Peterson sees similarities in disappointing second year to second year of Craig Smith tenure in rebuilding USD

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The South Dakota Coyote men’s basketball team had hoped to be playing arch rival South Dakota State in the Summit League Quarterfinals tonight.

Like many goals and hopes during the 2023-24 seasons, those goals and hopes were not met after USD fell in the play-in against Oral Roberts on Friday night, giving up a 35-20 run down the stretch after being tied at 42 and falling 77-62.

It was emblematic of a disappointing 12-20 season for USD in which the Coyotes showed flashes of potential, yet couldn’t weren’t consistent to make enough winning plays.

In his second year head coach Eric Peterson compared it to his first time in Vermillion as an assistant coach under Craig Smith, who also suffered through a difficult 14-18 second season in Vermillion in 2015-16, before eventually rebuilding the program into one that would win a Summit League regular season title in 2016-17 and play for the tournament championship in Smith and Peterson’s final year of 2017-18.

JAMESTOWN — The University of Jamestown has hired Casey Bruggeman as the new men’s basketball head coach.

Bruggeman said he wanted to be the head coach because of his familiarity with the area and his previous coaching experience. When he was graduating from high school, Bruggeman said he was being recruited to play at UJ but decided instead to play for Concordia College (Minnesota).

“I think it’s really exciting and anytime you get a chance to be a head coach I think it’s pretty special because those jobs are hard to come by,” Bruggeman said.

Bruggeman comes to the Jimmies after spending two years as the director of basketball operations at the University of South Dakota. Prior to his time with the Coyotes, Bruggeman spent four years at the University of Minnesota Duluth as an assistant coach. He also coached for two years at the University of Mary.

Bruggeman is the 20th head coach in program history and takes over for interim head coach Greg Ulland. Danny Neville, the previous head coach, left four games into the 2023-24 season.

Jimmies Athletic Director Austin Hieb said he is excited to see what Bruggeman can bring to the university. Hieb said Bruggeman succeeds at building a culture and good relationships with his players.

“We love a lot about Casey,” Hieb said. “We’ve heard a lot of really good things and getting to know him, he brings a lot of the things that’ll make him fit in well at the University of Jamestown.”