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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team begins the homestretch with a tough home matchup Saturday, facing one of the country's top offensive teams in No. 12 Barry.
 
The Sharks (9-13, 4-9 SSC) are tied with two other teams for seventh place in the Sunshine State Conference, a half-game behind two more, with all trailing the leading Buccaneers (18-3, 10-2 SSC). Tipoff from the NSU Arena will be at 4 p.m.
 
Earlier this season, NSU stormed back on Barry's home floor to take a short-lived lead with just 1:10 left, but eventually fell 89-86. Four Sharks had 15 or more points, with Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) and Troy Spears (So., Martinsville, Ind.) each contributing 20. The Bucs' top scorer, both that night and all season, has been senior swingman Yunio Barrueta. He had 25 aginst the Sharks, right at his average of 25.5. That ranks fourth in the nation, and his squad is the fourth-highest scoring team in DII as well (94.8 per game).
 
NSUSharks.com and head coach Gary Tuell chatted on the eve of the Saturday matchup:
 
Q: With just three SSC games left, you and four other teams are within a half-game of either fifth place or ninth place. Nothing more has shaken out, and two of your remaining three games are against two of three top teams in the standings. Has this been one of the toughest final months in your coaching career?
 
GT: "The schedule certainly doesn't favor us. I feel like we've spent the entire season on the road, and closing the season against Rollins on the road and Barry and Eckerd at home, then going to defending national champ Florida Southern at their place for Senior Night is about as big a challenge as you can give to a team. Rollins, Barry and Eckerd are in a battle for first place so we're going to get their best shots. None of those three can afford to slip up or take anyone lightly. And finishing up at Southern is tough for us. If Dylan Travis hadn't missed so many games with injuries down the stretch, they would have been a little higher in the standings. He makes a huge difference for them, as we saw when we played them here. It's been a tough year because we've had a half-dozen league games that we lost after coming down to the last possession or two possessions with a chance to win. If we had taken care of some of those opportunities we wouldn't be in this position now. We put ourselves in a tough spot and now we've got to find a way to pull off an upset in one or two of the remaining league games.
 
"As I've said many times, this is the most competitive men's basketball league in DII. We're good and we've played really well in a ton of league games. We had a chance to win at Barry. We had a chance to win at Rollins. We had a chance to win at Saint Leo. We had a chance to win at Lynn. We had a chance to win at home against Southern. If you only look at our record you might think we're not a very good team, but we've been very good for a large part of the conference schedule. We just haven't been quite good enough when we've had opportunities to win some of those games. The finishing stretch is tough, but it's been tough every night throughout the league schedule. We just have to gather ourselves and put our best effort out there and see if we can change this around. Difficult tasks take time. Miracles take a little longer. Hopefully our guys are still hungry and see the opportunity in front of them."
 
Q: First time around against Barry, in a tough environment, one could say the Bucs escaped with a three-point victory. Is there any advantage to now playing this same team a month later on your home floor?
 
GT: "There is never an advantage to playing a team as talented and as deep as Barry. In Yunio Barrueta, they have arguably the best player to ever play in this league. There is talk about him being drafted by the NBA and regardless of whether that happens, I'm sure he's going to be in the NBDL or playing somewhere making money next year. He's had three games of 40 or more points and is coming off a 41-point game Wednesday against Florida Tech. But Barry is so much more than Yunio, which is what makes them so good. They have six or seven, maybe even eight or nine guys that would start for just about anybody in our league. We played well at Barry when we stayed with the game plan and took care of the things that you have to do to stay in the game with them. We know what we have to do to have a chance. Whether or not we can do those things against a team that talented is another question. I truly believe they can be the national champions this year, which would be great for our league if we can produce back-to-back DII national champs. But preparing for them is a nightmare and playing them is the ultimate challenge. I'm excited and looking forward to it and I think our players are, too."
 
Q: Since that night, the Bucs have gone 5-1, scoring at least 85 points in each win (and 100 or more four times). What can you say that hasn't already been said about the Barry offense?
 
GT: "I'd pay to watch them play. That's the ultimate compliment a coach can give to another team. The most impressive thing about Barry is how well they share the ball as a team. It's unbelievable that a team with eight or nine guys capable of scoring 20 or more points will share the ball the way they do. Butch Estes has done a great job developing their chemistry. And their best player (Barrueta) has been unselfish. He gets points whenever he wants them, but he moves the ball and keeps his teammates involved. I enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out a way to slow them down. You can't stop them; they have too many scoring options. They score more points in a half than a lot of teams score in a game. I know we can't defend the way we have been lately. We've really had some slippage in our overall defense, and we're trying hard to fix that because we have to play 40 minutes of the best defense we've played all year if we hope to have a chance Saturday."
 
Q: Besides Barrueta, five other Barry players are averaging double digits. Without getting too much into strategy, how can you attempt to either limit him, or focus on all of the other threats they have?
 
GT: "We have a game plan. Whether we can execute the game plan well enough to give ourselves a chance, as we did in the first meeting, remains to be seen. We expect to get their best effort Saturday. They're trying to win the league championship and with Eckerd and Rollins right on their heels, they can't afford to slip up. But we did okay in our first meeting with them. Maybe they took us lightly or didn't respect us enough. For whatever the reason, we led at their place by a point with just over a minute to go. When people want to look at our team or criticize our lack of success this year, they can do that. But if you're going to be fair about evaluating our team you have to give our guys credit for the way we've played the top teams in this league and for the numerous times we've put ourselves in a position to win games where we were clearly outmatched in talent. That's why I love this team. They've battled and they've believed in themselves and they've done a lot of great things. Unfortunately, we haven't finished the deal often enough. As a coach all you can do is hope that you've given your guys a chance to win, put them in a position where they can win, and if they make the right pass or make the shot, you come away with a victory. We had a chance at Barry. We outscored them 48-38 in the second half and not many teams have held them to 38 in a half this year, much less led them with a minute to go at their place. We're not chopped liver; we're a good team. But Barry is a great team, we know that.  We respect them. We just want to play as well as we can and hope we can compete against them one more time. We know how good they are. They may come in here Saturday and blow the doors off the place. They've done that a lot this season. They've hurt a lot of team's feelings this year. I just want us to play as hard as we can, play together, and do our best. If we do that, whatever the outcome we'll live with it and move on to the next game."
 
Q: With each game mattering more and more, how is the team holding up?
 
GT: "I think our team is fine. Someone asked me this morning if I thought our guys had given up or shut down … I don't think so. We did not play well against Tampa Wednesday, but Tampa was terrific that night and they certainly discouraged us. I don't think I did a good job preparing us defensively and Tampa certainly had an uncommonly good night shooting the ball. Maybe that was them, maybe it was us, maybe it was a little of both. But a week ago we went to Rollins, who is ranked and one game out of first place in this league, and we had the ball twice in the final minute with a chance to win the game. Our guys played hard and played well and that was one week ago. So I don't see any signs of our guys letting up or shutting down. I'd be disappointed if this group ever did that. I think our guys are going to fight to the very end of the season. I think we're all going to fight and we're going to keep believing in ourselves. As I said earlier, we're a pretty good team. And we're an improving team. We're much better today than we were a month ago. We have to find a way to win a game or two down the stretch and give ourselves a chance in the postseason tournament because I will always believe in this team's chance to do something special. Hopefully the players feel the same way. I see them every day, and they don't show any signs of letting up. You don't win at PBA, you don't beat Florida Tech, you don't fight Rollins to the wire, you don't fight Lynn to the wire, you don't come from 22 down at Tampa and win, you don't do a lot of things these guys have done and not believe in them. I'm their biggest fan. I believe in this group."