The month of March holds the biggest basketball tournament of the year, the NCAA March Madness with college teams from all over the country. Most of the time South Dakota teams are not in it, but this year is different.

On Mar. 26, 2022, the USD women’s basketball team played in the school’s first-ever NCAA Sweet 16 tournament game. Most South Dakota teams that do make it into the tournament have difficulty advancing past the first round since they go into the tournament with lower rankings. The USD women’s team had to win the Summit League tournament before earning a chance to compete in the NCAA tournament.

The Summit League tournament took place Mar. 5-8, 2022 at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The Summit League consists of teams from all over the midwest such as SDSU, ORU and NDSU. The coyotes first played Western Illinois and then advanced to play Kansas City in the semi-finals. The championship game took place on Mar. 8 where they faced their rival school SDSU. They won 56-45 taking out the number one seed in the tournament.

After becoming Summit League champions, they became the number 10 seed in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. In the first round of the tournament, they were matched up against the number seven seed, Ole Miss. They ended up winning and advancing to the second round of the tournament where they would play number two seed Baylor on Baylor’s home court in Waco, Texas. The game ended with a score of 61-47, advancing the Coyotes to their first-ever sweet sixteen-game appearance in school history.

The Sweet 16 game took place on Mar. 26, 2022, in Wichita, KS, where the Coyotes took on the number three seed the Michigan Wolverines. Despite being the lower seed, the Coyotes had a fair chance to win the game since they previously upset the number two seed. They definitely did not let Michigan have it easy and kept right with them, but unfortunately, the game ended with Michigan winning 52-49.

Despite the outcome not being exactly what they wanted, they were still able to advance to the sweet sixteen round of the NCAA basketball tournament which was the first time in South Dakota history for the coyotes.