Huge Frost Arena crowd likely as South Dakota State welcomes UCLA for WNIT semifinal

South Dakota State’s pursuit of a WNIT championship has hit its homestretch. The Jackrabbits are one of four teams remaining from the original 64, and they haven’t had to step outside of Frost Arena to get there.

With wins over Ohio, Minnesota, Drake and Alabama, the Jackrabbits have extended their season by two weeks. They’ve brought teams from the Big Ten, the SEC, and, with Thursday’s semifinal against UCLA, the PAC-12, into their gym. They’ve been greeted by near-capacity crowds that have rattled the rafters during games and allowed SDSU to continue outbidding their opponents for the right to host games (UCLA put in a bid to host the semifinals, according to coach Cori Close).

And while no one in the tournament will contend that a deep WNIT run is preferable to an NCAA tournament berth, or even that their run is motivated by a desire to prove they deserved one, we’re far enough into this consolation tournament to have weeded out the teams who don’t value the WNIT. By the time the WNIT championship game takes place, we’ll be more than a month removed from the end of the regular season.

More: WNIT semifinal between South Dakota State and UCLA is sold out

South Dakota State hosts UCLA on Thursday at 7 p.m.. With a win, SDSU would advance to its first WNIT championship game on Saturday afternoon, and they’d likely be at home for that one, too. Middle Tennessee hosts Seton Hall in the other semifinal.

It may not be March Madness, but for the WNIT’s Final Four, there certainly will be no April Ambivalence.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to still be playing basketball late into March and into April,” said Jacks coach Aaron Johnston. “We’re really lucky to have these games and these chances to continue to be together as a team with our seniors and everybody that’s been a part of this journey this year. There’s just a ton of optimism, a ton of positivity and a ton of appreciation for our fans who have come out and supported us and been a big part of those victories here at Frost Arena.”

The Jacks drew a mere 1,774 fans to their first round win over Ohio (the game was the same day as the SDSU men played in the NCAA tournament against Providence). But that number jumped to 2,678 for a second-round win over Minnesota, 3,114 against Drake, and a whopping 4,268 in their quarterfinal come from behind win over Alabama, the most fans to see a women’s game at Frost since a top-5 Notre Dame visited in 2015.

More: South Dakota State holds off Alabama to advance to WNIT semifinals

Could an even bigger crowd be on tap for Thursday? Don’t bet against it.

The Jacks’ transition to Division I almost 20 years ago has been wildly successful, in women’s basketball as much as any other sport, but even in its best moments, getting a program like UCLA to come to Brookings would seem far-fetched. But the Bruins will be here, right behind two other household nicknames in the Crimson Tide and Golden Gophers.

AJ coached under UCLA's Close last summer

But as rare as an appearance by UCLA in Brookings may be, the two programs have lately fostered some familiarity with one another. They’ve already played each other this season – with the Jacks beating the Bruins 76-66 at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida, at a time when UCLA was ranked 15th in the country.

And just last summer, Johnston served as an assistant coach for the USA Basketball Women’s U19 World Cup team. The head coach of that team? Bruins coach Cori Close. Close and Johnston won a gold medal together.

Johnston speaks highly of his stint working under Close, who is in her 11th year at the helm of UCLA, and said that time together, plus the earlier meeting this year, will make for an interesting matchup.

“I’m sure it’s probably harder for Cori, having been the head coach of that summer team,” Johnston said. “She’s putting some things in that are her styles or her tendencies, and as an assistant you just kind of go along with it. But I’ll say this, as the head coach of that team, one of the things I appreciated about Cori is just how open she is about everything she does in her program. I really felt like I was able to learn and absorb and take some things that could be better than what we were doing and add them to our program, and we’ve certainly tried to do that. I really appreciated how gracious she was in bringing me into the fold and giving me that chance and being open about basketball. I think she’s a great leader and role model and ambassador for women’s basketball.

“I don’t know at that time this summer,” Johnston added, “if we ever really thought we’d be playing against each other in Brookings, South Dakota in March. It’s funny sometimes the roads that basketball takes us all down.”

Previously: Flurry of three-pointers lifts South Dakota State basketball over Ohio in opening round of WNIT

While the prior meeting could potentially be instructive of what to expect on Thursday, both teams are markedly different than they were then. Myah Selland was just coming back from a knee injury in that game, and injured his shoulder during it. Tylee Irwin did not play. Paige Meyer did, but she’s now out injured. No one scored more than 11 points for SDSU that day, but six players had at least eight.

Emergence of Haleigh Timmer sparking Jacks

Perhaps the biggest change for SDSU since then has been the emergence of freshman Haleigh Timmer. A valuable bench player all season, Timmer has taken her game to another level in the WNIT, with her three highest-scoring games of the season all coming in this tournament, including a high of 24 in the first round against Ohio. She’s averaging 17.8 points in the four games.

The Bruins (18-12), who won the WNIT in 2015, got here with wins over UC-Irvine, Air Force, Wyoming and, last Sunday, Oregon State in Corvallis. Their run isn’t surprising, as they finished the regular season strong, with road wins at Arizona and Arizona State, then beat USC in the first round of the PAC-12 tournament before getting bounced in a 63-60 loss to Oregon.

The Bruins are led by 5-foot-9 junior guard Charisma Osborne, who averages 16.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists. Ilmar’l Thomas, a 5-10 grad senior, averages 15.4 points and shoots 54 percent from the floor.

Like the Jacks, the Bruins have been asked if their NIT run is about proving they belonged in the Big Dance, and like the Jacks, UCLA has downplayed that narrative. Like the Jacks, they just want to keep playing.

“I don’t think it’s about showing the country as much as it is us proving to ourselves what we can become,” Close said. “We worked through the disappointment, some things that were under our control and some things that were not. I want our program to be a championship-level program, and this is our championship. Would we rather be in the NCAA tournament? Yes. But this is what we’ve earned and this is what we have.”

How to watch South Dakota State vs. UCLA in WNIT

Tipoff: 7 p.m. Thursday in Brookings

TV: Midco Sports Net

Streaming: Midco Sports Plus or ESPN Plus (subscription required on both)

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SDSU women's basketball welcomes UCLA for WNIT semifinal