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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (5-3) will return from its holiday break to face the Benedict Tigers (4-3) Sunday, Dec. 30 at 4 p.m. at the NSU Arena in the Don Taft University Center.
The Sharks return from a much-needed hiatus, after playing their last four games in a six-day stretch. During that span, the Sharks went 3-1 with a win over No. 7 Southern Indiana on the road, 77-76. The other two wins came in the Cruzin Classic on back-to-back nights against Morningside (96-90, 2OT) and Blue Mountain (70-64).
“We needed the rest after playing five games in nine days, so the break came at a good time for us,” said head coach
Gary Tuell. “We probably won’t be in as good a physical condition as I’d like because we had a few guys who had a tough time getting back to campus after the storm hit the Midwest. But this is an ideal game for us in terms of preparing us for conference play. These guys are very similar to the good teams we’ve been playing in the nonconference part of our schedule and they are similar in size and athleticism to Eckerd, so this game should help us, as we prepare to pick up with conference play on Jan. 5 in St. Petersburg.”
Returning from their only break of the season, the Sharks are still developing as a group. Despite the team’s ongoing evolution, the Sharks are already a top-five scoring team in the Sunshine State Conference at 73.9 points per game. The Sharks have reached that mark while relying heavily on the 3-point shot, as NSU is one of three teams to take over 200 attempts already this season. As the Sharks continue to fine-tune the offense, NSU is shaping up to make a run as one of the fastest and most exciting teams in the SSC.
“Overall, I’ve been pleased with our team,” said Tuell “We finished the first semester with five games in nine days, and we were banged up and running on fumes for those last two games. But give our kids credit. They battled and hung in there and refused to fold up when we were struggling and not playing anywhere near our best. We have had bigger, more talented teams that could not have done what these guys have managed to do and that speaks volumes about their chemistry and their desire to compete. We have to find some answers defensively and we’ve got to get more guys involved offensively than we have. Certainly
Lukas Roesch (Sr., Sugar Grove, Ohio) came up big in the last two games and I thought
Justin Jeangerard (So., Weaverville, Calif.) really played with great purpose. But we have some guys who are capable of contributing more offensively and we need to find ways to help them. Benedict will give us multiple problems with their size and athleticism, but that’s what we’re going to face in most of our conference games so this will be a nice challenge for us.”
Benedict enters this contest with a different mentality after losing two straight games. The Tigers were recently upset against Brewton Parker, 70-68, before losing on the road to Florida Southern, 78-71. The road team will be desperate for a win against NSU before heading into Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, where they will defend their league title.
“You can put Benedict in the same category as Southern Indiana, Charleston, Bellarmine and Saint Leo because they are potentially a top-20 team loaded with veteran players, including all five starters, who have taken them to the past two NCAA tournaments,” stated Tuell. “They have a great history of winning under coach Fred Watson. I might be wrong, but I think they’ve been to the NCAA tourney six of the past seven years, so this is certainly a program with great pedigree and a present team with some terrific players. Other than Southern Indiana, we haven’t faced anyone with as much overall size as Benedict. You start with Marcus Goode, who just became eligible in December after being an All-America candidate last year. He’s 6-10 and almost 300 pounds and we don’t have anyone who can match up with him in the post. After that they have a host of guys 6-5 to 6-8 who are athletic and long and do a great job scoring and rebounding. They’ll probably start a front line of 6-10, 6-8 and 6-7 and we don’t have anyone near big enough to match up with them inside.
“As good as their bigs are, and they are all good, the guys who get it started for them at both ends of the floor are a couple of 5-11 guards, Xavier Collier and Brennan Reynard. They both average around 14 points a game and provide terrific leadership. This is a solid team that always gets better as the season progresses and I have no doubt that Benedict will be back in the NCAA tourney again this year. If they are not a top-20 team by season’s end I’ll be shocked.”
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