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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team aims for a season sweep of their neighbors to the north, Lynn, with tipoff in Boca Raton on Wednesday scheduled for 7:30.
The Sharks (7-10, 3-6 SSC) and Fighting Knights (9-8, 3-6 SSC) faced off in the second game and Sunshine State Conference opener for each squad on Nov. 18, with NSU prevailing on their home floor, 88-84. The team are now deadlocked in seventh place in the SSC standings, two games ahead of Tampa.
In that matchup,
Casey Carroll (R-Jr., Youngstown, Ohio) and
Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) had 17 points apiece among four double-digit scorers for the Sharks. All told, nine members of the team scored five points or more, and they posted season highs in the game in free throws made and attempted (34-of-43), steals (14) and blocked shots (seven).
NSUSharks.com and head coach
Gary Tuell spoke about the upcoming border battle with the Fighting Knights:
Q: First off, have you and your team finally been able to get some semblance of "rest" (or at least time to recharge) after the last two weeks? GT: "Playing five games in 11 days took a lot out of us. Mental exhaustion was probably a bigger problem than physical exhaustion. We need to find our 'edge' again, and we need to do it quickly, because this week we play at Lynn and at Palm Beach Atlantic. Counting the two this week we'll be playing six of eight games on the road. It's been a tough stretch for our guys, but we're fine."
Q: Saturday was a small bump in the road after winning the previous two games in three days. Harrison Goodrick's (Jr., Sydney, Australia)
play, not only against Saint Leo, but over the last month, is one obvious positive. Other than that, what are some additional positives? GT: "Harrison has played well. He brings it every night. Teams are sending two and three guys at him, playing very physical against him. I'm not sure I've ever seen a big guy take the punishment in this league that he takes. But he's channeling his energy and focus into playing harder and competing and keeping his cool, which is something I don't think I could do if I were taking some of the hits he takes inside. Our freshmen are improving and playing with a lot of energy. Dwayne Gibson Jr. (Indianapolis, Ind.),
Austin Marciniak (Uniontown, Ohio),
Pat Huffine (Indianapolis, Ind.) and
Nikita Orap (Moscow, Russia) have all improved and are at a point where they can come in and give us positive minutes. Our biggest issue is probably finding a rotation where we can get everyone on the floor and get the most from people. The last couple of games we haven't had much of a rhythm with our rotations and we've got to fix that."
Q: All the way back on November 18, you came away with a hard-fought win over Lynn. What do you feel are the biggest differences between your team then and your team now? GT: "We've improved defensively and we're doing a better job rebounding. We're definitely shooting the ball better now than we were early in the year. I watched the film of our first game with Lynn and neither one of us played well. Both teams turned it over too much, both teams made a lot of defensive mistakes. It was sloppy but our guys played with great energy and effort and that's the only reason we were able to pull out a victory. We'll need to do a better job taking care of the ball, tighten up our defense and do a far better job on the boards this time, but in the end we will need to play with passion and energy equivalent to our first game with them. Lately I haven't seen us practice or play with the same energy that we brought into our first game with Lynn. We were listless against Saint Leo, which is to be expected when you play as often as we did the last two weeks. We had better find the energy again for Lynn and PBA or we'll get our feelings hurt."
Q: In that same vein, what can you say differently or the same about Lynn? Like your squad, I'm sure there were a lot of unknowns two games into the year. What are your feelings on their team now? GT: "I think we caught them by surprise the first time we played. I don't know what they were expecting, but I doubt if they thought we would press as much as we did. They have a ton of guys back from last year when they went to the NCAA Tournament and had an easy time beating us both games we played. I don't think their veterans had a lot of respect for us going into the game. Our guys did a great job of matching Lynn's energy and effort level and I think that took them by surprise. We were very aggressive and never slowed down for the full 40 minutes. Lynn is the best offensive rebounding team in our league. When I watch them play, I swear they get two or three shots on every possession. You have to hit them when the shot goes up and you have to compete for every ball or they will have a party against you. They apply a lot of pressure on your offense, do a great job of overplaying the passing lanes and are great in transition. When you play Lynn you better be in attack mode for 40 minutes, because if you don't stay aggressive and confident they will dominate your offense. You either attack them or you wilt, and if you wilt you've got no chance. They have Pavle Raikovic back and playing after missing our game and some other early season games. He makes a big difference for them in the low post because he's such a good scorer down there. They have a lot of weapons and they are relentless. They're going to rebound and they're going to turn you over. You just have to keep grinding. On nights they shoot it well they are very, very difficult to beat."
Q: Finally, on a personal note, you recently celebrated another year around the sun. Happy belated birthday, and what can you say about it? GT: "My birthday comes in the middle of the season and I haven't really had a chance to celebrate one of those for a long, long time. Which is probably a good thing because at my age there isn't a lot to celebrate. I'm so old when I started coaching there was no shot clock, no 3-point line, no alternating possession rule and only two officials instead of three working the games. The pants were short, the socks were long, the shoes were made of canvas and nobody had heard of NIKE. I actually remember them stopping a women's basketball game with about six minutes to play so the men's teams could take the court for warmups. So I'm a little older, but hopefully a little wiser and a little better. I've been very blessed to be able to do what I love for as long as I have, and honestly I'm having more fun coaching today than I've ever had in my life. Give NSU and our Director of Athletics, Mike Mominey, a lot of credit for that, because this is a great place to work and Mike has been tremendously supportive. Mostly, though, it's a credit to the guys I coach and work with.
Jordan Fee and Marquise Kiffin are terrific assistants who make my job easier, and the guys on our team are a blessing to be with each and every day. They keep me young and energized. I wouldn't trade my players for anybody else's players. They're the reason I love coaching as much as I do."
