Mark this event in the record books--you won't hear me saying things like that very often! Yesterday, though, truly was a great day to be in South Dakota. Not only did we have fantastic weather (highs in the sixties!), but after two close, come from behind over-time wins, we have both a men's and women's team heading to the national basketball tournament for the first time ever!
South Dakota State University (the Jackrabbits) has been a Division I school for less than ten years, and only recently began producing teams that were competing at a national level. In 2009, the women's basketball team made it to the National Tournament for the first time ever, and even won their first round game to face (and ultimately lose to) Baylor in the second round. They've made it to the tournament every year since then by winning the Summit League Championship. And this year, the men also squeezed out a win in the Summit League Championship, which guaranteed them their first appearance in the National Tournament. Big Day!
A few things that made this event even a little more exciting for me--one of the players on the women's team is the younger sister of one of my good friends, and it's been fun to watch her grow into a significant role on the team.
 |
| She's the really excited one in the middle of the group |
I also very much enjoyed watching my husband's excitement about the games, and it was just another thing that reminded me why I fell in love with him. I guarantee you he had never heard of the state schools in South Dakota before moving here, and he's only ever been to Brookings (where the school is located) two or three times. But yesterday--he might as well have been an alma mater. Granted, his heart will always belong to Georgia Tech (with just a small portion reserved for the UNC-Chapel Hill basketball team), but there was the slightest glimmer of some loyalty to South Dakota in him yesterday. We were out with friends for part of the evening, and he kept one eye on the TV to track the progress of the men's game, then hunted it down on the radio on our way home. There were definitely some fist-pumps as SDSU pulled the game into overtime, and once we got home he sat in the car listening to the game until I could get it pulled up on the computer. It was quite endearing to see him not just be supportive of, but actually get excited about, something so truly South Dakotan. Don't get me wrong--you won't see either of us sporting blue and gold anytime soon (I was raised in a very anti-SDSU family; my dad graduated from one of their formal rival colleges and he may or may not have been on the committee that oversaw the throwing of a dead jackrabbit on the court. And Darrell adamantly opposes band-wagon fans, which at this point, he'd be), but for the night, we were Rabbits.
(Photos courtesy of
The Argus Leader)
No comments:
Post a Comment