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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team will travel to Valdosta Ga. for the Loop Pizza Grill Classic, beginning Friday, Dec. 3 against No. 6 Alabama-Huntsville at 6 p.m. The Sharks (3-2) will conclude the tournament Saturday, Dec. 4 against Valdosta St. at 8 p.m.

The Sharks may be facing the two best teams they will meet all season and they’ll have to do it after dropping their first home game of the year against Flagler on Monday, 85-76. Against the Saints, the Sharks led at halftime by a comfortable margin but allowed Flagler to shoot 18-for-32 in the second half and win in comeback fashion.

“As I told our kids after our loss to Flagler Monday night: If you play with that kind of energy and effort this coming weekend, you’re going to be embarrassed,” said head coach Gary Tuell. “Alabama-Huntsville and Valdosta State can embarrass you any time, but especially if you aren’t working hard and competing. Our effort Monday against Flagler was disappointing. We expected to have problems with the wholsesale changes we’ve made defensively. All we asked of our guys was to give us their best effort and play with heart and hustle. Basically what we did instead was follow them around, watch what they did and then got out of their way so they could shoot. And if they missed, we showed them where the ball was and let them go get it so they could shoot again.”

Although he was disappointed Monday, Tuell credits the team’s strategic changes to some of the team’s poor effort. With a month before Sunshine State Conference play kicks into high gear, the NSU coaching staff is retooling the defense to find the best strategy going forward.

“Nothing slows down effort more than indecision, and you can’t blame the guys for that,” Tuell said. “We had a mini-camp for a few days to teach entirely new concepts to them, and there was no way our guys were going to play Monday night without a lot of confusion and indecision and doubt. When that happens, effort suffers. It’s difficult to play hard and with confidence if you’re not quite sure you’re doing the right thing. So we expected Monday’s game with Flagler to be problematic.”

The Sharks will face two national powerhouse teams in their first regular season tournament. Alabama Huntsville is on the verge of a top-five national ranking and has never lost in two meetings with NSU. Valdosta State is 1-3 against NSU all-time and returns several players from a squad that advanced to last year’s Elite Eight.

“Huntsville is arguably the best D-II team in the nation,” said Tuell. “I haven’t seen anyone that approaches them. And Valdosta State is coming off an Elite Eight season with many key players back from that team and perhaps a deeper, more talented squad than they had last year.”

The Sharks will enter the weekend tournament healthier then they have been all season. Alex Gynes (Sr., Nowra, Australia), who leads the Sharks with 15.3 points and eight rebounds per game, played more than 25 minutes against Flagler for the first time since the season opener. Jacob Reed (Fr., Perth, Australia) made his collegiate debut against Flagler and gives NSU more options. Reed is a talented guard who can run the offense or play alongside the point guard.

“By no means are we going in there with an empty glass,” said Tuell. “We’ve got good players who have pride in themselves and their teammates and they had their feelings hurt by Flagler. I have a lot of confidence in these guys and I know they’ll go to Valdosta and compete and give us better effort than we got on Monday. We’ll do everything we can do to win these games, but more than anything else we need to come out of the weekend with a much better grasp of who we are and what we’re trying to become.”

Live Stats will be available for both games this weekend HERE. Fans can listen to the Sharks’ game against No. 6 Alabama-Huntsville HERE and watch the Shark’s take on Valdosta St. HERE.