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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – After dropping two nail biters against elite Sunshine State Conference opponents, the Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (11-7, 4-4 SSC) will step on the court to take on another top team in the Rollins Tars (15-4, 7-1 SSC) this Saturday, Jan. 29 at 4:00 p.m.

The last two outings have been hard to swallow for the Sharks. Last Saturday in the NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center, the Sharks hosted No. 12 Tampa and took the Spartans to overtime before missing all their field goals in the final five minutes. On Wednesday, the Sharks led late in the second half but could not close out Florida Southern on the road, despite three treys from John Brooks (Sr., Perris, Calif.) in the final minute.

“At Southern we did everything we wanted but couldn’t finish the deal in the final five minutes,” said head coach Gary Tuell. “That’s been the history with this team when you look back at our losses against the power teams in our region. We had opportunities against Alabama-Huntsville, Valdosta State, Tampa and Florida Southern. We led Eckerd at the half. We put ourselves in a position to win all those games but just haven’t found a way to finish. So we’re still a work in progress and learning as we go.”

Another loss that left a bad taste in the Sharks’ mouths was their defeat to Rollins on the road in NSU’s third game of the year. Despite shooting 35 percent from the floor and committing 18 turnovers, the Sharks only lost by 12 points in their first road game.

“We’re looking forward to seeing them again,” said Tuell. “In our first meeting at Rollins we got a great performance from Max Papendieck (Sr., Adelaide, Australia) but not much else from anyone other than him. Alex Gynes (Sr., Nowra, Australia) tried to play but was suffering from an inner ear infection and that severely hampered him not only in that game but caused him to miss the next game. And Lukas Roesch (So., Sugar Grove, Ohio) was playing his first game for us after missing the five previous games (three exhibitions and two regular season games). We have changed a lot of the things we do so they’ll see a little different team than the one that lost up at Rollins. But we’ll have to play with great effort if we expect to change the results from our first meeting.”

The Tars will indeed see a much different team on Saturday, both on offense and defense. Gynes was limited against the Tars, but has averaged 19.4 points per game since. Brooks shot 1-for-7 from three-point range against Rollins but has drained 50 of his last 92 three-point attempts. Brooks has shot 50.4 percent from beyond the arc, tying for fourth in the nation. However, Rollins has some of the most talented athletes in the SSC and are currently on top of the conference with a 7-1 SSC record.

“Rollins is playing as well – probably better – than anyone in the league at the moment and that’s why they’re in first place,” said Tuell. “They have an outstanding starting five and they always seem to get a key contribution from someone off the bench when they need it most. In Nick Wolf they have a senior leader who is as good as anyone playing in our league or anyone else’s league. Nick is just a terrific competitor who hates to lose and that’s evident by the way he delivers in the clutch for them night after night. Myk Brown and Matt Robertson are two of the better players in our league and both of them are much improved shooters over last year.”

The Sharks are 8-27 all-time against the Tars and have lost four straight games, including a 75-67 loss to Rollins in the 2009 SSC Semifinals that ended NSU’s season. The Sharks have not beaten the Tars at home since 2008. Tuell clearly shows confidence in his team’s ability to break the losing streak against Rollins.

“Hopefully our guys understand that a win on Saturday would put us right back in the thick of the conference race,” said Tuell. “But we played with such great effort and played so well against both Tampa and Florida Southern, it was a little deflating to come up empty in both games. We’ll find out Saturday if we have enough in the tank to compete against a third-straight opponent that’s among the top five or six in our region.

“But in spite of the two previous losses I couldn’t be happier with this team. In many ways this is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been at NSU. I can’t fault our attitudes, our effort, our cohesion. Every day the guys come to practice ready and willing to work and they’ve maintained their focus and good attitudes throughout the year. It’s been a joy, but it would sure be a lot more fun if we could close out some of these close games against the top teams. I think we’re good enough to play at the highest level in our league and in our region, but until we can finish a game off we can’t put ourselves up there with those teams. The great thing is that we have another opportunity on Saturday. Win or lose we’ll take away what we learn and move forward. This team hasn’t come close to playing its best basketball yet. But we are getting closer.”


SSC Standings: The Tars sit atop the SSC standings currently thanks to a 7-1 record. No. 16 Tampa has dropped two of its last three games and now sit at 6-2. After snapping Tampa’s undefeated streak, the Florida Southern Moccasins (6-2) have worked their way into a tie for second place and are followed by Eckerd (5-3). The Sharks sit 4-4 in fourth place. They are 4-0 against the bottom four in the conference and 0-4 against the top half. Trailing NSU by a game, Florida Tech currently hold a 3-5 record in sixth. Lynn and Barry are tied at 2-6 while Saint Leo sits at the bottom with a 1-7 record.

2010-11 SSC Men's Basketball Standings Conference Pct. Overall Pct. 1. Rollins 7-1 .875 15-4 .789 2. Tampa 6-2 .750 17-2 .895 3. Florida Southern 6-2 .750 14-5 .737 4. Eckerd 5-3 .625 14-4 .778 5. NSU 4-4 .500 11-7 .611 6. Florida Tech 3-5 .375 13-9 .591 7. Barry 2-6 .250 5-12 .294 8. Lynn 2-6 .250 4-14 .222 9. Saint Leo 1-7 .125 10-8 .556

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