FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team begins this week's proceedings with a Monday game on the road, before quickly making a second trip two days later, with the matchups against Sunshine State Conference opponents finishing up the first half of the league schedule.
 
The Sharks (5-9, 1-5 SSC) are looking to snap a three-game skid against, first, Florida Tech (7-4, 3-3 SSC) in Melbourne Monday afternoon. The squads will tip off at 2 p.m. Then, just about 50 hours later (Wednesday at 7:30), it'll be NSU at Tampa (5-11, 1-6 SSC), the Spartans sitting a half-game below the Sharks in the conference standings.
 
NSUSharks.com talked to head coach Gary Tuell with these two matchups on the horizon, not to mention a third game on Saturday at home against Saint Leo, which will be previewed later this week:

Q: You mentioned after another close loss how "right there" your team is, and how much they are improving. What is the next step you expect them to take towards getting over that hump?
 
GT: "We're playing well enough to win, but we're falling short time and again. If we're going to take the step from losing to winning we have to eliminate some of the silly, unforced turnovers we're making and we have to do a better job at the free throw line. Believe me, we work on both of those things every day. In almost every loss we've had the lead late or we've come down to the end within one or two possessions of winning and we've failed to execute. Sometimes you feel like it's one of those years where you're snake-bit. You do all you can to get the key defensive stop you need and then a guy who is 0-for-7 throws in a 3 that beats you, or somebody banks in a 3-pointer, or something weird and unexpected happens and there's not a darn thing you can do. Our effort has been good, especially since the holiday break. Our energy has been good most of the season, our guys are battling and giving great effort. But we're not playing together as a team on the offensive end the way we should be. You can point it out to your players, you can show them film, you can do a lot of talking about it and give players a chance to fix it, but in the end, if they don't correct it on their own, then you have to step in as the coach and put guys on the bench who aren't going to make the extra pass or share the ball. You'd prefer they fix it themselves so you don't have to do that, but we may be at that point because we're not fully functional on the offensive end. We're so close. But we – coaches and players – have to do the things necessary to get us over that hump. There's no quit in this group. If that were the case we would have packed it in a long time ago. These guys will keep fighting and keep trying. They know they're close. They haven't lost their hearts or their confidence and we need to make sure that never happens, but we will turn this around at some point."
 
Q: Though there is certainly no such thing as a moral victory, the last three games against tremendously tough opponents have all been 10 point spreads or less, the last two coming down to the final minute. What have you learned about the team's ability to come back and make all three of these games extremely close?
 
GT: "What's a 'moral victory?' It's still a loss. I want our guys to feel good about themselves after a win or a loss because winning and losing should have nothing to do with a person's feeling of self-worth and being a valuable human being. Too many times we define athletes by wins and losses. After the game there's a winner and there's a loser, and if you drop enough games, people want to label you as a 'loser.' But if you play hard and compete your rear end off and you come thisclose to knocking off a ranked team, somehow that's supposed to boost your morale and make you feel better about yourself?  At the end of a game, one TEAM won and one TEAM lost. But the players who play the game should never be defined by the results of a game. It's a society thing. People don't ask how many points you scored. The first question every player and every coach is asked by a fan is 'What's your record?' Consequently, we who compete for a living have a strong sense of self-worth based on the won-loss record. Win and the food tastes better, the air is cleaner, sleep comes easier, life is all sunshine and balloons. Lose and we shuffle around like slugs, heads hung low and shoulders drooped and we feel useless and worthless. It's the worst thing we, as a society, do to our coaches and our athletes who play games for enjoyment and for love and to entertain others. 
 
"Our fans were terrific after the loss to Florida Southern Saturday. Southern came out red hot and put us down 25-10 seven minutes into the game and you had to be wondering if they were going to score 150 points the way they were shooting the ball. From that point on it was an uphill climb for us the rest of the night. But our guys accepted the challenge and they made the climb. We got oh-so-close in the second half. We trimmed it to four, then three, then two, then one. Then Southern spurted ahead by 11 with about six minutes to play and it looked like we were finished. But our guys kept grinding, cutting it to seven, then five, then four, then three, two, one … and with 45 seconds to go we were tied! It was a heck of an effort by our guys against a team that won the national championship last year and had three stars and five very good players back from that team. We're tied with 23 seconds to go when Sheldon Zablotny makes a heroic 3-pointer for them. So what do our fans do when the game is over? A lot of them stood and cheered for our players as they left the floor. The crowd was large and supportive and kept us energized and grinding all night. And when the game ended they acknowledged our guys' effort. That was such a classy move by our fans, I was so proud of them for doing that. Kids should never feel bad about themselves as people because their team loses a game … any more than they should feel that they are special or above reproach just because they won a game. There are a lot of silly ideas out there about the character of people, as if it's defined by who wins and loses a game. It's a GAME! Winning or losing has nothing to do with how a person should view himself when he looks in a mirror.  As coaches, all we can do is try to teach our guys the value of working together, helping one another, encouraging one another, doing your best and never giving up. Win or lose, we have great 'character' guys on this team. That's why I know they will keep grinding and keep working to fix the things that are costing us games. But there are no 'moral victories.' I do think there are 'immoral victories.' I'd define an immoral victory as a team that would do anything to win, including breaking the rules or compromising the values of the university for the purpose of winning. We won't do that. We recruit outstanding student-athletes and we ask them to play together and play as hard as they can and at the end of the day we celebrate their effort – win or lose, as our fans did on Saturday – and appreciate the type of people we have representing our university. I never want my players to define themselves as people by their won-loss record. Winning or losing games is a very shallow way to define a fellow human being. Having said all that, we need to win one of these close games because it's a lot more fun to win than it is to lose. We're tired of coming close."
 
Q: Having this unique Monday afternoon game means for a quicker turnaround than usual. How difficult is it to pick right back up and go on the road less than two days after a grueling Saturday night game?
 
GT: "It's a tough stretch but I'd rather play games than practice and I'm sure our players would too. If we weren't playing at Florida Tech on Monday we'd be practicing, so we don't mind playing four games in eight days. It would be easier if we had won Saturday; I'm sure the guys would have a little more bounce in their steps. It's not an easy week playing Saturday, scrambling Sunday to put together a game plan, then traveling Monday morning to play a 2 pm game in Melbourne, followed by a road trip to Tampa on Tuesday and a game there on Wednesday. It can be tiring, it wears you down. But it's what you sign up for when you play college basketball. We're looking forward to the opportunities in front of us."
 
Q: Florida Tech continues this difficult stretch, with one of the league's top players (especially defensively) in Corbin Jackson. What can you tell us about the Panthers?
 
GT: "Florida Tech is very good, like everyone in this league. Every team in this league is good, including us. Corbin Jackson is not only one of the best players in our league – a terrific low post scorer, rebounder and shot blocker – but he's also one of the nicest, kindest and best young men playing in our league. He is a classy guy and someone I consider a very good friend. I enjoy Corbin on and off the floor and look forward to seeing him and look forward to the challenge of trying to make him have a tough day on the court. Tech has excellent 3-point shooters, like Randy Echols and Sam Daniel. They have outstanding, athletic guards like Jordan Majors and Patrick Anderson. Jermohn Queen, Rafael Casanova, Isaac Spence … their roster is full of good players. They have a ton of talented guys and Billy Mims is a very creative, resourceful coach. We'll have to play extremely well to go in there and get a win. They beat the same good Florida Southern team at Southern that we lost to at home Saturday. That should give you an idea of how good they can be, and they won that game without Jackson.  We have our hands full, but we'd like to think that they do, too."
 
Q: Then, another two days later, you embark on yet another long road trip, this time against Tampa. Though the Spartans have struggled to start the year, no team in this conference is an "easy out," especially on their home floor. How does your squad match up with the Spartans?
 
GT: "My biggest concern about playing at Tampa on Wednesday is our conditioning. That will be our fourth game – and third road game – in eight days. Tampa is athletic, talented and just as good as anyone else in this league. They have a great backcourt and a lot of athletes. Right now, Tampa and ourselves are bringing up the rear in the league standings, but that might not be the case a month from now. Both of us are capable of getting on a roll and winning a lot of games. It will be an important game because the winner can use that game as a springboard to begin climbing the ladder in this league. We have three opportunities in front of us this week with road games at Tech, at Tampa and a home game with Saint Leo. Is this the week we eliminate the little things that have prevented us from winning? Is this the week the breaks start to even out and turn our way? Is this the week our guys take matters into their own hands and turn all their effort and energy and hard work into wins? It's coming. I hope this is our week. Our players deserve a better fate than what they've been dealt so far. My old boss, (retired Hall of Fame Louisville coach) Denny Crum, had a saying: 'You get what you earn in this game.' Most of the time I would agree with him on that. And we've certainly shot ourselves in the foot a few times this year. But we lost a five-point game at Saint Leo that was tied with two to play; we lost a one-point game to Rollins that we led by 14 with five to play; we lost a three-point game to Barry that we led with a minute to play; we lost a five-point game to Southern Saturday that was tied with under a minute to play; and we lost a 10-point game at league-leader Eckerd, ranked sixth in the country, when our starting center, Harrison Goodrick, was ejected with eight minutes to play. We certainly could have done better in all of those games, but the scores show you how close we are to being 5-1 in this league instead of 1-5. It's up to us to change that."