STORRS, CT (Dakota News Now) – The South Dakota State Jackrabbits have a tall task in taking on second seed Connecticut Monday but head coach Aaron Johnston says they’re up for the task.

“There’s going to be a lot of runs. There’s going to be a lot of emotion. We’ve got to handle all of it and early on in the game will be important. We’ve got to be able to go out and establish that we can play the way we want to play to build some confidence, to get ourselves going.” Johnston says.

UCON head coach Geno Auriemma had high praise for the Jackrabbits and says he has a lot of respect for SDSU. He admitted he’s not exactly “pumped up” for this matchup.

“I look at the bracket and I go, ‘Ok, I don’t want to see anybody in our bracket that kind of reminds me of us a little bit. I want somebody that has no idea how we play or what we’re trying to do and that their style of play is completely different than ours.’ Well unfortunately we didn’t get that because these guys, you know, they’re incredibly disciplined. They’ve been together a long time, so they know each other. They remind me of the Creighton team in our league. They run their stuff. They execute so well offensively and defensively.” Auriemma says.

Jacks players like Haleigh Timmer believe their tough non-conference schedule helped prepare them for this moment and that putting any first game jitters behind them and using confidence from their win will help in round two. Timmer says there are a few keys to staying in the game with the Huskies.

“Yeah, I think one of the main things is how fast they play and push the ball in transition, so taking away their transition game will be a huge part of what we do and then obviously handling their offensive threats.” Haleigh says.

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