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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (2-7) will finish 2013 with a home game against the defending NCAA Division II National Champions, No. 3 Drury (8-0), at 6 p.m. Thursday at the NSU Arena.
"Drury is our NCAA DII defending national champion and it's an honor to have the opportunity to play those guys, especially to play them on our home floor," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "We've certainly challenged our young guys this season, having already played the current number one (West Liberty), number four (Florida Southern) and number 13 (Livingstone) teams along with Division I Butler and Florida International. As the defending national champs and current number three team in the country, Drury will be another difficult challenge, but it's a wonderful opportunity for our kids and our program.
"Drury reminds me a great deal of the Bellarmine team we played last year. They are extremely well-coached, structured, disciplined and compete at a very high level on every single possession. They play with a certain amount of confidence and toughness that you don't find on many teams today. In some ways, they are very similar to the Butler team we played earlier this year, which is probably why they were leading Duke at halftime earlier this year and came close to upsetting the Dukies on their home court. You have to be disciplined and tough to compete against Duke. A whole lot of Division I teams can't do that, but Drury did it. They are not an ordinary DII team, but for that matter they are not like a lot of ordinary DI teams either. They play the game the right way, and they play it at a level very few teams can achieve."
NSU enters the game after an 82-65 loss to No. 13 Livingstone Tuesday.
Justin Jeangerard (So., Weaverville, Calif.) and
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.) each scored a team-high 14 points. Jeangerard had a game-high seven rebounds with two assists, while Page had a team-best three assists with six boards. On Wednesday, Drury and Livingstone played a neutral site game at the NSU Arena, with the Panthers taking an 81-80 edge to stay undefeated.
"Drury will press you, they will change their looks in their presses, and they play both zone and man on the defensive end," stated Tuell. "You have to be able to take care of the ball and make good decisions when you play them because they will test you in every phase of the game.
"Kameron Bundy does an outstanding job leading Drury's offense. He's a terrific scorer and playmaker, a nightmare to cover regardless of what defense you set up against him. Ben Fisher is a great shooter who plays really well off Bundy and they have three inside guys – Ian Carter, Cameron Adams and Mike Nwelue – who really compete and get a lot of things done in the paint. Adams is so talented inside, but I love Nwelue's toughness and his demeanor. He brings a lot of energy to them when he's in the game. Besides Bundy and Fisher, they have a ton of guards who do different things to beat you. Sean Osler can play inside and out and shoots it great. Nick Yocum, Drake Patterson, Lonnie Boga, all three of those guys are very good. They're just a very solid, very deep and talented team who can beat you in a lot of different ways. I love the way they share the ball, the way they change sides of the floor with the ball two, three and four times before shooting. They may very well be our national champion again this year. They're as good as anyone we've played, and we've played a lot of really good teams."
The Sharks have played a grueling schedule, but have found success as of late. NSU is 2-2 over its last four games, with road wins over Belmont Abbey, 86-67, and FIU, 77-59. Their two losses were both competitive against top-15 nationally ranked teams. Despite the recent turnaround, they'll have to take the next step shorthanded.
"We'll play without
Brian Cahill (Jr., Arlington, Va.) for the second straight game, and obviously that changes our team in dramatic ways," said Tuell. "But it's another opportunity for some of our young players like
Brandon Patchan (Fr., Tampa, Fla.) and
Cameron Denney (Fr., Norwell, Ind.) to get playing time against outstanding competition, and that can't do anything but help us down the road. I was happy with the way Patch and Cam helped us in spots against Livingstone, but we had some veteran guys that we lean on who just didn't show up. I don't know what the deal was but we struggled all night at both ends of the floor. We looked like a group of guys who would rather pass a kidney stone than a basketball, and that's not who we are. Despite our poor execution we fought our way into a four-point lead, 55-51, with about eight to play. I thought maybe we had gotten over the hump and our guys were waking up, but as soon as we got the lead we got lazy on defense and continued to struggle to find any chemistry on the offensive end. It wasn't pretty. Livingstone was very good and their guys seemed to kick it into another gear once we got the lead, but I don't know if that was more to their credit or a shame-on-us moment for not capitalizing when we had a chance to pull away.
"We have one more non-conference game, against defending NCAA DIII champion Amherst on January 1, and then we get to turn our attention to the Sunshine State Conference and sink our baby teeth into league play. The schedule has been tough, but for the most part our guys have really embraced it and enjoyed the challenges. It's really been a privilege to play some of the highly ranked teams we've seen, like Drury, and we're enjoying those opportunities. I'm sure if Cahill were playing against Drury it would help us in a number of ways, but we have to move forward without him at least one more night. We can't give the same effort against Drury that we gave against Livingstone and hope to be in the lead again with eight minutes to play. If we play Drury the way we played Livingstone we'll be out of the game before the first media timeout. I think our guys will compete. I think they were disappointed in their effort against Livingstone, especially in the closing minutes. I know we're young and I know we have to be patient with them. But we're better than the team that showed up Tuesday night."
All fans will receive free admission to the game, with doors opening at 5 p.m. Fans away from the arena can watch the game
HERE (fee applied), listen
HERE or follow live stats
HERE.
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