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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (13-9, 5-7 SSC) will look to split the season series against the Rollins Tars (16-6, 8-4 SSC) in the Sharks’ home game this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
The Sharks begin their first of final two home games and first of their last four games of the season. However, it will be the last game against a team in the top-half of the conference standings. The Sharks finish the schedule against Lynn, Florida Tech and Barry.
“This is fun, isn’t it,” asked head coach Gary Tuell. “The guys on our team and hopefully most of the guys playing and coaching in this league are having just as much fun scrambling for the highest possible finish in our conference as the players and coaches in the Big 10, the BIG EAST or the ACC. It’s a great time of the year because you’ve been grinding since late August or early September, running this marathon that seems to go on and on, and now that we’ve got two weeks to go you can finally see the finish line. And the best part about it is this: four teams have a chance to finish anywhere from first to fourth, four teams have a shot at finishing third through sixth and five teams could end up fifth through ninth. In other words, we’ve come all this way and with two weeks to go, there is a whole lot on the line every night out.
“We’re 5-7 with four games to go and mathematically, we could still finish anywhere from third to ninth. That tells you how important every game is, but it also tells you how closely the teams are bunched together. Florida Southern and Saint Leo seem to have a firm grasp on the first two spots and are virtually assured of finishing no worse than third or fourth. Rollins and Eckerd seem to be in good shape for the third and fourth spots but if they stumble and either ourselves or Florida Tech, which is very hot right now, continue to win, then that could change. Both ourselves and Tech have an outside shot to climb into the top-four, but by the same token if we collapse, either one of us could fall all the way to ninth. All of which makes this great fun for the players and coaches.
Florida Tech was once in last place in the league but has broke out on a five-game winning streak. They are now tied with NSU for the fifth spot in the SSC Tournament, which will be played at a neutral location this year. The Sharks will need to win in order to maintain their place in the standings. That fifth-place slot has become familiar, as NSU has been parked in that spot for exactly a month.
“Regardless of how it all ends up, our coaching staff and our players are having a heck of a lot of fun,” said Tuell. “We’ve enjoyed this season as much as any I can remember. With the exception of two games we thought we could have or should have won, our team has done everything we’ve asked of them and more. After disappointing losses to Barry and Saint Leo, we rededicated ourselves to getting physically and mentally tougher for the stretch run. At the time those losses really stung us. But rather than hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves our guys – especially our seniors – came together and made a commitment to finish the season the right way. We run two miles every morning at 6:45, we have guys getting up shots on their own during the day and we’re practicing as hard as any team I’ve coached.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter if we win every game or lose every game. What matters is that I know our guys are going to play tough and play hard and I am 100 percent sure they’re going to stick together and go down the home stretch playing with joy and playing together. That’s the character and the nature of this team. Our seniors …
Iran Hollis (Hollywood, Fla.),
Lukas Roesch (Sugar Grove, Ohio),
Sean Mullan (Mangerton, Australia),
Louie Schonauer (Lincoln, Ill.),
Jacob Reed (Perth, Australia) and
Raj Prabhakar (Miami, Fla.)… have been fantastic. Every one of them has been in a leader in his own way. And most of our sophomores, guys like
Brian Cahill (Arlington, Va.),
Maurice Fuller (Westfield, Ind.),
Justin Jeangerard (Weaverville, Calif.) and
Stian Berg (Baerum, Norway), have been there to support the seniors and lead when called upon. Even our two freshmen,
Brent Armitage (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and
Mike Terry (Ironton, Ohio), have worked their tails off to help these guys finish the season the right way.”
On paper, the Sharks have their toughest opponent left on the schedule on Wednesday. NSU lost to Rollins on the road earlier this year, 74-63. Rollins was in first place at the time and seemed to be running away with the league. However, Rollins is 2-4 over their last six games, with a win over last-place Lynn and an overtime win over Eckerd. Rollins won its last game and will be looking to regain momentum at NSU.
“So here comes Rollins on Wednesday night, and for us it’s just another opportunity to put on the hard hats and go to work,” said Tuell. “The first time we played them they beat us at the foul line. From the field, we finished in a 56-56 tie. But they made 11 more free throws and that was the difference in the game. Rollins is great at keeping teams off the line and we’ll have to be just as good as them in that area if we want a different result this time around. With Rollins and Lynn coming to us this week, we finish out our home schedule. It would be great for the seniors to finish their careers with two home wins, but we won’t talk about that or even give it much thought. We were as happy and proud of this team after losing to Eckerd and Florida Southern as we were after beating Palm Beach Atlantic and Tampa. Happy and proud because we played hard, we competed our tails off and we had fun. We want to keep going in that direction because that’s the attitude we want to take into the conference tournament in two weeks.”
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