BROOKINGS — Brooklyn Meyer has been one of the best players in mid-major women’s basketball since becoming the starting center for South Dakota State in 2023-24. She was the Summit League MVP and defensive player of the year that season. Last year she came back and earned another first team all-conference nod.
The hope was that she’d have something truly special in store for her senior season, and three games in, she’s taken her game to a level rarely seen in the Summit League.
In wins over Creighton, Rice and Murray State, Meyer has averaged 26.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 4.7 blocks, making 64 percent of her shots, anchoring the Jackrabbits on both ends of the floor. A small sample size to be sure, and this isn’t the first time Meyer has had a three-game run that transcends her usual outstanding play.
But for a Jackrabbit team aiming to go deeper than last year’s second-round NCAA tournament run, this kind of start from their best and most experienced player is especially noteworthy.
It suggests that, as good as the 6-foot-2 Larchwood, Iowa, native has been throughout her career, she can still be better. Still provide more. Still take the Jackrabbits even further.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Jacks coach Aaron Johnston said of Meyer’s hot start. “I say that, but it is believable, because you’ve seen that for years. It’s just amazing to see where her game is at. She just does everything. She’s a phenomenal passer, she gets to the line and makes free throws. Obviously can finish and make plays, blocks shots, she’s a vocal leader who gets people where they need to be. And it’s not easy for her because she plays against a high level of physicality every game. people are putting a lot of pressure on her and she just keeps playing through it.”
Adds teammate and fellow senior Madison Mathiowetz: “She just keeps getting better and better. She’s so fun to play with and so fun to have on your team because she makes everyone around her better. She’s done a great job of taking everything teams throw at her and adjusting and playing through it and elevating our whole team.”
Brooklyn Meyer goes up for a shot in the Jackrabbits’ win over Kansas City on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 at First Bank & Trust Arena.
Dave Bordewyk, SDNMA
One of the most impressive things about Meyer’s ascension? It’s been pretty much what the Jacks expected when they began recruiting her. SDSU offered Meyer when she was still in eighth grade, way back in 2018.
A year later came offers from NDSU, USD, Drake, Iowa and Nebraska. Wisconsin, Iowa State and Minnesota caught on and offered in 2020.
Ultimately SDSU was rewarded for being first, as Meyer committed in October of 2020 when she was still just a junior.
When she finally arrived on campus in 2022, Meyer joined a loaded Jackrabbit team that had Paiton Burckhard, Tori Nelson, Kallie Theisen, Mesa Byom and all-time great Myah Selland in the frontcourt. But the Jacks didn’t redshirt Meyer. She played in all 35 games, averaging 5.6 points in just over 12 minutes per game, including a 10-point performance against No. 1 South Carolina at the Pentagon. The Jacks won 29 games and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“Her minutes were impressive,” Johnston says. “When we played South Carolina people started to see that when another post guards her 1-on-1 she can have success. You started to see some of what was to come.”
It was all part of Johnston’s plan.
When asked if he thought back then that Meyer would become the player she is today, Johnston doesn’t hesitate.
“Yes, I really thought she was going to be that good, and if she didn’t get to that level that would’ve meant we as coaches probably failed her in some way,” Johnston said. “She was really talented, and we really felt like this was her potential. We’ve been lucky over the years to have some players in our program that you can look at as a high school sophomore and think, you know what, this player could change our program, and Brooklyn is absolutely in that category.”
South Dakota State’s Brooklyn Meyer catches a pass in the post while being guarded by South Dakota’s Tori DePerry during a semifinal of the Summit League tournament Monday, March 11, 2024, in Sioux Falls.
Trent Singer / Sioux Falls Live
Sure enough, things took off in 2023-24 after the graduation of Selland and Burckhard. The Jacks won another 27 games and went back to the NCAA tournament, and Meyer led the way. She averaged 16.8 points and 7.6 rebounds while blocking 61 shots as a sophomore and was voted Summit League player of the year and defensive player of the year.
Meyer followed it up with a similarly outstanding season last year, averaging 17.0 points and shooting .627 from the floor, though USD’s Grace Larkins snagged the Summit’s player of the year honor. The Jacks coasted through the regular season and conference tournament, then knocked off Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA tournament at UConn’s Gampel Pavilion before losing to the eventual champion Huskies in the second round.
SDSU would lose guards Paige Meyer and Haleigh Timmer and posts Theisen and Mesa Byom to graduation, but with a talented young cast of characters set to return, Meyer would be expected to carry a heavy load both on the floor and in the locker room as a senior and leader.
South Dakota State basketball players Brooklyn Meyer and Paige Meyer answer questions from the media at the NCAA women’s basketball tournament regional in Spokane, Wash., on Friday, March 22, 2024.
Contributed / South Dakota State University
Given the production Meyer has delivered already, nobody would be disappointed if she ended up simply delivering more of the same. But Meyer didn’t spend the offseason sitting still.
“When you look at all the experiences I’ve had and what we’ve done as a team, it makes you want to create more good memories this year,” Meyer said. “And I feel like, as a senior, you have more responsibility to the team to help out the underclassmen and be able to reach out to them, because I was in their shoes not that long ago.”
Johnston was confident Meyer would take to the leadership role naturally, and she has. On the court, he knew Meyer could expect to face even more attention from opposing defenses this year, and perhaps new schemes or techniques designed to slow down her production, or at least force her teammates to be the ones to win games for SDSU.
So one of Johnston’s top priorities going into the season was finding new ways to challenge Meyer, to bring more out of her. That started with keeping her on the floor longer, both through conditioning and limiting foul trouble, and so far Meyer is averaging 33.3 minutes per game, up from 26.1 last year. Johnston thinks they can add to her game, too.
“I think she’s getting more and more comfortable on the perimeter,” the coach said. “She’s so good inside and sometimes we just get tunnel vision to use her there. But there’s some matchups that are really tough for her down there. It’s nice to be able to play her facing the basket and let her be a passer, let her put it on the floor.”
The Jacks have averaged 83 points in their first three games, shooting 51.4 percent. Their defense has held foes to 62 points on 31.5 percent shooting. Meyer’s dominance has spearheaded both efforts. The Jacks brought in 6-1 transfer Maggie Hartwig to play alongside Meyer this year, and it’s clear they’re still learning to play together. Hartwig averaged 16 points and nine rebounds last year for Evansville and so far this year is averaging 4.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks. Meanwhile young guards Katie Vasecka, Mahli Abdouch and Emilee Fox are all off to strong starts in the backcourt, and Meyer’s presence surely impacts that as well.
“It’s really nice being her teammate,” Vasecka said. “If we get stuck on offense, we can throw it in to her, because she’s a beast in the paint. It’s nice to have a player that you can feed off of. She can throw it out to us. We can throw it back in. It’s good to have someone to take a little bit of pressure away from other players.”
South Dakota State Jackrabbits forward Brooklyn Meyer (31) dribbles the ball against the UConn Huskies in the second half of a NCAA tournament second-round game on March 24, 2025 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.
David Butler II / Imagn Images
When the Jacks are playing in their conference, Meyer has no peer. She has literally never lost to a Summit League opponent in her career (the Jacks will take a 63-game conference winning streak into this year’s Summit League opener).
But for them to accomplish their goals of going deep into the NCAA tournament they must be capable of beating Top 25, if not Top 10 teams. Meyer is often undersized in these matchups. Sometimes she’s held in check, other times she holds her own.
“I don’t think people realize how athletic she is,” Johnston said. “She is so quick. She uses her feet so well and just understands how to get position and how to get people off balance and uses fakes, and just has an unbelievable combination of quickness and skill that are hard to stop for people. And now she’s developed all the other pieces, the experience, how to play out of double teams, how to carry a team. Those are all skills you have to learn, and she’s done that really well.”
Things will get more challenging in short order.
After taking on Montana on Saturday in Rapid City, the Jacks will face Gonzaga next Thursday at the Pentagon. After that are games against No. 11 North Carolina, No. 25 Kansas State, No. 7 Duke and No. 3 Texas, among others. Those are the kinds of teams the Jacks expect to face, and potentially beat, in March.
For Meyer, that’s been part of the draw ever since she chose the Jacks over playing in the Big Ten. When asked if she wants to pursue a career in pro basketball Meyer is noncommittal, saying she’s focused on this year and will worry about her future when the Jacks season has ended. But that tunnel vision doesn’t mean she’s lost track of everything she and her teammates have accomplished to get here.
“I obviously came here with high hopes, and I knew it was gonna be a really good experience,” Meyer said. “I’ve just been so grateful for all of the experiences and all the teammates and things that I’ve gotten to do. It’s made it very worth it, and obviously college basketball is not easy, and so I think it’s just gonna be something that I’m really proud of when I look back.”