2023–24 Summit League men's basketball season

2023–24 Summit League men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	9
Regular season
Regular season champion	South Dakota State
Season MVP	Zeke Mayo, South Dakota State
Summit League tournament
Champions	South Dakota State
Runners-up	Denver
Finals MVP	William Kyle III, South Dakota State

2023–24 Summit League men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
South Dakota State †	12	–	4		.750			22	–	13		.629
Kansas City	10	–	6		.625			16	–	16		.500
North Dakota	10	–	6		.625			18	–	14		.563
St. Thomas*	9	–	7		.563			20	–	13		.606
North Dakota State	8	–	8		.500			15	–	17		.469
Omaha	7	–	9		.438			15	–	18		.455
Denver	6	–	10		.375			17	–	17		.500
Oral Roberts	5	–	11		.313			12	–	19		.387
South Dakota	5	–	11		.313			12	–	20		.375
* Ineligible for the 2024 NCAA tournament due to transition from Division III
† 2024 Summit League tournament winner

The 2023–24 Summit League men's basketball season started non-conference play on November 6, 2023, and began conference play on December 29, 2023. The regular season ended on March 2, 2024, and set up the 2024 Summit League men's basketball tournament from March 8 to March 12, 2024.
South Dakota State finished league play with a 12-4 record as the regular season champion. In the postseason, after winning the Summit League tournament, South Dakota State was slotted as a 15 seed in the 2024 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. They lost to Iowa State in the first round.[1]

Conference Changes

Following the end of the 2023 Spring sports regular season, Western Illinois announced they would be leaving the Summit League effective July 1, 2023 for the Ohio Valley Conference in all sports except men's soccer.[2]

Head Coaches

Coaching changes

Oral Roberts

On March 23, 2023, sixth-year coach Paul Mills left Oral Roberts for the head coaching job at Wichita State.[3] Then, on March 24, 2023, Russell Springmann was announced as the next head coach for the Golden Eagles.[4] Springmann was previously an assistant at Oral Roberts under Mills.

Coaches

Team	Head Coach	Previous Job	Years At School	Record at School	Summit League Record	Summit League Titles	NCAA tournaments	NCAA Sweet 16's
Denver	Jeff Wulbrun	Stanford (Assistant)	3	26–38	13–23	0	0	0
Kansas City	Marvin Menzies	Grand Canyon (Associate HC)	2	11–21	7–1	0	5	0
North Dakota	Paul Sather	Northern State	5	43–80	23–45	0	0	0
North Dakota State	David Richman	North Dakota State (Assistant)	10	172–114	89–54	3	2	0
Omaha	Chris Crutchfield	Oregon (Assistant)	2	8–22	4–14	0	0	0
Oral Roberts	Russell Springmann	Oral Roberts (Assistant)	1	0–0	0–0	0	0	0
St. Thomas	John Tauer	St. Thomas (Assistant)	12	246–87^	13–23	0	0^^	0^^^
South Dakota	Eric Peterson	Utah (Assistant)	2	12–18	7–11	0	0	0
South Dakota State	Eric Henderson	South Dakota State (Assistant)	5	87–35	53–11	1	1	0

Notes:

• Year at school includes 2023–24 season.
• Overall and Summit League records are from the time at their current school and are through the end of the 2022–23.
• NCAA tournament appearances are from the time at current school only.

^218 wins and 50 losses at the Division III level

^^8 NCAA Division III Tournaments

^^^4 NCAA Division III Sweet 16s, 2 NCAA Division III Final Fours, and 1 NCAA Division III National Championship

Preseason awards

The preseason Summit League men's basketball polls were released on October 10, 2023.[5]

Preseason poll

First place votes in parentheses

1. South Dakota State (27) – 600
2. Oral Roberts (7) – 510
3. North Dakota State (2) – 482
4. St. Thomas – 386
5. North Dakota – 374
6. South Dakota – 274
7. Omaha – 252
8. Kansas City – 201
9. Denver – 161

Preseason honors

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	Zeke Mayo, South Dakota State
Preseason All-Summit League First Team	Luke Appel, South Dakota State
	Parker Bjorklund, St. Thomas
	Frankie Fidler, Omaha
	Zeke Mayo, South Dakota State
	Isaac McBride, Oral Roberts
	Boden Skunberg, North Dakota State
Preseason All-Summit League Second Team	Tommy Bruner, Denver
	William Kyle III, South Dakota State
	Andrew Morgan, North Dakota State
	B.J. Omot, North Dakota
	Kareem Thompson, Oral Roberts

Regular season

Conference standings

Current as of March 30, 2024[6]

		Conference		Overall
Rank	Team	Record	Percent	Record	Percent	Tiebreaker
1	South Dakota State	12–4	.750	22–13	.629
2	Kansas City	10–6	.625	16–16	.500	1–1 vs. South Dakota State
3	North Dakota	10–6	.625	18–14	.562	0–2 vs. South Dakota State
4	St. Thomas	9–7	.563	20–13	.606
5	North Dakota State	8–8	.500	15–17	.469
6	Omaha	7–9	.438	15–18	.455
7	Denver	6–10	.375	17–17	.500
8	Oral Roberts	5–11	.313	12–19	.387	1–1 vs. South Dakota State
9	South Dakota	5–11	.313	12–20	.375	0–2 vs. South Dakota State

Conference Matrix

	Denver	Kansas City	North Dakota	North Dakota State	Omaha	Oral Roberts	St. Thomas	South Dakota	South Dakota State
vs. Denver	–	2–0	2–0	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1
vs. Kansas City	0–2	–	1–1	2–0	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–2	1–1
vs. North Dakota	0–2	1–1	–	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0
vs. North Dakota State	2–0	0–2	1–1	–	1–1	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–1
vs. Omaha	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	–	1–1	1–1	0–2	2–0
vs. Oral Roberts	0–2	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	–	2–0	1–1	1–1
vs. St. Thomas	1–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–2	–	1–1	2–0
vs. South Dakota	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	–	2–0
vs. South Dakota State	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–2	–
Total	6–10	10–6	10–6	8–8	7–9	5–11	9–7	5–11	12–4

Through March 3, 2024

Players of the Week

Week[7]	Player(s) of the Week	School
Nov. 13	Tommy Bruner	Denver
Nov. 20	Isaac McBride	Oral Roberts
Nov. 27	Treysen Eaglestaff	North Dakota
Dec. 4	Isaac McBride (2)	Oral Roberts (2)
Dec. 11	Tommy Bruner (2)	Denver (2)
Dec. 18	Treysen Eaglestaff (2)	North Dakota (2)
Dec. 27	B.J. Omot	North Dakota (3)
Jan. 2	Tommy Bruner (3)	Denver (3)
	Frankie Fidler	Omaha
Jan. 8	Tommy Bruner (4)	Denver (4)
Jan. 15	Frankie Fidler (2)	Omaha (2)
Jan. 22	Zeke Mayo	South Dakota State
Jan. 29	Tommy Bruner (5)	Denver (5)
	Isaac McBride (3)	Oral Roberts (3)
Feb. 5	Amar Kuljuhovic	North Dakota (4)
Feb. 12	Andrew Morgan	North Dakota State
Feb. 19	Treysen Eaglestaff (3)	North Dakota (5)
Feb. 26	Jamar Brown	Kansas City
Mar. 4	Zeke Mayo (2)	South Dakota State (2)

Records against other conferences

As of January 6, 2024:

Major 7 Conferences	Record	Major 7 Conferences	Record
ACC	None	American	2–2
Big East	0–3	Big Ten	0–2
Big 12	0–9	Pac-12	0–1
SEC	0–1	Major 7 Total	2–19
Other Division I Conferences	Record	Other Division I Conferences	Record
Atlantic 10	0–1	ASUN	1–0
America East	None	Big Sky	11–12
Big South	None	Big West	2–7
CAA	3–0	Conference USA	0–1
Horizon League	1–2	Ivy League	0–1
Independents	1–0	MAAC	None
MAC	4–2	MEAC	0–1
MVC	0–3	MWC	1–6
NEC	None	OVC	3–2
Patriot League	None	SoCon	1–2
Southland	3–1	SWAC	1–0
Sun Belt	1–1	WAC	2–3
WCC	2–2
Other Division I Total			37–47
NCAA Division I Total			39–66
NCAA Division II Total			4–0
NCAA Division III Total			6–0
NAIA Total			15–0
NCCAA Total			4–0
Total Non-Conference Record			68–66

Record against ranked non-conference opponents

Summit League record against ranked teams (rankings from AP Poll): Summit League teams in Bold

Date	Visitor	Home	Site	Score	Conference record	Reference
November 11	North Dakota State	No. 8 Creighton	CHI Health Center Omaha Omaha, NE	L 60–89	0–1	[8]
November 14	Kansas City	No. 15 Baylor	Ferrell Center Waco, TX	L 61–99	0–2	[9]
November 17	Oral Roberts	No. 13 Texas A&M	Reed Arena College Station, TX	L 66–74	0–3	[10]
December 5	Kansas City	No. 2 Kansas	Allen Fieldhouse Lawrence, KS	L 69–88	0–4	[11]
December 6	Denver	No. 13 Colorado State	Moby Arena Fort Collins, CO	L 80–90	0–4	[12]
December 13	Denver	No. 18 BYU	Marriott Center Provo, UT	L 74–90	0–5	[13]
December 14	St. Thomas	No. 7 Marquette	Fiserv Forum Milwaukee, WI	L 79–84	0–6	[14]

Points Scored

Team	For	Against	Difference
Denver	2755	2737	+18
Kansas City	2300	2217	+83
North Dakota	2408	2300	+108
North Dakota State	2388	2366	+22
Omaha	2441	2404	+37
Oral Roberts	2275	2334	–59
St. Thomas	2402	2140	+262
South Dakota	2434	2535	–101
South Dakota State	2675	2490	+185

Through March 30, 2024[15]

Home attendance

Team	Arena	Capacity	Total Games	Average Attendance	Attendance High	Total Attendance	% of Capacity
Denver	Hamilton Gymnasium	2,500	14	894	1,278 Jan 25 vs. South Dakota	12,521	35.8%
Kansas City	Swinney Recreation Center	1,500	13	1,130	1,507 Feb 15 vs. South Dakota St	14,690	75.3%
North Dakota	Betty Engelstad Sioux Center	3,300	14	1,704	3,065 Feb 3 vs. North Dakota St	23,860	51.6%
North Dakota State	Scheels Center	5,460	14	1,935	5,058 Feb 24 vs. North Dakota	27,103	35.5%
Omaha	Baxter Arena	7,898	14	2,079	5,094 Nov 30 vs. Bellevue	29,111	26.3%
Oral Roberts	Mabee Center	10,154	13	5,221	6,949 Dec 2 vs. Tulsa	67,882	51.4%
St. Thomas	Schoenecker Arena	1,800	14	1,306	1,614 Jan 25 vs. North Dakota St	18,294	72.6%
South Dakota	Sanford Coyote Sports Center	6,000	14	1,845	3,892 Jan 20 vs. South Dakota St	25,838	30.8%
South Dakota State	Frost Arena	6,500	14	2,587	3,781 Feb 4 vs. South Dakota	36,225	39.8%

Bold - Exceed capacity
As of March 2, 2024
Does not include exhibition games

National Television Games

Before the 2023-24 season began, the Summit League announced a new media deal with CBS Sports Network that would show up to 12 regular season games (6 guaranteed men's games) on the network, as well as moving the league's tournament final games to CBSSN. On October 18, 2023, the Summit League and CBS Sports Network announced the league's 2023-24 slate of games to appear on the network throughout the conference season.[16] Those games and any others that league members played are listed here.

Summit League members in bold

Date Time (CT)	Road Team	Home Team	Final Score	Network
November 11, 2023 1 PM	North Dakota State	No. 8 Creighton	60–89	FS2
November 14, 2023 8 PM	South Dakota	DePaul	60–72	FS2
December 14, 2023 7 PM	St. Thomas	No. 7 Marquette	79–84	FS1
December 29, 2023 7 PM	St. Thomas	North Dakota	UST 70–45	CBSSN
December 31, 2023 2 PM	Omaha	South Dakota	OMAHA 67–51	CBSSN
January 6, 2024 7 PM	Weber State	Oral Roberts	83–78	CBSSN
January 25, 2024 6 PM	Kansas City	South Dakota State	SDSU 75–66	CBSSN
February 4, 2024 4 PM	South Dakota	South Dakota State	SDSU 70–67	CBSSN
February 10, 2024 3 PM	Oral Roberts	South Dakota State	SDSU 83–72	CBSSN
February 24, 2024 1 PM	North Dakota	North Dakota State	NDSU 73–68	CBSSN

All-League Honors

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Zeke Mayo, South Dakota State
Defensive Player of the Year	William Kyle III, South Dakota State
Sixth Man of the Year	Khristion Courseault, Kansas City
Freshman of the Year	Jayson Petty, Kansas City
Newcomer of the Year	Jamar Brown, Kansas City
Coach of the Year	Marvin Menzies, Kansas City
All-Summit League First Team	Zeke Mayo, South Dakota State
	Jamar Brown, Kansas City
	Tommy Bruner, Denver
	Frankie Fidler, Omaha
	William Kyle III, South Dakota State
	B.J. Omot, North Dakota
All-Summit League Second Team	Raheem Anthony, St. Thomas
	Parker Bjorklund, St. Thomas
	Tyree Ihenacho, North Dakota
	Issac McBride, Oral Roberts
	Andrew Morgan, North Dakota State
All-Summit League Honorable Mention	Charlie Easley, South Dakota State
	Boden Skunberg, North Dakota State
	Kaleb Stewart, South Dakota
	Touko Tainamo, Denver
	Lahat Thioune, South Dakota
All-Defensive Team	Babacar Diallo, Kansas City
	Charlie Easley, South Dakota State
	Eli King, North Dakota
	William Kyle III, South Dakota State
	Jacari White, North Dakota State
All-Newcomer Team	Raheem Anthony, St. Thomas
	Jamar Brown, Kansas City
	Amar Kuljuhovic, North Dakota
	Kaleb Stewart, South Dakota
	Lahat Thioune, South Dakota

Source:[17]

Postseason

Conference Tournament

Main article: 2024 Summit League men's basketball tournament

All 9 teams qualify for the Summit League tournament. The tournament is held at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was held from March 8 to March 12, 2024.

	First Round March 8 Summit League Network					Quarterfinals March 9 & 10 Summit League Network					Semifinals March 11 Summit League Network					Championship March 12 CBS Sports Network
						1	South Dakota State	79
	8	Oral Roberts	77			8	Oral Roberts	63
	9	South Dakota	61								1	South Dakota State	59
											4	St. Thomas	49
						4	St. Thomas	68
						5	North Dakota State	58
																1	South Dakota State	76
																7	Denver	68
						2	Kansas City	60
						7	Denver	61
											7	Denver	66
											6	Omaha	63
						3	North Dakota	72
						6	Omaha	73

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2024 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

Seed	Region	School	First Round	Second Round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
No. 15	Omaha Regional	South Dakota State	lost to No. 2 Iowa State 82–65	—	—	—	—
	1 Bid	W-L (%):	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–1 (.000)

References

1. "No. 2 seed Iowa State uses big runs to start each half and bury South Dakota State, 82-65". apnews.com. Associated Press. March 21, 2024. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
2. "Western Illinois to depart Summit League beginning next season". thesummitleague.org. The Summit League. May 12, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
3. "Wichita State introduces Paul Mills as head basketball coach". wichita.edu. Wichita State Shockers. March 23, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
4. "ORU Names Russell Springmann Next #ORUMBB Head Coach". oruathletics.com. Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. March 24, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
5. "SDSU's Mayo tabbed #SummitMBB Preseason Player of the Year, top preseason poll". thesummitleague.org. The Summit League. October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
6. "2023-24 Men's Basketball Standings". thesummitleague.org. The Summit League. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
7. "2023-24 TicketSmarter Men's Basketball Peak Performers of the Week". thesummitleague.org. The Summit League. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
8. "North Dakota State Bison vs. Creighton Bluejays". espn.com. ESPN. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
9. "Kansas City Roos vs. Baylor Bears". espn.com. ESPN. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
10. "Oral Roberts Golden Eagles vs. Texas A&M Aggies". espn.com. ESPN. November 17, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
11. "Kansas City Roos vs. Kansas Jayhawks". espn.com. ESPN. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
12. "Denver Pioneers vs. Colorado State Rams". espn.com. ESPN. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
13. "Denver Pioneers vs. BYU Cougars". espn.com. ESPN. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
14. "St. Thomas-Minnesota Tommies vs. Marquette Golden Eagles". espn.com. ESPN. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
15. "2023-2024 Men's Basketball Statistics". thesummitleague.org. The Summit League. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
16. "CBS Sports, Summit League release 13-game national television schedule". thesummitleague.org. The Summit League. October 18, 2023. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
17. "SDSU's Mayo garners #SummitMBB Player of the Year award". thesummitleague.org. The Summit League. March 7, 2024. Retrieved March 7, 2024.