FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team (11-14, 6-9 SSC) will take on the Saint Leo Lions (13-14, 5-10 SSC) in St. Leo, Florida Saturday at 4 p.m. on 640 Sports. NSUSharks.com spoke to Gary Tuell prior to the matchup.
 
Q: Scheduling Palm Beach Atlantic for Monday night after a Saturday road trip was a risk/reward plan that seemingly paid off. Are you resting the team at all this week with no game until Saturday?
 
A: If the only risks you take in life are sure things and don't have a consequence, then what's the point of taking risks? We tell our players to take some risks on the court because we want to be the aggressive team. You have to have confidence in your players and trust them to be confident in themselves and in their teammates, give them the freedom to roll the dice sometimes. When we scheduled PBA for Monday night, following a road game on Saturday, I knew it was risky because we wouldn't be able to practice on Sunday before the game. But at this stage in the season I also knew that most of the preparation work for the game could be done in a 90-minute walk through and film session on game day. You have to have confidence in your guys that they will tune in for those 90 minutes and soak in the important stuff.
 
We have a mature group of guys and I wasn't worried about playing Monday without a day to prepare on Sunday. Maybe it was risky, but if you want to coach aggressively and play aggressively you have to be willing to take some risks. Monday's game against PBA was Senior Night for Stian Berg (Baerum, Norway), Justin Jeangerard (Weaverville, Calif.), Maurice Fuller (Westfield, Ind.) and Brian Cahill (Arlington, Va.). I knew they would come to play. They didn't want to lose in their final home game at NSU. Besides, it was a non-conference game so winning or losing would not matter in the league standings. And by playing Monday night we were able to take off Tuesday and still have three solid days to prepare for our game at Saint Leo Saturday. Saint Leo has to spend Monday and Tuesday preparing for their matchup with Eckerd on Wednesday. Playing PBA Monday gave us an extra day, a Wednesday, to prepare for Saturday's game and I felt the risks by playing on Monday were miniscule compared with the potential gain in extra rest and extra preparation time for Saturday. Of course, we wanted to win Monday night and you never know. But I was confident our guys would come to play with or without preparation for PBA. PBA was probably better prepared for us than we were for them, but in the end our seniors wanted to win badly enough that they made the risk pay off.
 
The other factor to consider is that this is both final exam week for 8-week courses and mid-term week for 16-week courses. I wanted to get the PBA game out of the way early in the week to leave our guys an opportunity to concentrate on their exams this week.
 
Q: A week ago the Sharks had a problem closing games, falling in overtime in back-to-back games. You said postgame that you showed them some eye-opening stats, how did the team react to that information?
 
A: We showed them our team and individual stats from the final five minutes of all games, as well as the final five minutes of conference games and broke it down even further with the final five minutes of conference games won and conference games lost. It was sobering stuff. The stats got their attention and definitely opened some eyes. I'm pretty sure it made some of them angry to see how poorly we had executed at the end of games. When you put the cumulative totals in front of them there's no dodging the numbers on the paper in hand. There's no room for excuses. The best part of the exercise was that players took responsibility, held themselves accountable, and determined to fix the things that were getting us beat. That took tremendous resolve and maturity on their part. There was a different "feeling" in huddles at the end of our wins over Florida Tech and PBA. You could sense it from the players. They were on a mission to close both games the right way and you could see it in their eyes, feel it in their body language.
 
I can honestly say this group gets it. They have finally grown to the point where they not only refuse to lose, but they have a confidence and a will to finish games off the right way. That doesn't mean you're always going to be successful, but at least you're giving yourself a chance. We've been searching for that ingredient all season and if the last two games are any indication, and I think they are, we're definitely learning how to win. I tell them all the time that players win games. Coaches can only put them in a position to win, but in the end the players have to make the plays that determine the outcome. So all the credit for their turning it around goes to our players.
 
Q: You also mentioned the guys having a "refuse-to-lose" attitude. Can you expound on that and how it's translated to successful?
 
A: Forgive the old coach, but let me wax nostalgic for a minute. I remember years ago when I was working at the University of Louisville. Jim Zerilla was the baseball coach then, and I think it was 1975 or 1976… one of those years… he had a terrific team, a bunch of really funny, great guys, a cast of characters who were always loose and tremendously confident. We had a great power hitter, Jim LaFountain, who once hit five home runs in a game including three grand slams and two grand slams in one inning! Still an NCAA record. Our Louisville team advanced to the final of our conference championship where we met Tulane, which was loaded with major league prospects on their pitching staff and had a tremendous team. The winner was going to the NCAA tourney and the loser was going fishing, as Charles Barkley likes to say.
 
Coach Zerilla and I were friends and I had a chance to go to the game and sit in the dugout with his team. I was close with some of the players on the team because I took an occasional afternoon off and went to their practices, shagged fly balls in the outfield during BP and just hung around them because they were fun and special. In the game with Tulane, we struggled to scratch out hits against their pitchers. They kept us in check the entire game. But nobody got down, nobody lost confidence, nobody believed we could be held back for nine full innings regardless of how well Tulane pitched it. There was a positive spirit throughout the dugout, and even going into the final inning when we trailed by three runs, our players maintained that attitude. We needed a LaFountain dinger in the most desperate way, but he was due up seventh in the inning and it didn't look good. But our guys are determined to give him a chance. They refuse to give in. Next thing you know we get on base with a walk, somebody beats out an infield single, we make a couple of outs and are down to the our last chance and – refusing to lose -- we manage to load the bases.
 
We found a way to get to the seventh man in the batting order and who comes up but Jim LaFountain. Down three but bases loaded and Jim at the plate. Rally caps turned backwards and inside out. It was one of the most dramatic moments I've witnessed in college sports. Jimmy finally gets the pitch he's looking for and he hits a mammoth high fly ball to the deepest point in the ball park. Every guy in that dugout knew the ball was leaving the park because they played the game for nine innings with the confidence that somehow, some way, they would find a way to win, they would refuse to lose. The ball never left the park. It died in the wind and the Tulane centerfielder caught the ball, his back pressed against the wall, for the final out. We didn't win that game but it was a tremendous learning experience for me personally because I saw what could happen when everyone believed in each other, when guys refused to give in to superior pitching, when players stayed loose and confident and believed in one another and trusted that somehow they'd find a way. 
 
When the last inning came and they were three down and Jim LaFountain was the seventh guy up in the lineup it didn't look good. But nobody flinched. Guys did everything they could possibly do to find a way to get on base, to extend the game, to give their big hammer a chance to deliver one more home run. Maybe Jim's fly ball didn't leave the park, didn't result in a grand slam to send us to a championship, but he gave it his very best effort. He didn't go down swinging, pop it up to first base or hit a bleeder back to the mound. He gave that sucker a ride and unfortunately the ball died at the fence. But for that game, for that inning, for that moment, you could see what was possible when everybody in the dugout believed in each other and refused to lose.
 
If we go down, we're at least going to go down with our best guy doing what he does best. That's the spirit and the attitude that I never forgot and that I've always wanted my teams to play with. Be loose. Be confident. Trust one another. Do it together. Do your job and trust the big gun to step up and give you his best shot to get you home. It was beautiful to watch. All great teams play that way. All great teams believe they can find a way to win regardless of what's gone on throughout the game. All great teams have that attitude that they refuse to lose, refuse to give in to the circumstances or the opponent, no matter how mighty or dominant he might be.
 
There are no greater song lyrics ever written than these: "To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave never go. To right the unrightable wrong, to love pure and chaste from afar, to try when your arms are too weary, to reach the unreachable star. This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far…"
 
This is what sports is all about. This is what life is all about. Where better to embrace those challenges and learn those lessons and experience those feelings than in sports standing alongside people you've grown to trust and love and care about over the course of a season or the seasons of your life. The last shot doesn't always go in. Sometimes the long fly ball to centerfield dies on the warning track when a cruel wind stops its momentum. But if you gave it your best effort and fought to the end, then you learned the lesson of refusing to lose. Regardless of the outcome, you're a winner.
 
Q: Despite Saint Leo's overall and conference record, they are 9-5 at home. What makes the Marion Bowman Center such a difficult place to play?
 
A: I don't think the Bowman Center is any tougher a place to play than anywhere else. What makes the Bowman Center a tough place to play? That's easy. The guys wearing green and gold uniforms, the Saint Leo players, who are always disciplined and mentally tough and extremely well-prepared. And the other thing that makes the Bowman Center a tough place to play is Lance Randall, who is as fine a coach as we have in our league, and that's saying a lot because our league is filled with great coaches.
 
Q: NSU previously beat Saint Leo, 70-60. What was key to that victory for the Sharks?
 
A: We shot the ball extremely well that night. I think we were 14-of-32 on 3-point shots, and anytime we shoot it like that we give ourselves a great opportunity to win. Chris Page (Jr., Plainfield, Ind.) had a big scoring night which helped us, but we also had a lot of guys who pitched in, including Troy Spears (Fr., Martinsville, Ind.) and Mike Chalas (Jr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.) off the bench. It was one of the best games we've played this year, a game where we shared the ball and had a lot of people involved offensively. Most importantly, though, we had a great focus on the defensive end. Our guys worked very hard to take away some of the ways Saint Leo attacks zones. We did a good job of helping each other and smothering the ball in the paint. And we did a reasonable job of recognizing shooters and not allowing their best shooters to get a ton of open looks, which is something we're not always good at doing. Our focus and teamwork on defense that night was exceptional.
 
Q: Saint Leo pounded the paint in that game, only making three shots from distance before the break. Are you expecting that same style Saturday?
 
A: I have no idea what Saint Leo's game plan will be. I can't control that and I'm learning as I get older not to sweat the things I can't control. It's wasted energy. And it produces negative thoughts. When you stop trying to control everything, you free yourself up to enjoy your own players and focus on doing what you can do instead of worrying about the things you can't do. Thanks to Harrison Goodrick (So., Sydney, Australia), we're pretty good at defending the ball in the paint. He's got great feet, he's very active and very smart and he gives us a chance to play a very unique zone that not a lot of people are used to seeing. But other than Harry, we're not big or physical inside. The last time we played Saint Leo, Harrison was in the hospital which could have given us problems inside, but looking back, may have worked to our benefit. It may have disrupted their defensive game plan having to go against five guards instead of whatever they planned to do with Harrison in the game. And it may have sharpened our defensive focus because everybody had to step up in his absence and give a supreme effort to help us defend the paint. When we're focused and playing with energy and effort we do a decent job of smothering the post, getting deflections and digging the ball out of there. Offensive rebounds have hurt us a lot at times this year, but that's an issue we've addressed time and again and I think our guys are starting to understand the importance of blocking out and limiting our opponents' second chances. Saint Leo will have a great game plan – they always do – and we'll have to make adjustments. We can't control what they do, but we can – to the extent that our players give the right effort – control what we do.
 
Q: Outside of a win, what can the Sharks gain the most from this regular season finale?
 
A: Our players, and especially our four seniors – Justin, Mo, Stian and Brian – along with their injured sidekick, Casey Carroll (Jr., Youngstown, Ohio), have done a tremendous job pulling the team closer together and keeping everyone's focus on our team goal, which is to win the conference tournament in March. I love our team chemistry right now, and that's a credit to the work our leaders along with Chris Page and Harrison Goodrick have done off the court. The entire team is building a trust in one another and coming together at the right time. Guys like Jonathan Back (So., Carlisle, Ohio) and Mike Chalas and Troy Spears and Remi Farrell (So., Woodbridge, Conn.) are so important to what we're doing because everyone has a role to play and a job to do and these guys are all finding their own ways to help us.
 
Winning and losing are irrelevant to playing together and giving our best effort and staying loose, happy and close as a family regardless of the outcome of games. We think we can finish fifth in the league with a win Saturday at Saint Leo, and that's important only in that we managed to finish the season on a win streak and get the highest seed available to us. But if we lose Saturday and finish somewhere other than fifth, so be it. We can't control what other teams are going to do or where they are going to finish in the league race. We don't have to worry about it one way or another because we're going to finish where we're supposed to finish and we're going to play the first round opponent in the tournament that we're supposed to play. The basketball gods will determine who we play. Saturday is an opportunity to play together one more time as a team, enjoy senior day for Saint Leo's seniors, have some fun, work as hard as we can together, grow a little closer and take what we learn – the good and the bad – and hope it makes us better for the tournament.