Perhaps you've heard. Likely, you've heard it a hundred times within the last week:

The WNBA Finals features two head coaches who were born and raised in South Dakota, Nate Tibbetts (Jefferson and Sioux Falls) and Becky Hammon (Rapid City).

It is no doubt a source of immense pride for South Dakota sports fans. It is amazing if you consider the state's thin population. 

But it should not be surprising.

South Dakota has always been amazing at producing high-level women's basketball. It started well before South Dakota State and South Dakota combined for 16 of the 17 Summit League Women's Tournament titles that have been staged in Sioux Falls, an event that annually draws some of the largest women's hoops tournament crowds in the nation.

The Jackrabbits and Coyotes were Division II powerhouses in the 1980's and 1990's as well under coaches like Nancy Neiber and Chad Lavin. Northern State won two national titles in the mid-1990's under Curt Fredrickson and continues to be a force. 

Augustana reached a Final Four as part of Dave Krauth's 34-year run of excellence in Div. II. Two blocks away, the University of Sioux Falls has sported successful women's teams off-and-on. Dakota Wesleyan has hung some banners, including the 2018 NAIA National Championship.

For over 40 years, these programs have won big and taken down teams all over the region and nation with girls from South Dakota. That's not an accident.

Happy Hour host John Gaskins traces South Dakota girls basketball supremacy back to the bloodlines of Nate Tibbetts — his father Fred, who won 551 games (lost just 101) in 29 years as a high school coach at tiny Jefferson and then big city Sioux Falls Roosevelt.

A larger-than-life personality who was a master motivator and stickler for fundamentals, Tibbetts mopped up 11 state titles and inspired rivals and other towns statewide to catch up, spreading a girls basketball wildfire that helped fuel those juggernaut college programs, still to this very day. Tibbetts stated on record about 50 years ago how he wanted "girls basketball to be big in South Dakota."

Mission accomplished. Now his son — who played at Roosevelt and then USD and went up the coaching ranks through USF, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, the Tulsa 66ers, and as an NBA assistant for 12 years — stands at the coaching pinnacle of women's basketball with Hammon, one of the game's most decorated all-time players and coaches.

Nobody knows the roots of the quality of these coaches more intensely than Matt Wilber, the Northern State head men's coach who spent a year with the Mercury coaching under his long-time friend Tibbetts in 2024.

Wilber is a lifelong South Dakota hoophead who played (and reached the Top 10 chart in career three-pointers as a walk-on) at Augustana, was an assistant coach at Augie and USF and SDSU, and for 11 years guided Dakota Wesleyan to national heights. He has been close to Tibbetts for over two decades.

The two were assistant coaches at USF in the early 2000's and started a local basketball camp together in 2006 when Tibbetts was an assistant with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Tibbetts eventually became the team's head coach, then cracked through in the NBA as an assistant for 12 years before taking the Mercury head coaching job in 2024 and convincing Wilber to join him. After a season, Wilber came back to South Dakota to take the Northern State job in Aberdeen.

In a 40-minute conversation, Wilber describes his 25-year friendship with Tibbetts, what makes Tibbetts a successful head coach — no doubt, the brilliance of Tibbetts' legendary girls basketball coaching father, Fred, played a part — and what Wilber experienced and learned about women's basketball at the highest level during his year in Arizona.

Wilber also breaks down the matchup between the Mercury and Hammon's Las Vegas Aces, the two-time WNBA champions (2022 and '23) who are playing in their fourth consecutive Finals.

Before the Wilber conversation, hear Gaskins' weekly chat with USD football coach Travis Johansen.

 A week ago, just two days after the Coyotes' nightmare 51-13 loss at North Dakota State, Johansen told Gaskins his program's culture was too strong to let the 2025 season go off the rails.

So far, he's right.

The Yotes dominated last-place Murray State from the jump in their MVFC home opener, leading 14-0 after the first quarter and 35-7 at halftime en route to a 49-24 victory (that was not as close as the score indicates) to improve to 3-3.

As crisp and wildly productive as the offense was in the Dakota Dome (568 total yards), the defense impressively shut down the Racers. Johansen provides insight into the maturation of the defense over the first six games, despite taking heavy lumps from teams like Iowa State and North Dakota State.

Who are some of the playmakers consistently stepping up now that 2024 MVFC Defensive Player of the Year Mi'Quise Grace, '24 leading tackler Gary Bryant, and lock down All-American defensive back Dennis Shorter are no longer on the roster?

Johansen also gives insight into another massive output by running back L.J. Phillips (244 yards, 4 TD), who has run for 140 or more yards in three of his four starts. Phillips plays a major role, sure, but so does the offensive line and even receivers. Also, a word about the dangerous potential of receiver and returner Tennel Bryant.

The interview concludes with the challenges of playing a road game at Indiana State and preparing for a Sycamore squad that is now starting its third string quarterback and backup running back. 

Finally, an update on retired USD coach Bob Nielson — how he continues to have an impact on Johansen, the Coyotes operation, and FCS football at-large.