SDSU men excited to play Michigan in NCAA Tournament - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

The South Dakota State men earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Summit League Conference Championship for the second year in a row.

But, the Jacks have one of the toughest draws of the tourney and will face Big Ten power, 4th seeded Michigan in the second round on Thursday.

SDSU and Michigan have met twice before, the last coming back in 1989.

The Wolverines won both contests.

South Dakota State enters as the 13 seed in the South Region and has a 2-3 record this year against tournament teams with victories over Montana and New Mexico, and losses against Belmont, Minnesota and Alabama.

"I'm mean, they're definitely a good team," Senior Nate Wolters said.  "They were ranked number one earlier in the year. They're obviously very talented, but we knew we were going to play a good team regardless.  We're looking forward to it."

"We knew any team we got was going to be a good basketball team, one of the top 16 teams in the country," Head Coach Scott Nagy said.  "For anybody to say that's a good matchup for us, I think that's a little bit ridiculous.  But, at the same point, we're glad we're in it."

South Dakota State and Michigan tip off at 6:15 p.m. CT.