Field of 68 Showcase at Sanford Pentagon set to open college hoops season with a bang

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – When we turn back the clocks it’s time to turn up the heat in gyms across the country because basketball season is right around the corner.

And it will start in a big way for NCAA Division One tomorrow at the Sanford Pentagon.

The venue will host the “Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase” featuring three mid-major games capped off by South Dakota State taking the floor in the evening.

It’s the brainchild of longtime college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman who runs the Field of 68 media network and wanted to kick the college hoops season off in a special way.

Among the games tomorrow is former SDSU head coach Scott Nagy making his debut as Southern Illinois new head coach against the College of Charleston.

Which begs an obvious question.

Did Goodman try to get Nagy to square off against the South Dakota State program he coached for 21 seasons from 1995-2016?!

“Of course I tried! I was unsuccessful! And with Scott he‘s too nice a human being to try to convince him. It was like once he said no the first time, that was it! You’re not going to. That dude is the nicest guy in this business.” Goodman said of his efforts to get Nagy to play SDSU in the opener.

Nagy will make his debut with the Salukis against the College of Charleston at 11:00 AM. After that the University of Saint Louis will face Santa Clara at 2:00 PM. The event will wrap up at 5:00 PM with SDSU taking on McNeese State, each coming off seasons in which they qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

“We‘ve wanted to do something like this for a while because, frankly, college basketball starts off without a bang. I mean there‘s no good games, there all ’buy’ games. I‘ve complained about it for years and we felt like we could help and get some mid-major games together and that‘s what we’ve been fortunate to do.” Goodman says.

If you can’t make it out to the Pentagon all the games will be streamed on the Field of 68’s YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) platforms.

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