SDSU women get attention: Jackrabbits catch eye of national media

By Jeff Kolpack

January 23, 2009 at 11:00 PM

The North Dakota State at South Dakota State women's basketball game tonight will reach several thousand homes via television. For the Jackrabbits, that's just a snippet of the publicity they've gotten this year.

They became the first Summit League team since the 1993-94 season to reach the Associated Press top 25 basketball poll. They're currently 20th in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, the highest-ever ranking for a Summit team.

They are to Division I transition teams what NDSU was to Division II in the 1990s: a big story.

"It's a great compliment to say the coaches or whoever is making the polls that they're respecting us like that," said SDSU senior guard Ashlea Muckenhirn. "At the same time, it doesn't get us anything. It doesn't win basketball games for us. We don't get a first-class ticket on a plane ride."

SDSU is 18-2 with its only losses 68-56 to Maryland and 67-51 to Oakland University (Mich.). The Jacks were 25th in the RPI power poll heading into Friday night's games.

NDSU, after approaching the 300-range earlier this season, was No. 229.

"We just try to stay focused on that next game," Muckenhirn said.

SDSU will soon be the subject of a national story. The New York Times is sending a regional-based correspondent to Brookings today. The team has been featured on ESPN.com and was included in a segment on CBS' women's basketball coverage.

"The ranking has gotten us more national exposure," said SDSU sports information director Jason Hove. "The hometown newspapers have taken a little more notice with our players. It's been a little bit busier."

The Jacks have done it with impressive depth. They have five of the top 20 scorers in The Summit conference-only statistics. Notable teams like Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, Oregon, Illinois and Wisconsin all discovered that. The Jacks beat all of them.

After the Oakland loss shoved them out of the AP top 25, they're a few votes from getting back in.

"The rankings have really been good for us," said head coach Aaron Johnston. "It's absolutely a positive to get your name in front of a lot of universities. It's helped recruiting, fundraising and promoting the program. It would be foolish to downplay it. But the team doesn't rest on it; they do a good job of that."

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Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546.

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By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.