FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team will face its toughest test of the season on homecoming night Friday, hosting the No. 3 West Liberty Hilltoppers in the NSU Arena at 6 p.m.
All fans will receive free admission to the game by exchanging a canned or non-perishable food item. As always, students receive free admission with their Shark Card. For those unable to attend, the game will broadcast live on 640 Sports. All canned and non-perishable foods collected will be donated to HANDY.
The Sharks will have their hands full Friday, facing a puzzle that only a handful of teams have been able to solve over the last few years.
"Over the past four years West Liberty is the winningest college basketball team in the nation, and that includes Kentucky, Duke, Louisville, Connecticut or any other big name school you want to name," said head coach Gary Tuell. "Their record over the past four seasons is 129-9 and 100-6 the last three years. That's just amazing. On top of that, they've averaged over 100 points a game during that stretch, which is equally remarkable.
"A lot of people probably think I'm crazy for scheduling this game, especially as a home opener and Homecoming to boot, but I wanted to bring the best possible team in for the event and it doesn't get any better than West Liberty. I know our fans will enjoy watching them play. They always put on a great show and play a very entertaining style. They've been to the Elite Eight or the Final Four each of the past four years and they've been ranked number one in the country longer than any team in DII history."
Bringing the best competition to the NSU Arena is nothing new for coach Tuell, who has routinely put together a brutal schedule for his team. This season he painted his masterpiece, with four top-25 nationally ranked teams (including the defending national champions Drury) and the NCAA Division III National Champions, Amherst, scheduled to play in the Shark Tank. The upcoming slate also features road games at two-time defending SIAC Champions Benedict and DI Florida International.
"We don't have their winning tradition or their glossy won-loss record or the national success that they've earned and enjoyed, but for our young players to get where West Liberty is they need to be exposed to teams like them," stated Tuell. "They need to see the best teams in the nation so they can get an idea of how hard they have to work and how far they have to come in order to compete at that level. West Liberty plays at a level where we want to be, and to get there you have to play the best teams.
"I'm very grateful to Coach Jim Crutchfield for bringing his team down to Fort Lauderdale for this game. It's a long way for them to travel for a single game and Jim didn't have to do this, but it is a heck of an opportunity for us and we appreciate them being here. We have tremendous respect for their program and the way they represent themselves and what they've done for Division II basketball. It's going to be fun just watching them play… and hopefully it will be even more fun if our young guys step up and meet the challenge and make it interesting."
NSU enters the game 0-2 in a pair of neutral site games at Florida Tech's SSC vs. SIAC Challenge. The Sharks opened up the season against SIAC contenders, Paine, and lost, 95-85. The Sharks stumbled the next day against Claflin, 71-69. There were common themes in both contests. Over the course of two games, the Sharks scored efficiently, shooting 59 percent from the floor. They also averaged 20 trips to the free throw line per game. However, The Sharks were doomed in the turnover battle, as NSU committed twice as many errors as the opposition.
"We learned a lot about ourselves last weekend in the two losses in Melbourne," said Tuell. "Some of what we learned about ourselves was encouraging, and some of what we learned was disappointing. But we're a better basketball team today than we were a week ago. I don't know if that will show when we play someone of West Liberty's caliber, but I've seen progress and growth from our team this week in practice. We just have to keep our hard hats on and continue to work and learn and grow. In time, we're going to be a pretty good team. There's no timetable and we're going to be as patient with the young kids as possible, but the sooner they learn to compete at this level, the sooner we can start playing with the teams on our schedule."
NSU will be banking on its fans to push the Sharks to another level on Friday. NSU is expecting one of the largest crowds ever for a Sharks basketball game, with several community groups attending along with droves of students and alumni.
"This is a great opportunity for our guys," said Tuell. "It's a tremendous challenge, but it's also the kind of game guys should look forward to. We don't play teams to pad records or pad individual statistics. We play teams that we think will make us better in the long run, and West Liberty is certainly a team that will help us learn more about ourselves and help us become a better basketball team when conference play begins."
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