Happy Hour with John Gaskins

We interrupt our endless chatter about a compelling college football season in South Dakota to bring you some captivating basketball conversations on Happy Hour.
 
Well, that is, after the host offers 11 minutes of Jacks and Yotes football in the form of a new segment called "Lost and Found," which takes a closer look at players and aspects of both squads that have become either a strength or a sticking point.
 
Brad Newitt on Jacks hoops season openers
How do you immediately extinguish the pain of a program's first losing season in 16 years?
 
South Dakota State's men opened the season with their first win over a major conference team in five years by upsetting Kansas State on the road Tuesday night.
 
What did the Jackrabbits immediately show that could convince observers this will be an improved operation from last year's 14-18 squad, which tended to run into offensive walls, especially late in games?
 
Plus, let's be real. KSU had a brand new coach and brand new roster, a crew picked to finish 15th out of 16 teams in the Big 12.
 
So, what does this win mean for SDSU?
 
Brad Newitt was in Bramlage Coliseum as the Jackrabbit radio analyst and breaks down the win. He was also on the call for the SDSU women's season-opening home loss to Creighton at the buzzer.
 
What were Newitt's takeaways from that performance against a team picked to finish third in the Big East? What kinds of challenges do the Jacks face with the return of center Brooklyn Meyer, who joined the team only a week ago or so? 
 
Also, what are Newitt's thoughts on the revamped men's and women's rosters at USD?

 
Dawn Plitzuweit
The coach who took USD women's hoops to its first and only Sweet 16 delivered the first Sweet 16 appearance at Minnesota in 20 years last March.
 
That was her third season with the Gophers, who just opened this season with a home win over Harvard and will be in Sioux Falls to face Kansas State at the Pentagon on Saturday, Nov. 14.
 
It will be the first time a Plitzuweit-led team has played in South Dakota since the Coyotes won their third consecutive Summit League Tournament title in the Denny Sanford Premier Center, which led to that Sweet 16 run — which fell just shy of an Elite Eight appearance — in 2022. That notched USD's fourth consecutive trip to "The Big Dance."
 
The Wisconsin native was more than willing to regale her fondest memories of how she built the mini-dynasty that ended South Dakota State's decade-long reign atop the Summit. Also, her not-so-fond memories, like a game-changing injury to top scorer Caitlin Duffy in the 2019 Summit championship game and the Covid outbreak canceling her 30-2 squad's chance to make noise in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Plitzuweit also shared how she took a floundering Minnesota program back into March Madness for the first time in eight years. What were the similarities and differences in both how she built both powerhouses?

The host takes a closer look at players and aspects at both SDSU and USD that have become either a strength or a sticking point.

Newitt was in Manhattan on the Jackrabbit network's call and offers his takeaways on the win and the revamped team. He was also on the call in Brookings for the Jack women's buzzer-beating loss to Creighton.

An "instant classic," it was not.
 
And yet, Saturday's "State vs. U" showdown — an odd combo of a Jackrabbit jackhammering plus wiley Coyote comeback that finished in a pivotal 31-21 SDSU win — provided plenty of memories both in Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium and around it.
 
Depending on who you are, those memories will burn bright or even be harnessed for a future date.
 
USD's players and coaches will likely remember the videos or still photos of the dead coyotes SDSU players draped over their shoulders in the postgame press conference and the pelt coach Dan Jackson hoisted during the locker room celebration.

The Coyotes will likely use those images for fuel whenever the rivals meet next, which may be in December in the FCS playoffs. How risky of behavior was this from SDSU? How different should we expect that showdown to be, even if it takes place in the same stadium?
 
Jackson hopes his players remember the playoff-like urgency they used to manhandle USD for the first three quarters, because he thinks they'll need it for every remaining two regular season game starting on Saturday at Northern Iowa. The Panthers have already upset two ranked opponents this year (both Illinois State and North Dakota were slotted in the FCS Top 5 for those games).
 
Sioux Falls Live sports editor Matt Zimmer will never forget the unprecedented "big game" pregame coverage his operation provided, broadcasting live on KSFL-TV and the Midwest Sports Plus app, plus the online "tailgate" show Sioux Falls Live broadcast with the gang at Jackrabbits Illustrated.
 
Zimmer recounts the memorable day — particularly the scene and interactions with fans in the tailgate lots — on his weekly "Nobody's Listening Anyway" podcast with the Happy Hour host, who was tailgating in a different way about 300 miles away in Lincoln, Nebraska.
 
The Happy Hour host, a Nebraska native and lifelong Husker fan and NU alumnus, describes an unforgettable family reunion with his father and uncle, even though Nebraska put forth a primetime performance fans want to erase from memory.
 
Then, after looking back, the hosts look ahead to what is next for both the Jacks and Y
otes — their remaining two regular season games and how their body of work so far translates to postseason performance.
 
Plus, a glance at the SDSU women's buzzer-beating loss to Creighton to open the regular season, the Minnesota Vikings' un-incredible shrinking quarterback Kyler Murray and who the team should trade for to replace him, and other sports matters as the World Series, heart of football season, and tip-off to the hoops slate collide.