FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team (4-2) will begin a streak of three out-of-region games Saturday when the Sharks face the Midwestern State Mustangs (6-3) at 7:30 p.m. in the NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center. NSUSharks.com sat down with Gary Tuell to discuss the upcoming game.
Q: After a few days to reflect, what was the biggest takeaway from the win over Tampa? A: We have a lot of work to do, especially at the defensive end. Some of it is toughness. Some of it is personal pride and, as my old boss Leonard Hamilton (head coach at Florida State, former Miami head coach) would call it, 'want to.' As a player, you have to 'want to' get stops, win your battles, guard your yard. Until we make a commitment as a team to defend at a much higher, much tougher level, then we will never be good enough to win consistently in this league. We're not going to overwhelm anyone with our athleticism, but we can do a much better job as a team.
Q: We've entered a unique time in the DII basketball schedule. Finals were this past week, which will be followed by three tough games, leading into a week in which the Sharks aren't allowed to participate in any team activities (games, practice, etc.). How does your staff prepare the team for such a roller coaster schedule? A: Finals come first with us. These guys are all serious students and very good in the classroom. They love ball, but everyone of them is here for the right reason, to get a good education that will make a difference in their futures. So we gave them three straight days off – Sunday through Tuesday – to study and take exams, write papers, etc. We had two hours of solid conditioning and skill work on Wednesday, just to get them back in some kind of shape, followed by team work on Thursday and Friday before playing an outstanding Midwestern State team Saturday. Our next three games are against three teams – Midwestern State Saturday night at 7:30, West Texas A&M at 8 p.m. Thursday, and Missouri-St. Louis at 1 p.m. on Sunday – that we believe will make it to the NCAA tournament this year. We wanted to end the semester with three of the toughest games we could find. The NCAA mandates that DII athletes get a seven-day break from December 22 through December 28, which basketball coaches hate but the players probably love. When we come back from that break we will need to condition them for a couple of days, then get ready to play the toughest stretch of games any team in America will face: road games at Eckerd, Lynn, Rollins, (No. 9) Barry and Palm Beach Atlantic with a home game against (No. 3) Florida Southern squeezed in there. We're going to face the best teams in this league, play five of six on the road and face the league favorite and fifth-ranked team in the country at home. Based on what I've seen on film, Lynn, Barry, Eckerd and Florida Southern are playing the best of anyone in our league right now and we get all four of them right off the bat, including three on the road. That's just brutal. When you combine that with the three games we play before Christmas it is a nine-game suicide march. It's also a wonderful opportunity for our players to make a statement. I would much rather run 'Camp Tuell' from December 22 through the 28th than give them seven days off. We could use those days to better prepare for what's in front of us. I think giving the players off for a few days at Christmas is fine and necessary. But seven days is too long. It's not good for anyone, and the players will tell you that they would rather be in the gym than sitting around doing nothing for a week.
Q: Midwestern State hasn't had their typical start, but they are a team that only knows success, having made the regional every year since 2008. What are you expecting from the Mustangs Saturday? A: I love Nelson Haggerty, the Midwestern State coach. He does a tremendous job with his team. They play so hard and are an outstanding defensive team. They go 10-deep with athletes who can all score. They may have gotten off to a bit of a slow start but right now they are as good as any DII team we've faced in my 11 years here. They are a tremendous team that presents a multitude of problems for us at both ends of the floor.
Q: Chris Page (Jr., Plainfield, Ind.), the current SSC Player of the Week, and Justin Jeangerard (Sr., Weaverville, Calif.) are playing some of the best basketball of their careers. Page is averaging 24 points, five assists and four rebounds per game, while Jeangerard is shooting nearly 60 percent from the floor and 3-point range. What have they done to elevate their production to this level? A: Chris and Justin have been very good at the offensive end of the court, and Justin has done an amazing job on the glass for us. I tell our players all the time that they should be embarrassed that a guy with two bulging discs in his back (Jeangerard) is leading us in rebounding. Justin has been relentless in his pursuit of rebounds. But both of them have to improve on the defensive end if we're going to win anything significant. Chris needs to focus on that end of the court. Justin is doing a better job recognizing and communicating on defense but he has to do a better job containing the dribble. I love both those guys and I wouldn't want to play without them. The last time we had to play without them we lost by 16 (79-63 to Embry-Riddle). That shows you how important they are to our team. But they need to make a lot of improvement defensively for us to get better and compete against elite teams.
Q: On the other hand, your six newcomers have combined to shoot 52 percent from the floor. Harrison Goodrick (So., Sydney, Australia) is a regular starter and has carved out his niche, what can we expect from the rest of the group in the next few nonconference games? A: Harrison is doing a good job. I thought he played well overall in the win over Tampa, especially since he was battling the flu and missed a night of sleep before the game with chills and fever. All of the newcomers can score on given nights, but like the rest of this team, all of them need to make huge improvement on the defensive side. If any one of them gets in a defensive stance it will be the first time this year. A couple of our guys were having a debate before practice the other day, and one of them was defending President Obama's record since he took office. I told him after the debate ended 'that's the first time since you've been here that you've defended anybody.' They love offense. They have a chance to be a good team if they ever learn to love defense.
Q: We have to ask, the deal you made with your student-athletes should have you above 20 pounds lost this season. Are you still on track after the holiday? A: I'm still losing. I'm down 22 pounds and losing at least a pound or two every week. I promised our players I would lose weight for them and I won't let them down. If they would make the same commitment to reduce our opponents' scoring we might be a pretty good team in another month or so.
