Nov. 2—BROOKINGS — A lot happened during the South Dakota State men's basketball team's 2025-26 season, but all anyone really remembers can be summed up in one sentence: The Jackrabbits had their first losing season since 2009-10.
SDSU went 14-18, finishing a distant seventh in the Summit League regular season race and going quietly in the first round of the conference tournament.
It was the Jacks' first season under Coach Bryan Petersen, and while no one is really suggesting the new coach was the problem, it wasn't a great way for the longtime SDSU assistant to kick off his tenure in the big chair.
As the Jacks kick off the 2026-27 campaign Monday night against Kansas State, they do so motivated to make their stay among the ranks of sub-.500 teams a temporary one. This isn't a rebuilding year. The Jacks aren't starting over, they aren't trying to be competitive, they aren't using buzzwords like 'culture' or 'standard' as a substitute for wanting to win games.
This is one of the most consistently successful programs in the Summit League, and the Jacks want to get back to the top of the heap and back to the Summit League tournament — now.
"It puts a chip on our shoulder for sure," said senior guard Kalen Garry, who averaged 10.7 points and 5.2 rebounds last year. "We've done a great job bringing in the guys that are going to impact winning. We have a lot of potential. We can play a lot of different ways. We have some guys that are just going to fit the puzzle perfectly, and hopefully we can win those close games that we lost last year and get back to where Jackdaw basketball needs to be."
The Jacks lost 6-10 post Damon Wilkinson to the transfer portal — he parlayed a big sophomore season into a payday from Nebraska — but guard Joe Sayler is back as the top returning scorer in the Summit League, and Garry's return gives the Jacks a steady presence who was part of the last Jackrabbit team to make the NCAA tournament.
Alec Squires, a 6-10, 250-pound sophomore from Volga, will step into Wilkinson's role after averaging 4.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game last year. Point guard Trey Buchanan, a former Iowa Hawkeye who missed most of last year to injury, is back healthy as well.
Those are the primary returners, and in this era of college basketball that's a pretty good nucleus for a mid-major team.
But it was obvious last year what the Jacks were missing and why they struggled to win games. They were not terribly athletic. They did not have a true point guard. They struggled to get to the free throw line because they didn't have much in the way of attacking guards or forwards.
Those were the skill sets on Petersen's list as he went portal shopping, and while the results won't be clear until the game's start, early indications are that he was able to check the boxes.
EJ Ryans, a 6-3 junior who played at Western Michigan last year, is a floor general point guard who should be able to distribute the ball.
Jon Mekonnen is a 6-8, 205-pound high-flyer from Eagan, Minn., who didn't see much playing time last year at Colorado State, and should pack a punch from the wing and in the paint.
Myles Thompson is a 6-7, 230-pound fifth-year forward who won a national championship at the Junior College level and last year averaged 10.8 points and 6.1 rebounds Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. He'll provide muscle and veteran moxie in the paint.
And then there's Jesse Van Kalsbeek, a 6-6, 225-pound junior who was preposterously productive at Northwestern (Iowa), averaging 27.8 points and 12.4 rebounds to earn NAIA national player of the year honors as a sophomore.
Van Kalsbeek will be the Jacks starter at power forward and is expected to be an impact player.
"When you're working in the process, you don't know what end result you're going to get," Petersen said of sifting through the portal. "So, to be able to get some good end results, then have our returning players to also be a part of that, I think just made everybody feel like, you know what, we're doing the right things and we're just going to keep on getting small wins every day, hopefully. And with the pieces we were able to bring and the players we were able to bring in, it felt like we checked a lot of boxes. And now we've got to go prove it, but it did feel good, obviously, to get a lot of things identified and addressed."
Four freshmen join the mix in Cam Swearengen, a 6-5 swingman from Knoxville, Youssouf Yatabare, a 6-9, 230-pound forward from Paris, Semaj Stampley, a 6-1 guard from Alton, Ill, and Blake Ellwein, a 6-9 wing from Huron who was the South Dakota prep player of the year last year after leading the Tigers to an upset of previously undefeated SF Lincoln in the 'AA' state title game.
Is it enough to get the Jacks back on top in the Summit League? Hard to say. With rosters changing so much year-to-year it takes awhile to figure out who has what. Who's good and who's maybe not so good. The Jacks felt pretty good about where they were at last year, too, and it never came together.
But Petersen said going through the struggles of last year gave him more clarity in how to run this program, from the Xs and Os to recruiting to scouting to practice to the off-season. This team is bigger and more athletic than it was a year ago, and a locker room that wasn't always on the same page seems much more connected.
"Our team chemistry, just like the guys in general, the personalities, it's just giving us great energy," Squires said. "That really feeds into practice and it just makes our practices more enjoyable, and it seems like we can go harder 24-7, feeding off that energy. We've got a lot more athleticism, so it's fun to see our guys play above the rim, throwing it down on each other, having fun every day. We're really looking forward to the season."
