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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (8-5, 1-3 SSC) will continue its recent slew of games against nationally recognized teams Saturday, as the Sharks hit the road to face the Tampa Spartans (13-3, 1-3 SSC) at 4 p.m., live on 640 Sports in the Plantation Ford/Weston Nissan Volvo Game of the Week.

Tampa, which recently fell out of the national top-25 after a 12-0 start, is another difficult road test. However, the game fits in with the rest, as the Sharks have played a majority of their schedule against national top-25 teams and traditional conference powerhouses.

“If you go by the preseason poll, we opened league play against the top-four teams in the conference, played three of those on the road, went 1-3 and came out scratched up but no one had to call the coroner for an autopsy,” said head coach Gary Tuell. “We’re still breathing and based on the attitude of the players, I think we’ve still got a lot of enthusiasm for what lies ahead. We learned a lot about the league and about ourselves in those four games. We understand the marathon nature of a league race. Our guys are in for the long haul and they’re committed to learning, improving and growing as we go. I don’t say this very often, but we’re 1-3 and I’m learning to love this team.”

The Sharks are coming off a loss this past Wednesday against No. 24 Rollins, 74-63. The Sharks shot well and took care of the ball, but could not keep up with the Sunshine State Conference’s top team on the road. Rollins matched the Sharks’ shooting efforts and won by reaching the foul line 24 times and keeping the Sharks off the boards. In the end, NSU recorded only five offensive rebounds and nine free throw attempts.

NSU will have to keep the game in perspective and try to take its home game against the Tars on Feb. 20. For the time being, the Sharks are one of six teams in the SSC with three conference losses. NSU already defeated 2-3 Eckerd, and will have a chance to knock the other four teams down over the next four games.

“Our guys feel like they’ve seen the best teams in our league as well as some of the best teams in the nation, and nothing that happened up to this point in the season has dampened their enthusiasm or taken away their hope that we can be a factor in this league before the year is over,” said Tuell. “Of course, preseason polls are meaningless for the most part, and there’s the very real possibility that the teams we’ve just faced are not any better than the teams coming up on our schedule. If that’s the case, then we need to improve in a hurry. The strength of this league has always been the incredible balance and the very small separation between first and last place. Year in and year out, the bottom third of our conference is always competitive with the top third, and that’s what sets our league apart from most others.

“Tampa is a great example of that this year. The preseason poll placed them last in the league. So what do they do? Win their first 12 games, get nationally ranked, lose by only six and two against two of our strongest teams, Rollins and Eckerd, and then knock off the preseason league favorite, Saint Leo, on Wednesday night. That would be preseason last beating preseason first for those keeping score. Welcome to the Sunshine State Conference.”

Shark fans may have circled Jan. 19 as an easy night when the preseason poll was released, however, this will not be the case. Tampa will be coming off an overtime win over SSC-favorites Saint Leo, 69-65, and looking to reenter the national top-25. Tampa is led by former Vanderbilt head coach Richard Schmidt, who resurrected Tampa’s basketball program 30 years ago.

“Tampa has Richard Schmidt, who started coaching on the seventh day, when God took some time off to rest,” joked Tuell. “Honestly, can anyone remember when Richard wasn’t coaching? He’s had a wonderful career and been one of the great coaches in all of college basketball. And obviously he’s not done yet. He has his team playing as well as anyone in our league, which is exactly what I would expect from Richard. In Anthony Griffis and Da’Markco Foster he has two of the league’s best scorers. And the guys around them are playing as well as anyone.

“This will be our fifth league game and fourth on the road, so our guys are facing as challenging a start to league play as any team I’ve ever coached. Saint Leo is nationally ranked. Florida Southern was ranked when we played them. Rollins was ranked. Tampa has been ranked. That’s a tough way for a bunch of sophomores to start a conference schedule. But as I told our players yesterday, Saint Leo began last year 2-5 and ended up being one of the best, if not the best team in our league over the final six weeks. Florida Southern won our post-season tourney last year and at one point they were 6-6 before going on a run at the end of the season. Both of those teams got off to shaky starts and ended up in the NCAA tournament. Win or lose at Tampa, maybe we can be that team this year.”

Fans can listen to the game live on 640 Sports. The game will also be available via live stats HERE. Follow the Sharks on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/NSUSharks.

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