into collegiate coaching. The Mitchell native spent one season as
a graduate assistant for the Jackrabbits before joining former SDSU standout and assistant coach Kristin Rotert at Northwestern College for three seasons.
When an opportunity opened to return to SDSU as an assistant, Miller said it was a great fit. She spoke recently to the Mitchell Republic — after the Summit League championship and before the Jacks learned they were going to
You are back as a full-time assistant coach this season. What have you thought about being back on the bench in Brookings?
“I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been great to be back. Working for a program that has been so successful and they’ve been good for how long now. Undefeated in Summit League play, did well in the Summit League tournament. And we’re excited to get to work on the NCAA tournament. It’s just a fun group to work with, fun off the court and fun to get to be around. We’re not done yet but we get more time to get to work with the players and grow their game.”
Connecticut to play Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA tournament — about coming back to the Jackrabbits, how she views recruiting now as a coach and how March is the best and busiest month of the year.
What has it been like coaching with AJ after working with him as a player?
“That’s what made the transition so smooth. It’s a lot of the same systems. There’s a few new wrinkles. It helps that I have an understanding of the way he words things and how he likes to play and as someone who has been in both shoes, I think I can help provide some more information to the players about what we’re doing and how we want to execute it. … He’s very detailoriented, he likes stuff done on time, he likes to be organized. He’s a really funny person. As a player, you see that a little, but being in this role, it’s been really fun to see that. I really enjoyed playing for him, and this has been a great experience coaching with him.”
Your final year as a player was 2019 and with a few of the experienced players on the team, you had some overlap with them when they were getting recruited. In that way, you’ve kind of been on both ends of their careers at SDSU.
“It’s been an interesting transition to this role and we laughed about this, there’s some seniors on this roster that had taken pictures with me when they were visiting SDSU. To see that I had an impact on them and their careers, it’s a pretty special thing. … When you’re playing, you get caught up in the moment, and you don’t really understand the impact you can have until you’re done. And now that I’ve been away and came back, you see it in a different light. It’s been a very cool thing to see.”
In basic terms, how would you describe your main duties on the coaching staff?
“There’s a lot of different things I get to work on. Recruiting is one, and I (headed out) to Rapid City for the weekend to do some recruiting. Scouting is a big part of my job, watching the other team’s offense, breaking down what they do and then talking to the team before the game about tendencies. In player development, I get to work with the guards, and (assistant coach) Sadie Thramer works with the posts, so I really get to put in time developing different aspects of their game, which I love. I get to work a little bit with the strength and conditioning staff, setting up times for team yoga sessions and setting up times for lifts.”
When you’re at the Summit League tournament and it’s three games in four days and now in the NCAA tournament, where the time between games is close, and there’s scouting and practice and shootarounds, is that stressful or just business as usual?
Being involved in the recruiting process, you know what it’s like to be recruited as an elite player. How do you apply those elements you looked for as a player into how you treat that recruiting process as a coach now?
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot. When you’re a player, you’re young and there’s so much you don’t know. You’re new to the process. I loved SDSU, and I wouldn’t change a thing about my career, but it’s been really cool to see the recruiting side as a coach. You’re going to watch these kids, some of them are seventh and eighth graders, and you’re getting to build relationships with them, just like I did when I was that age. I’m able to give my personal experience of being at SDSU. Some people don’t have that connection to the recruiting process. … We’re really thankful for the support we have here. We have the new training room, the new team rooms, we had the practice gym added when I was here, there’s new locker rooms. It’s cool to show the recruits that what we have to offer is pretty similar to the bigger programs.”
After you were done playing, you were a graduate assistant at SDSU for a year and then you had three seasons at Northwestern College. You got to work for former Jackrabbit player and coach Kristin Rotert, who has shown what she can do as a head coach. What was the biggest thing you took away from working in the NAIA?
“I grew a lot in my time at Northwestern. It really helped me grow my confidence as a coach. Before that, I was only a GA, so I hadn’t gotten a lot of experience standing up in front of a group of people and talking. Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m not always the most vocal person. (laughs) I’m usually pretty shy. That really helped me grow my confidence because I was helping lead practices and film sessions. That experience really helped me grow so much. A lot of what Kristin did, she learned from AJ, and a lot of my communication, my leadership and my coaching aligns with both of them.”
“Coming into March, it’s the best time of the year but it’s the busiest time of the year. A lot of times, you’re waiting, you don’t know your opponent. Or you’re in the bracket and you have to scout both teams, and you have to have those (scouting reports) done a few days before you know. … As a coach, you’re doing the scouting report, you’re doing the film breakdown, which is a big part of what I do. … In the Summit League, it helps that we’ve played every team twice already. When that last game is done and you’re holding that trophy, it’s really rewarding. Once you get past that, and we’ve had a few days off, that’s been pretty nice.”
Warriors had no issue as No. 5 seed, carrying confidence into Huron
HURON — From the time that her team got on the bus for the four-hour trip to Huron this week, Shawna Evans had a clear message for her team.
“We’re not Cinderella. We’re not a surprise story. We’re going there to win.”
It’s one thing to think that. It’s another to play like that and continue to prove it for three nights in a row. But that’s exactly what Bennett County did to claim the Class B girls basketball state championship with a stunning
confidence and swagger 71-61 over Sanborn Central/Woonsocket at the Huron Arena.
Her team was bought in, and Evans had her own championship game history to share with her team, playing in the Class A title game in 2007 when the Warriors finished second to Vermillion.
Every win in Huron this week showed what the Warriors were made of, most especially the two-point win over
Parkston in the quarterfinals and the three-point win over Centerville.
By Saturday night, belief was in full force.
“We were meant to be here. We worked so hard for this,” said Thomiah Poor Bear. “Coach put confidence in us. That didn’t give us the chance to doubt ourselves. We knew we could come in and play our game and win.”
As the No. 5 seed, not a lot of onlookers had the Warriors tabbed as the team to beat in Class B. That was Centerville, the defending state champions and the No. 1 seed with a 36game win streak. And the Warriors took them out in the semifinals.
“After they took out Centerville, for them to be No. 1 and they were such a great team, I think we kind of had that ‘Aha, we are that good’ moment,” Evans said. “They came in tonight not overconfident because we knew (SCW) isn’t someone you can overlook. They’re just as good, but they were able to just slow down and do what we’ve been doing all year long.”
Up and down the lineup, the Warriors had standout efforts, playing above their season averages. On Saturday night, that was Poor Bear, the 5-foot-10 senior who transferred from Rapid City Stevens. During the season, she averaged nine points per game but in the championship game, she had 15 points, including 11 in the first half to help the Warriors hold a 38-26 lead and put pressure on the Blackhawks from the first quarter on.
“I’m still not believing it. I knew we were meant for this,” said Poor Bear as her teammates were cutting down the nets. “We made them play our game. We made them play Bennett County basketball.”
Freshman Reagan O’Neill doubled her regular offensive output with 25 points and 14 rebounds and her younger sister, eighth-grader Peyson, averaged 16 points per game for the tournament and scored 18 in the title contest. The Warriors scored on 48% of its possessions, and never left much room for SCW to get all the way back in the game.
There wasn’t much fear from the Warriors in purple and gold. A young team showed what it was capable of on the big stage.
“It fueled us. It gave us the adrenaline and the want to go do this and to go and get it, for the people who were doubting us,” said Reagan O’Neill, who said the support from other teams only grew as they kept winning too.
There were reasons to wonder if the Warriors were state title material, based on their resume during the season. They played one East River opponent during the season and lost, and they had Class B’s easiest schedule based on opponent winning percentage heading to the SoDak 16. In the three seasons prior to this dream campaign, Bennett County was 9-10 last season, and then 6-13 and 7-13 in the two seasons before that.
Evans said she knew she had to have a “not Cinderella” message once they reached the SoDak 16. She said the team was getting recognition and media members were starting to take notice.
“People were asking, like, ‘How special is this? How exciting?’”
Evans said. “I’m never going to take that away, but I knew what we were. … We’re not a Cinderella story.
▶ Bennett County’s Shawna Evans celebrates as the Warriors are presented with the Class B girls basketball state tournament championship trophy on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Huron Arena.. LANDON DIERKS / MITCHELL REPUBLIC
We’re just finally getting recognized, so it’s time for our girls to break out of that shell and get used to being in the spotlight and rise to the challenge.”
Bennett County has only three seniors, which includes Poor Bear. But she was the only upperclassmen starter, with two freshmen, a sophomore and an eighth-grader in the starting lineup on Saturday night.
“We’ve been telling everyone, we didn’t become basketball players in November,” Evans said.
“We’ve been training for years, for this since sixth grade. They train hard, and we just get mentally better every time we go out. We haven’t reached our potential yet. I promise you that.”
