« Men’s Basketball 2018-19

Mike Daum

School
South Dakota State University
Position
Forward
Major
Advertising (undergrad); sports & rec mgnt (grad)

Classroom

Mike Daum graduated in May 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in advertising with minors in business marketing, public relations and graphic design. He posted a 3.235 cumulative undergrad GPA over his four-year academic career and is now in his first semester of graduate school full-time as he pursues a Master’s of Science in Sports & Recreation Management. He earned Summit League Commissioner’s List of Academic Excellence honors in 2015-16 and was an honor roll member that same year.

Character

Daum arrived on campus in 2014 as a freshman farm kid, having spent years working alongside his dad on a family farm in Kimball, Nebraska. Although his offensive talent was there, Daum needed to work on the physical part of his game to compete at the collegiate level, and he spent his entire first year as the lone redshirting player on the roster. Daum held himself accountable for early morning workouts, nutritional decisions and handling the struggles of a redshirt year all alone and overcame the struggle to become one of the all-time greats. During his redshirt season (2014-15), Daum added 65 pounds to his power clean (175 to 240), 105 pounds on squat (185 to 290), 50 on bench (165 to 215), 3.5 inches to his vertical (25.5 to 29) and seven inches to his one-step vertical (26 to 33). Additionally, Daum went from 19 percent body fat when he arrived on campus to 10.4 percent body fat at the end of his freshman year, taking 21 pounds of fat and replacing it with 14 pounds of muscle to drop 8.6 percent.

Specific to leadership, Daum has been a team captain for the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons and led his team to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, leading the team in points and rebounds in the final of those seasons.

Integrity-wise, Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger speaks often about how Daum is the same person in the locker room as he is in public. He always takes time to speak to others, treats others with respect and elevates the public perception of the Jackrabbit basketball program with his kind, humorous and friendly demeanor, all while putting in countless hours behind the scenes when no one is watching.

Community

Daum has been active in the Student-Athlete Advisory Council on South Dakota State’s campus since his arrival. He served as the organization’s co-president during his junior (2016-17) season and during his time with the group has helped SDSU win three-straight Summit League food fight challenges (2014-17) and finish second last year, raising money for the Brookings Food Pantry. Daum has helped SAAC raise the following totals over the last four years (2014: 34,681 lbs., 2015: 34,681 lbs., 2016: 39,047 lbs., 2017: 43,849 lbs., and 2018: 41,296 lbs.). Additionally, Daum and SAAC have been active as classroom readers in local elementary schools and volunteered with numerous on-campus groups.

As a part of the men’s basketball program, Daum has worked with Samaritan’s Feet to raise money and shoes for the organization which is highlighted at a specific basketball game annually. Daum is also an active member of the Brookings community, specifically making an impact with two young members of the community: Lydia Van Stedum, who suffers from a missing chromosome, and Hayden Jones, an elementary student with affinity for the Jackrabbit basketball program. In addition to connecting with the two fans after each game and spending time with their families outside of the gym, Daum spent a day with Jones in his kindergarten classroom and has taken time to attend Van Stedum’s birthday party.

Competition

Daum has been a standout contributor over the last three years with South Dakota State, leading the program to three consecutive Summit League Championships and NCAA Tournaments while helping the team win a program-record 28 games in 2017-18 and win the Summit League regular season championship outright for the first time in the team’s Division I history.

In both his sophomore and junior seasons, Daum was an Associated Press All-American (honorable mention), USBWA All-District VI selection, NABC All-District 12 First Team honoree and the Summit League Player of the Year. Daum is a three-time All-Summit League First Team and Summit League Championship MVP honoree (2016, 2017 and 2018), and last year was named as a Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year finalist. He was a Kyle Macy Freshman All-American, the Summit League’s Freshman of the Year and the league’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2015-16.

Daum has averaged 21.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game over 104 career games, scoring 2,232 points over the last three years. His career shooting numbers are 50.1 percent from the field, 42.5 percent from 3-point range and 85.1 percent from the line. He owns SDSU’s single-season scoring and 3-point records, and is on pace to break the all-time scoring mark with the 3,000-point club within reach. Last year, he was one of three players nationally to average over 20 points (23.9) and 10 rebounds (10.3) per game.