South Dakota men's basketball prepares for 'competitive practices' as summer workouts near end

The South Dakota men's basketball team will soon end its summer workouts. The eight-week run of practices has been one of the first opportunities that the entire coaching staff and 2022-23 roster was able to get on the court together, experimenting with lineups and playing some game concepts.

Here's what USD head coach Eric Peterson said about the Coyotes' summer workouts:

South Dakota's international players gaining experience with national teams

Five weeks into summer practice, Peterson didn't yet have all his players in Vermillion. And that's not such a bad thing. Three of the Coyotes' international players: guard Kruz Perrott-Hunt, Toledo transfer center Mihai Carcoana and freshman forward Felix Brostrom all spent parts of the summer playing with their home country's national teams.

Perrott-Hunt played in the Asia Cup with New Zealand and Carcoana and Brostrom played for Romania and Sweden, respectively, in the FIBA U20 European Championship in the country of Georgia.

"I would never tell you to skip that to come workout with us for eight weeks," Peterson said. "And the reality is, it's really good basketball."

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Peterson said that he had been in touch with some of the players abroad while they were playing with the national teams, as well as his assistant coaches. Peterson is sending clips of practice, assistants are going over terminology over the phone and Peterson will watch clips of their international practices.

Peterson isn't worried about them getting a different style of coaching — "the reason why those guys are coaching the national team is they are one of the best coaches in the country" — and Peterson said he recruits international players because they play a similar style of basketball as Peterson intends for his Coyotes to.

"They're getting some of the same instruction and maybe some of the same alignments and sets that we would run," Peterson said. "I think it's really good."

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With a lot of newcomers and plenty of returners, 'whatever happened last year doesn't really matter'

Peterson's first big wins of the recruiting cycle came by retaining the players that explored a transfer away from the Coyotes. Both Perrott-Hunt and guard Mason Archambault recommitted to USD via the transfer portal, setting up as talented a guard group as South Dakota has had in 2022-23.

Perrott-Hunt, Archambault, North Dakota transfer Paul Bruns and the return of perhaps the Summit League's best player AJ Plitzuweit make up a guard group that expects to score a lot and increase the speed of the Coyotes offense. What Peterson said he needed next was size, and he got that, too: the return of starting center Tasos Kamateros, the addition of the 6-foot-11 Carcoana, freshmen Jevon Hill and Miles Branch.

With so many new faces to add onto a large group of returners, Peterson said he needs to start with a blank slate. Peterson said that there will be some "really competitive" practices.

"Whatever happened last year doesn't really matter," Peterson said. "It's a new coach. We have a path, and there's no preconceived notions of who's going to play (and) who's not going to play."

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More size puts spotlight on 2021-22 starting center Tasos Kamateros

Peterson has used the term "positionless" before, but for defensive purposes, he said the position someone plays directly relates to the position they could guard. That's been a big point to Kamateros this offseason.

The Coyotes lacked size last year with Kamateros as the tallest person on the floor, but USD went out and corrected that issue. No longer the tallest person on the floor, Kamateros might not be asked to guard centers anymore. And if he's to share the floor with a taller player, he may have to move like a smaller player.

That's caused Kamateros to emphasize perhaps adapting a different style this offseason, working to add quickness so that he could guard and play more on the perimeter. Kamateros made big strides on the perimeter on offense last year, raising his 3-point shooting percentage from 34.9% to 37.5% on almost quadrupole the attempts.

"I would say the biggest change for Tasos if he does play the four, is probably defensively," Peterson said. "That's just a different deal. You're gonna have to guard guards. Switch one, four on the ball."

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Peterson thinks Kamateros can handle a more perimeter-oriented role, and getting his players to "move better" is an emphasis he's put on all players, not just Kamateros.

"I think it's going to be fun to play around with some lineups and just see certain guys play with each other," Peterson said.

Follow Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter Michael McCleary on Twitter @mikejmccleary.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota men's basketball prepares for 'competitive practices'