South Dakota State Is Now Out Here Landing Recruits Over Big 10 And Big 12 Schools

This is a pretty big story right now in the world of college basketball. South Dakota State, one of the better true mid-majors in the country just landed a commitment from Caleb Grill. Now, who is Caleb Grill? He’s a 6’2″ guard that had offers from Nebraska, SMU and Texas Tech. He’s expected to get bigger offers as well, but is planning on being committed to the Jackrabbits.

“Grill is a kid who has been improving rapidly over the last year,” Rivals.com recruiting analyst Eric Bossi told Yahoo Sports. “He has athleticism, he can put the ball on the floor and he’s a dangerous shooter from deep. I look at him going to the Summit League and think he has to be looked at as the kind of kid who will compete for all-conference and possibly conference player of the year honors at South Dakota State. He’s one of the biggest recruiting heists of the 2019 class.”

Now, to me I’m interested in watching South Dakota State for this reason. We’ve seen mid-majors like Gonzaga, St. Mary’s and Butler (when they were all mid-majors) turn into these fairly power programs. South Dakota State is starting to get to the beginning of that trajectory with this commitment while also sending guys to the league. The Jackrabbits sent Nate Wolters to the NBA and Mike Daum is an All-American this year and an NBA prospect.

Along with that, South Dakota State has one of the best young coaches in America in T.J. Otzelberger – the former Iowa State assistant coach. The ability to land someone like Grill can do one of two things. One, it can help South Dakota State move its way up from a true mid-major to one of those power mid-majors. If that doesn’t happen it will help get Otzelberger to a big time coaching job, because he’ll be successful at South Dakota State.

Here’s 40 seconds of him knocking down jumpers: