2018-19 Summit League Post-Mortem

Too quietly, the career of the most decorated player in the 37-year history of the Summit League came to a close with the 2018-19 season.

South Dakota State’s Mike Daum had one of the most prolific four-year runs in NCAA Division I history, yet even in these times with more media choices than ever was definitely underexposed and probably underappreciated. With college hoops television coverage strangled by football-driven conference contracts, networks that once championed the sport placing it on the backburner, and even clicks-first Internet skewing heavily towards a few names, a 3,000-point scorer on teams that mostly dominated their league for four years still went well under the radar.

It’s unfortunate he didn’t get more national pub, because the big man from Kimball, Neb., had a heck of a run. Daum finished his career seventh on the Division I all-time scoring list with 3,067 points (yet even there was slightly overshadowed this year by Campbell guard Chris Clemons, who finished his career third all-time with 3,225 points). He finished as the Summit League’s all-time leader in scoring and rebounding, and became just the second player in Summit history to be a four-time first team all-conference performer and a three-time player of the year, joining mid-2000s Oral Roberts great Caleb Green in both categories. Team success? Daum was also part of teams that won three Summit regular season titles, three tourney crowns and appeared in the NCAA Tournament three times and the NIT once.

South Dakota State cruised to 24 wins and the Summit regular season title this year, and with career highs averaging better than 25 points and 11 rebounds per game, Daum was as good as ever. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the Summit League.

The conference that three years ago finished 12th in the RPI and was as high as eighth at one point slipped this year all the way to No. 25 in the NCAA’s new NET ranking, per WarrenNolan.com. It also was 27th in the old RPI conference ranking, its worst mark in ten years. Summit teams finished just 39-70 against fellow Division I competition.

It was quite astonishing, then, that Daum and South Dakota State’s push for a fourth consecutive Summit tourney title and NCAA Tournament berth came to a premature end. The top-seeded Jackrabbits were stunned by eighth-place Western Illinois in the tourney quarterfinals, meaning the nation did not get to see SDSU in the NCAAs, and Daum’s final game came in a narrow NIT first round loss at Texas, when he scored right at his averages-25 points, 11 rebounds.

Nebraska-Omaha had a terrific bounce back season and challenged the Jacks for the regular season title, but the team to emerge in South Dakota State’s absence in the league tourney should’ve been easy to guess. If it hasn’t been SDSU representing the Summit in the NCAAs of late (five trips since 2012) it has been North Dakota State, and the Bison won their third Summit tourney title in six years. David Richman’s team also showed nice improvement this year and though seeded for a play-in game represented the league well, defeating North Carolina Central and then playing Duke well for a half before fading.

Final Standings:

Conference Tournament
The Summit League for the 11th straight year held its tourney in Sioux Falls, S.D., which continues to be one of the most comfortable location fits for a conference tourney in all of Division I. With a contract option exercised to keep it there through at least 2022, it’s not going anywhere, either.

Western Illinois’s stunning 79-76 quarterfinal win over top seed South Dakota State shook the entire event and was the biggest upset in the tourney’s history, the first time an 8 seed defeated a 1 seed. The Leathernecks-9-20 on the season coming in-simply outplayed SDSU. Five players scored in double figures and Western trailed for just 15 seconds in the entire game, built a 14-point lead in the second half and then held on despite David Jenkins scoring 24 points in the final 20 minutes alone for the Jackrabbits.

The quarterfinals also included the first triple-double in tourney history as Purdue Fort Wayne’s John Konchar totaled 18 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the No. 3 seed Mastodons’ 96-70 roll past No. 6 South Dakota, a game in which they also set a tourney record with 16 three-pointers. Also advancing were Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota State, the 2 seed Mavericks edging first-year league member North Dakota 81-76 and NDSU taking care of fifth-seeded Oral Roberts 86-73.

Only three current Summit members have ever won the league’s postseason tournament, and when South Dakota State was sidelined it left the only other two to face off in the semifinals. No. 4 seed North Dakota State faced Western Illinois-winner of the first-ever event in 1984, when the league was known as the Association of Mid-Continent Universities-and the Bison received a challenge from the upstarts. It took NDSU making 14 of 26 from three-point range to hold off the Leathernecks 79-76. Meanwhile, Nebraska-Omaha nipped Purdue Fort Wayne 61-60, as Mitch Hahn scored the go-ahead basket with over three minutes left and neither team scored the rest of the way.

The title game appeared to be a golden opportunity for Omaha to seize its first-ever NCAA Division I tourney trip, but North Dakota State remained hot in the first half, hitting seven three-pointers in building a 14-point halftime lead. The Mavericks rallied to tie the game with less than nine minutes to play, but after all the work UNO put in to get back to even, NDSU pulled right back ahead with nine straight points. The Bison finished a 73-63 win, with Vinnie Shahid scoring 22 points on his way to tournament MVP honors.

Postseason Awards
Player of the Year: Mike Daum, F, Sr., South Dakota State
Defensive Player of the Year: Brandon Gilbeck, C, Sr., Western Illinois
Freshman of the Year: Kevin Obanor, F, Oral Roberts
Newcomer of the Year: Vinnie Shahid, G, Jr., North Dakota State
Sixth Man of the Year: Kevin Obanor, F, Fr., Oral Roberts
Coach of the Year: Derrin Hansen, Nebraska-Omaha

All-Conference Team
Mike Daum, F, Sr., South Dakota State
Mitch Hahn, F, Sr., Nebraska-Omaha
Zach Jackson, G, Sr., Nebraska-Omaha
David Jenkins, G, So., South Dakota State
John Konchar, G, Sr., Purdue-Fort Wayne
Stanley Umude, G, So., South Dakota

Season Highlights

• North Dakota State won the Summit tourney to make its fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Bison also won an opening round game before falling to top overall seed Duke in the first round.
• South Dakota State won its fifth Summit regular season title in seven years and also won at least 24 games for the seventh time in nine seasons.
• SDSU senior Mike Daum capped a storied career finishing as the Summit’s all-time leader in points (3,067) and rebounds (1,236) and became the Summit’s first-ever consensus All-American. Daum became just the 10th player in NCAA Division I history to score at least 3,000 points and finished seventh on the all-time scoring list. He also was named a third team All-American by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), becoming just the third Summit player to receive All-American honors and joining Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew (1998) and SDSU’s Nate Wolters (2013) in an exclusive club.
• Purdue Fort Wayne’s John Konchar became the first player in D-I history to finish his career with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 500 assists and 200 steals. Konchar finished with totals of 2,065 points, 1,150 rebounds, 554 assists and 272 steals.
• Nebraska-Omaha was one of the most improved teams in the country, going from nine wins to 21. The Mavericks also were one of the best teams in the land at taking care of the ball, leading Division I in fewest turnovers committed (304) and finishing fifth in fewest turnovers per game (9.5).
• South Dakota State was one of the best offensive teams in the country, finishing third in the nation in field goal percentage (50.1%) and three-point field goal percentage (40.8%), fifth in scoring offense (84.5 ppg) and even seventh in free throw percentage (77.8%). The Jackrabbits also led the country in defensive rebounds/game (30.55).
• Western Illinois center Brandon Gilbeck led Division I in blocked shots/game (3.42) and was second in total blocks (106), while Daum was tops nationally in defensive rebounds/game (9.30). Daum also was second in the country in double-doubles (22) and fourth in both scoring (25.3 ppg) and rebounding (11.7 rpg) and also total rebounds (385).

What we expected, and it happened: Mike Daum led South Dakota State to another excellent year, as the Jackrabbits were heavy favorites and indeed captured the Summit regular season title again.

What we expected, and it didn’t happen: It was just a bad year for Denver. We and many others thought the Pioneers were a darkhorse title contender coming into the season. Instead, the win total dropped from 15 to eight, the fewest for Denver in 12 years. Also, we expected South Dakota to at least be in the mix even after losing coach Craig Smith and star Matt Mooney, but the Coyotes slipped to fifth in the Summit and seven games off the pace of regular season champ South Dakota State. Losing senior Tyler Hagedorn to a season-ending injury hamstrung USD right off the bat in Todd Lee’s first year at the helm.

What we didn’t expect, and it happened: Coming off a tough 2017-18 season, Nebraska-Omaha had a nice bounce back with a 12-win improvement. The Mavericks got off to a 3-7 start out of conference against a rough schedule but were red-hot the rest of the way until falling in the Summit tourney final. Balance (five double-figure scorers), good health and taking exquisite care of the ball (just 9.5 turnovers/game) were the recipe to Omaha’s most successful season at the Division I level so far. North Dakota State also made a nice rally, picking up four games in the standings after sagging last year and then winning the league tourney to get to the NCAA Tournament.

Team on the rise: Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles made a two-win improvement in the Summit this year, and expectations will kick up a notch with four starters returning, including a strong frontcourt with Emmanuel Nzekwesi, Kevin Obanor and DeShang Weaver.

Team on the decline: South Dakota. The Coyotes lost their coach and best player after the 2017-18 season and then arguably their best returning player right before this year. Not surprisingly, the win total dropped, from 26 to 13. There’s a real chance it could be back up considerably again next year, though.

2019-20 Summit Outlook
Mike Daum isn’t the only talented player the Summit will miss. Purdue Fort Wayne’s John Konchar, Nebraska-Omaha’s first team all-league duo Mitch Hahn and Zach Jackson and Western Illinois shotblocker extraordinaire Brandon Gilbeck all completed their eligibility. On top of that, Daum’s high-scoring teammate David Jenkins announced he was transferring to UNLV, following coach T.J. Otzelberger, who took off after three years at SDSU.

The flip side of all those departures is this coming year could be the most wide-open the Summit has been in some time. North Dakota State will likely be the popular preseason pick, with just about everyone back from an NCAA tourney team. NDSU is balanced, but Vinnie Shahid can fill it up and athletic, versatile Tyson Ward has a game that is as effective as it is hard to define. The Bison can get better defensively, but on offense they’ll have plenty of weapons.

South Dakota State is close to starting over-four starters and over 80% of the Jackrabbits’ scoring are out the door. Omaha, though, returns about every key contributor except for Hahn and Jackson, so the Mavericks should stay in contention. Similarly, Purdue Fort Wayne brings back most of its rotation but with two notable exceptions with Konchar and Kason Harrell departed after carrying a considerable load. Matt Holba (81 triples last year) should help keep the Mastodons’ three-point bombing attack humming.

South Dakota should be better with Tyler Hagedorn back to go along with four starters, including all-league performer Stanley Umude returning. Watch Oral Roberts, too, as the Golden Eagles have a good 1-2 punch up front with Emmanuel Nzekwesi and Kevin Obanor. If ORU can cut down on the turnovers, it could play into the first division. Western Illinois returns 17-ppg scorer Kobe Webster but will miss Gilbeck in the middle, Denver has a lot to prove after a disappointing season, while North Dakota was still looking for a coach as this was posted. Even if South Dakota State is down, though, the Summit has enough experience returning that it could certainly be a better overall league this coming year.

Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam