The 2016 Summit League men's basketball season hasn't exactly started the way the South Dakota Coyotes were hoping, with three losses in four conference games so far.

The Coyotes (9-9/1-3) can climb one game closer to .500 in Summit League play when they play at North Dakota State Wednesday night.

The Bison (11-6/1-2) have dropped back-to-back games for the first time all season turning the ball over 29 times against Omaha and Oral Roberts last week. Coming into those games, NDSU had been in the top five in the nation in fewest turnovers.

Paul Miller (18 points per game) and AJ Jacobson (12 points per game) are trying to pick up the scoring slack left by the graduation of last year's Summit League player of the year Lawrence Alexander. Inside, Dexter Werner and Kory Brown are among the five best rebounders in the Summit League.

Tipoff is 7:00 PM in Fargo Wednesday night.

The Coyotes lost a pair of games in completely different fashion last week.

In a 85-65 defeat at Fort Wayne, USD trailed much of the game as the Mastodons shot 52 percent and outrebounded the Coyotes by 13. Mo Evans had 20 points and nine assists for IPFW, who has won seven straight.

USD returned home and controlled the first 26 minutes against Omaha, leading the Mavericks by 21 points with 14 minutes to play, only to see UNO score 46 of the game's last 65 points to pull out a 79-73 win.

The big disparity of the night came at the free throw line where the Mavs shot 35 times (making 29), while the Coyotes shot just three free throws all night.

I talked with USD head coach Craig Smith about the losses and Wednesday's match-up with North Dakota State:

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