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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (11-13, 7-5 SSC) will look to earn another win over the Barry Buccaneers (16-6, 6-6 SSC) on the road Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The game will broadcast live on 640 Sports.
"No matter how the conference race ends up over the next two weeks and three or four games, this has been a season unlike any I can remember in our league," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "Florida Southern has done a nice job holding first and should finish there if they take care of business. But nothing is settled for the other eight teams, especially that group from two through seven who have between five and seven league losses. Even Florida Tech, with a 4-9 record at this point, could win their final three and jump from eighth all the way up to the top four if the right teams ahead of them lose out. It is impossible to predict how things will end up, and maybe it's ridiculous to even be concerned about it. When the race is over every coach will probably look at his first round opponent in the conference tourney and say, 'That team is tough… I don't want to play THOSE GUYS in the first round!'
"As coaches, we've said all year that this league is the best from top to bottom in DII basketball. And nothing has happened to make me change my mind on that. So much of what happens in the postseason tournament will depend on matchups between particular teams. The only truly important thing about the final three or four games in the regular season is that you would like to go into postseason with some momentum, feeling good about yourselves and feeling confident in the way you're playing. But you could easily drop three or four in a row at the end of regular season and, with one good night in the tourney's opening round, turn everything around."
As it stands, NSU is in a tie for third place and a half game out of second place. If the Sharks win out, they'll at least hold a share of second place. Barry, at 6-6, sits one game behind NSU and is still in the running for a second-place seed in the 2014 Sunshine State Conference Tournament. With four games remaining, seeds two through seven are far from being secured.
"We're not focused at all on the league's standings," said Tuell. "I don't think it makes a darn bit of difference if you finish second or you finish seventh. You have to go to the league tournament and beat a lot of good teams to advance, regardless of where you stand at the end of the regular season race. I will say that the league race probably has a little more meaning to Florida Southern, Tampa, Saint Leo and maybe Eckerd and Barry because those teams appear to have the best chance from our league to be ranked somewhere in the top eight or ten in the first regional poll. If Rollins stays hot they could find themselves in that mix, too. We're probably not in the picture because of too many early season losses, so our postseason hopes will probably come down to winning the conference tourney or going home.
"No matter how it ends, we've had one heck of a fun ride this year. And with no seniors and some good additions coming into our program next year, I love our future. We've found a style of play that we enjoy and can have success with. We have the offseason to tweak it and work on making it better. I'm excited about this team's chances of finishing strong and shocking people. But I'm just as excited about what we can do next year if we stay together and work hard in the off-season. Our coaches and players have had so much fun this year. For that reason alone we want to finish the season playing our best. We owe that to each other. This has been the most fun team I've coached in my 10 seasons at NSU, and by far the most competitive and confident group of guys. We're the kind of team that could lose three or four at the end of the year and then go into postseason play and win three or four in a row just because our guys don't get down and believe so much in one another."
NSU is coming off a loss against Rollins, 81-72, which snapped a three-game winning streak. In that loss, NSU allowed Rollins to shoot 51 percent from the floor (26-for-51) and 46 percent from downtown (13-for-28). The Tars also went 16-for-20 from the free throw line.
"We're going to spend the next two weeks trying to find better ways to defend," stated Tuell. "We're very limited because we start five guards and have such a thin bench. There are some things we just can't do well. But we'll focus on the things we CAN do and try to develop those things and improve on those things. We have not been a very good defensive team for the past couple of weeks. We were never an elite defensive team and didn't pretend to be. But we can play much, much better than we have been playing. We're capable of doing way better. With two weeks to go in the season our guys need to focus every day on improving defensively. If we're going to make any kind of run at the end of the year, we'll need to be hard to score against. That point was driven home to our guys in two games this year. We made 21 3's at Florida Tech, and lost. And we made 19 3's at Rollins, and lost. Making 3's is entertaining, it's fun and it's who we are. But you better be able to stop people or you won't play long into the postseason."
Barry enters the game looking to even the season series against NSU at 1-1. These two teams almost always have classics. 10 of the last 11 games between the South Florida rivals have been decided by four points or less. Neither squad has had an advantage, with the series split for three straight seasons. The last time either team won a season series came in 2009-10, when the Sharks won by a total margin of four points.
"Barry will be a great challenge for our guys Wednesday night," said Tuell. "I've always said that they should finish in the top three in the league based on their balance of inside and outside scoring, their tremendous ability to offensive rebound, their speed, quickness, athleticism and not to mention that they are extremely well coached. When we beat them at our place, I think they led us for 39 of the 40 minutes. Juan Ferrales, Deric Hill and Arie Williams give them a potent backcourt. As good as Ferrales and Williams shoot the ball, I just love Hill. I think he's one of the toughest point guards we see all year. Yunio Barrueta is a tremendous inside-outside threat who is one of the league's best athletes, and Magne Fivelstad, Savad Garner and Adrian Gonzalez are very hard to handle inside.
"Barry has had a number of close losses, but when I watch them play – whether they win or lose – I'm always impressed by their team. Their ball pressure on defense, their ability to rebound, their movement on offense, everything they do impresses me. I know how hard they are to beat in that gym and if they're playing well and we're defending the way we have recently, we'll leave with our feelings hurt.
In the first meeting in January, The Sharks came from behind to beat the Bucs, 72-70.
Stian Berg (Jr., Baerum, Norway) had a stellar outing, scoring a team-high 21 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the floor and 5-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. He also collected a team-best six rebounds.
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.) scored 15 points on 7-for-12 shooting. He also tallied four rebounds and tied for the team-lead with four assists.
"I don't say this very often, but how this game is officiated will probably have some bearing on whether we can stay in the game or not," said Tuell. "A lot of teams in this league are very good at getting away with bumping cutters, holding cutters and placing their hands and forearms on both perimeter and post players. It's my understanding that this season was meant to be all about cleaning that stuff up. But I've watched our first game film against Barry a half dozen times and every time I'm amazed at how often they use their hands and forearms on defense. Some officials will call that stuff and some won't. If we can't get those calls then we'll have a long night over there. In their own way, they are as physical defensively as any team in the league. I wish our guys could do that stuff, but I don't know how to teach it. We try to play man defense some, but mostly we just get beat off the dribble or get the ball shoved down our throats in the post. We're going to play more man over the next two weeks than we've played all year, but our inability to legally use our hands and forearms to our advantage is the big reason we've played more zones than man defenses this year. That will probably change in the next two weeks because I'm not happy with sitting back in zones and playing passively while other teams are attacking us with their defense and playing more aggressively than we do. We have to fix that."
Tune into 640 Sports 15 minutes before the game for the pregame show. Fans can watch the game live
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