Craig Mattick (SDPB) on state hoops venues & formats, Summit League & MVFC future, looking back on SDSU leap into Div.

The original co-host and producer of the first daily sports talk show in South Dakota history, Mattick teamed with the Happy Hour host for seven of the 19 years the show was on the air until its cancellation two months into the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. "Sports Talk with Craig & John" reunited for 50 minutes on Tuesday at Gibs Sports Bar, mainly to talk about the big picture of state tournament hoops in South Dakota. It is an annual rite of passage — the discussion of state tourney venues, specifically if South Dakota would be better off to have all of its state tourneys in one city, like Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, and most others. There's a sticking point: Would the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center ever want to host all-class state championships? This year marks the first time Sioux Falls won't host a state basketball tournament in over 60 years. Also, there's the format and the process at the AA level to qualify for state. Mattick digs into how the "rank and file" who decides these matters operates. Mattick looked back at how the Sioux Falls and South Dakota sporting landscape changed in 2002 when SDSU decided to join NDSU in Division I. I — a move Mattick constantly derided as the wrong one when it was happening — and when the Summit League Tournament came in 2009. But how bright is that event's future?