It all began a little more than 45 years ago - February 2, 1973 - with a 100-95 loss to North Dakota State.

That was the night South Dakota State played a men's basketball game inside brand new Frost Arena for the first time.

After that setback to the Bison, the Jackrabbits reeled off a ten-game home win streak and they've been winning with great regularity at Frost ever since. So much so lately that NCAA has included the Brookings facility on its' new list of the ten toughest home courts in all of college basketball.

Since the becoming eligible for the NCAA Tournament in the 2008-09 season, SDSU has gone 118-19 at home, for a robust 86.13 winning percentage. The Jackrabbits have gone undefeated at home five different seasons during that stretch (2011-12, 2012-13, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2017-18), reeling off win streaks of 30 and 34 games. SDSU's current home win streak stands at 20 games.

South Dakota State's home winning percentage is nearly 20 percent higher than the average in college basketball (68.5 percent).

TEN TOUGHEST HOME COURTS (Winning percentage this century)

  1. Kansas (94.85)
  2. Duke (93.08)
  3. Gonzaga (92.51)
  4. Michigan State (89.04)
  5. Kentucky (88-78)
  6. BYU (88.42)
  7. Wisconsin (87.33)
  8. Xavier (87.24)
  9. Arizona (86.39)
  10. South Dakota State (86-13)*

(*Since 2008-09 season)

South Dakota State is one of just two teams on this list that doesn't play in a Power 5 conference.


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