FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team (7-10, 3-5 SSC) returns to the road Saturday to take on the Tampa Spartans (11-7, 4-4 SSC) at 4 p.m. on 640 Sports. NSUSharks.com spoke to Gary Tuell prior to the matchup.
Q: Before we go into the win over Saint Leo, can you talk to us about the pregame situation with Harrison Goodrick (So., Sydney, Australia) and how he is doing now? A: I was unaware that Harrison was feeling badly before the game, but I learned later that he had not felt well all day but didn't want me to know because he was afraid I wouldn't let him play in the Saint Leo game. Evidently he began feeling much worse during pregame warmups. I learned about his situation just as the National Anthem was beginning. He had symptoms that mirrored an appendicitis but fortunately it turned out to be less serious, although he did spend the evening in an emergency room while we played Saint Leo. We're just all happy – especially Harrison – that it wasn't his appendix. He will be out for a few days, which probably includes the Tampa game, although we'll wait and see how he is Saturday afternoon before making that decision. We're not going to do anything to jeopardize his health or his chance for recovery.
Q: Despite losing the Sharks' post threat, NSU controlled the entire contest and won, 70-60. What did it take for the small lineup to pull out the victory? A: We have great respect for Saint Leo and coach Lance Randall. They're a first-class team with a first-class, very talented coach. Coach (Marquise) Kiffin and I spent some time studying film, as we always do, and we pretty quickly came to agreement on the three things we had to do with our defense in order to win the game. We went through the game plan with the guys Wednesday afternoon and obviously they did a great job of learning and an equally great job of carrying out the plan. I was really proud of our players' focus and attention to details on both ends of the floor against Saint Leo. As a coach you can draw up a lot of stuff, but in the end you need your players to be disciplined and in tune and giving great effort to make anything work. Our guys were all those things on Wednesday. It was fun watching them play.
Q: Brian Cahill (Sr., Arlington, Va.) played the center role, which was his starting position last year. Does he feel comfortable filling that role or will that always be difficult for him? A: Brian Cahill has never lacked for confidence on the basketball court. He might give up four or five inches and 40 to 60 pounds and he might be playing on a back that's been surgically repaired twice, but you could never convince him that he can't do something on the court. Obviously it's not ideal to have a guy his size anchoring your defense, but he's such a competitive and confident guy that he relishes the challenges. If you ask him I have no doubt he would tell you there are other places on the floor he would rather play, at least on the defensive end, and there other places he can be more effective and have more success. But he's very bright and he usually finds a way to get something good done wherever you position him. There's always the flip side of the coin: he's a nightmare for opposing centers to cover when he's playing that position on the offensive end. As hard as it might be for him on the defensive end, he's a great fit for what we do when he's in the center position on offense. We try very hard to give our centers – whomever they might be – as much defensive support and help as possible in paint. I know he doesn't always love being in that position, but he embraces challenges and loves to compete.
Q: The bench contributed 14 points Wednesday, but that doesn't do complete justice to their entire impact. Besides scoring, what are the things you need from the bench in order to win conference games? A: Without Harrison Goodrick playing we needed Brian Cahill to fill in and compete, which he did. But we also had to go deeper at the center position when Brian got into some foul problems.
Brandon Patchan (So., Tampa, Fla.) came off the bench and did a very good job defensively during his seven or eight minutes.
Justin Jeangerard (Sr., Weaverville, Calif.) also filled in for Brian some and did an admirable job. But we did a nice job as a group defending the post. For us, it's almost always a community effort and I thought our little guys were terrific at digging down and smothering Saint Leo's post guys.
Mike Chalas (Jr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.) and
Troy Spears (Fr., Martinsville, Ind.) came off the bench and played well at both ends of the floor, and both of them hit some timely threes for us. They continue to improve and produce. As much as
Chris Page (Jr., Plainfield, Ind.) and Justin Jeangerard did great work for us on the offensive end, all the other guys filled the seams for us and contributed. There were a couple of stretches in the game where we were getting 3's from all five players, and when that happens we're a nightmare for other teams to guard. We were pretty good at stretching out the defense and finding the driving lanes, too. We looked more like last year's team that at any time this season, and that was nice to see because we were a pretty difficult team to guard a year ago. Hopefully we're moving in the right direction.
Q: NSU previously beat Tampa in December, 86-82. Will the style matchup be similar or has too much time passed to compare? A: Tampa is a much more complete and dangerous team now than they were in early December when we beat them here. They were searching for the right five or six guys to play together. They were still very good, and it was obvious to me when we played them the first time that they were going to end up with a very dangerous team eventually. And they have become that team. Austin Rettig has really stepped up his game. He's coming back from a year off from a knee injury and he's finally playing the way they expected. He and Jordan Davis give them one of the best 1-2 punches on the perimeter in our league. Those guys are really talented and know how to score. If Eugene McCrory isn't the best center in the league, he's certainly in the top two. He can score and rebound and gives them a huge presence around the basket. Matt Johnson and Kyle Middleton do a nice job running the team, allowing Davis to slide over to a shooting guard position which makes them more potent because they essentially have two point guards on the floor at all times and that's a tremendous weapon to have.
Even some NBA teams are starting to play two point guards together and finding out how dynamic you can be offensively when you do that. Johnson and Davis together – or Middleton and Davis – give Tampa a backcourt that can penetrate, dish, score and extend their pressure on defense. Rettig's emergence has made them a three-headed monster in the backcourt. But the key piece for them has been Othniel Shelton at forward. He's the guy who they needed to step up and score, rebound, defend and he's doing all of that. He takes some pressure off McCrory inside. And, of course, if you zone them you're going to get a heavy dose of Tyler Zacur who is one of the premier shooters in our league. They are a very dynamic offensive team and a very solid, pesky defensive team. They run well, they shoot it well, they drive it as well as anyone. They're a very, very difficult team to guard.
The first time we played them our defense was like Swiss cheese … full of holes. We have to close some of those holes if we hope to have a chance Saturday. We have to do a much better job keeping their guards out of the paint or we will have a long bus ride home. They shoot it so well that they get your defense spread out, which opens up the driving lane for those guards. If we don't have Harrison on the back of our defense then we really don't have an effective way of defending McCrory inside or contesting shots when they drive it. If we sag off and clog up the lane we might have some success keeping them out of the paint but we open up the three for them and they can really shoot it. It's a tough matchup for us.
Q: Ultimately, what has been the biggest catalyst in your view to Tampa's success since the holiday break? A: The return to form by Austin Rettig, whom we always loved as a scoring guard, and the emergence of Othniel Shelton as a contributor on both the offensive and defensive end. And of course the reliability of Jordan Davis as a great leader and competitor. He's such a winner. I don't know a guy his size who impacts the game as much as he does. You get the feeling when he's on the floor that their team always believe they have a chance to win.
Q: There are nine teams in the SSC, but only three teams have an above .500 record in conference (8-0 Barry, 7-1 Florida Southern, 6-2 Lynn). Although there have been speed bumps, NSU's 3-5 SSC record puts them tied for fifth overall with Saint Leo and Eckerd. One win on Saturday puts NSU in the top half of the conference standings. Halfway through the conference season, where do the Sharks fit? A: First of all Barry, Florida Southern and Lynn have been dominant teams. Top-20 teams. Maybe top-10 or top-5 teams. None of those three lost a game the first half of the conference race to a team below them in the standings. Lynn lost to Southern and Barry. Southern lost to Barry. And Barry lost to nobody. In the past we've always had one dominant team in the league and maybe two, but I don't remember a year where we had three teams that dominated everyone else. It's really a two-tier race: the top three are fighting it out for first, second and third while the other six teams make up the second tier and are fighting for fourth. If any of the bottom six teams can get a win or two against the top three, that's going to go a long way to propel them to fourth place. The top three – Barry, Southern and Lynn – have just rolled through this league and that's impressive because we've got a plethora of pretty good teams in the conference.
When we're good, we're capable of being the fourth place team. But there are other nights when I think we're a lot closer to ninth than fourth. Unfortunately one team is not going to make the postseason tournament, and that's a shame. If you're in the four through nine spots right now, what you're hoping for and working for every day is 1) win enough games to avoid being the ninth-place finisher who misses the party in Kissimmee; and 2) get on a roll in February and carry that momentum into the tournament where you might have a puncher's chance of winning three in a row and making the NCAA tournament. For us, most of the work we've been doing for the last week is geared toward the end of the year. We're tinkering and toying with things that we hope will give us an edge or a push the final three or four weeks and help us get the necessary confidence to believe we could be that team that gets hot late and goes on a run. Of course, if you tinker and toy around too much thinking about the future you might find yourself losing games in the here and now and miss out on the tournament altogether. So it's a delicate balance for four through nine to find a way to win enough games that will get you into the tournament and also find the elixir that will make you a "magical" team in March.
You've got to know who you are and what you do and devote a lot of time working to improve on what defines your team, and at this point most every team is pretty clearly defined. But you also have to find that something extra, that special ingredient that can take you on a magic carpet ride if you hope to upset any of those top-3 teams in postseason. Barry, Southern and Lynn can take the wind out of your sails in a hurry. We're searching for a Wind Fairy that will take us dancing in March.
