LIVE STREAMING | LIVE STATS FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team, right in the heart of the bunched-up Sunshine State Conference standings, will try to create some space Wednesday against ninth-place Tampa.
The Sharks (9-12, 4-8 SSC) and Spartans (7-14, 3-8 SSC) will battle it out at 7:30 p.m. at the NSU Arena. At this moment, the conference ledger is a veritable traffic jam. NSU, Florida Southern, Florida Tech and Lynn are all 4-8, in a four-way tie for fifth place. While Tampa is currently last, they are 3-8, equal in the loss column with the logjam just ahead of them.
To get to their current league record, the Spartans have won two of three, including a stunner on Saturday over No. 15 Eckerd, who came into the game tied for first in the SSC. They held the Tritons to 30.9 percent overall, just 25 percent in the first half of play, in a 65-52 win.
The Sharks had a brief two-game win streak snapped when they fell on Rollins over the weekend, 78-75, despite making another patented comeback in the final minutes.
Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) scored 22 and
Harrison Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) 21 in the loss.
NSU's largest comeback of the season came against these same Spartans, overcoming a 22-point deficit to win 73-69 on Jan. 20. Goodrick had 22, his second 20-plus-point game of the year (a number that has since ballooned to five).
NSUSharks.com and head coach
Gary Tuell spoke heading into Wednesday's crucial home matchup:
Q: Your team is nothing if not exciting. Generally, no lead is safe for either side until the final buzzer, as evidenced yet again against Rollins. What were positives coming out of Saturday?
GT: "Once again we went down to the wire with a chance to win against one of the top teams in our league. Rollins is in a virtual tie for second place in the Sunshine State Conference and one game out of first place. We had two possessions in the final 45 seconds with a chance to take the lead playing on the road, and unfortunately we turned it over twice. We put ourselves in a position to win, as we have done so often this year. You can't make passes or shoot the ball for them, so as a coach all you can do is try to get them in a position where they have a chance and then hope they make the right decisions and the right plays. You have to be pretty darn good to have a chance to win on the road at Rollins. We had two chances, so we must be pretty good. You don't have the ball, down one, twice in the final 45 seconds with chances to win and not be pretty good. Our guys need to see that and understand that.
"Obviously there were a lot of possessions where we didn't do what we wanted or needed to secure the win, but we certainly played well enough for 40 minutes to give ourselves that chance. I thought
Chris Page was terrific. He moved the ball, got it to the right people and ran our team like a senior point guard should. If guys had made some shots for him, he might have had seven or eight assists because he definitely made plays to give guys a chance to score. He did all that while scoring 22 points on an economic 15 shots, and he had a huge steal late in the game.
Harrison Goodrick was very good again. We probably should have gone inside to him a few more times than we did.
BJ Edwards (So., Fort Myers, Fla.) made some huge plays for us. I thought all the guys who played contributed something positive to the cause. I was very pleased with the way we played together and the way everyone came focused and ready. We had some lapses on the defensive end, which has plagued us all year, but we're improving there and hopefully we will continue to improve over the next three weeks. How many times have I told you, 'We're close'? And the scores reflect that. We've lost five games in conference by 19 points. Basically all those games came down to the last possession or two. With a little better decision making or a little better defensive effort we could easily be 9-3 in the league right now. Rollins is one game out of first and they've beaten us by four points in two games. Barry, who leads the league, beat us at their place by three. We're definitely capable of playing with anyone in this league when we move the ball and defend."
Q: Unfortunately the ending on Saturday did not go in your favor. A lot of good happened in the last three minutes, but a few late possessions did not go as planned. What can you use as learning tools from those last few minutes? GT: "We've won some close games at the end and we've lost some close games at the end. We've played nine league games that were decided by 34 points, so just about every game we've played in league has come down to the last couple of possessions. We probably have played another three or four non-conference games with the same results. What happens at the end of games is always magnified, but it's the things you do – or don't do – in the first 36 minutes, not the last four minutes, that determines most wins or losses. For us, we have had too many games where we didn't focus for the full 40 minutes, especially on the defensive end and on the glass. Everyone remembers the final few possessions, but coaches remember things that happened in the first half and early in the second half that have a large part in the final outcome of a game. We're a young, immature team and at times that shows up in most of our games. But I do think our guys are finally understanding the value of playing together and trusting one another. I do think we're playing together much better than we were a few weeks ago.
Chris Page is a perfect example of that. He's moving the ball, trusting his teammates more, involving everyone in the offense, and still managing to score. It's tough when you have the ability to score the way Chris does and turn down shots to move the ball to a teammate. But he's doing that now and we're a much better team because of it. On the flip side, we all need other guys to step up and make shots when Chris makes plays for them. I compare it a lot to Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Steph can make plays for himself whenever he wants, but he involves everyone in the offense and because he does their team is much better. Of course, it helps Curry that guys make some shots when he makes a play to get them the ball. If they missed all the time, Curry might not have the same confidence in them and their team might not function quite so well. We need our other guys to knock down shots and reward Chris for his unselfish plays. He made a ton of great plays at Rollins but came out of the game with zero assists. It wasn't because he was turning guys down; he needs to keep making those same plays and trust his teammates and eventually they will reward him. Again, we're very close to being very good. The good thing is that we're learning and trying hard to do the right things and we're moving in the right direction, despite the outcomes. No one in our locker room has given up on this team or this season. If anything, we feel better about ourselves now than we have all year."
Q: The usual suspects continued to perform (Goodrick and Page), to go along with big moments by youngsters Edwards, Gibson and Stookey. Are you still searching for the right combination? You seemed to be more liberal Saturday with your rotation than in recent games. GT: "I think I addressed some of that in the previous question, but yes, we're using more guys because we have more guys who are working hard in practice, improving, and earning the opportunity to play.
Jordan Stookey (So., Warsaw, Ind.) is a prime example. He's always been a very smart, very underrated player, but his work ethic the past couple of weeks has really improved which makes it easier for me to want to play him. The four freshmen – Dwayne Gibson (Indianapolis, Ind.),
Austin Marciniak (Uniontown, Ohio),
Pat Huffine (Indianapolis, Ind.) and
Nikita Orap (Moscow, Russia) – have improved and it shows up in practice every day. I enjoy giving them opportunities to play because we all have more confidence in them doing good things when they get the chance. We're not a team that's going backward, and at this time of the year there are a lot of teams that stop improving or stop going forward. So far, our guys have continued to work and grow together and that includes all of them. It's hard to play everyone and even harder to play everyone a ton of minutes. Players all think they should play; parents all think their kids should play … I understand that. But I have to make choices based on how guys have worked in practice and how much I think they can help us win games. You always want to reward them for their effort in practice if they're giving good effort. And if you give them opportunities in games you hope they all make a positive contribution so you can reward them with more playing time. Obviously there is a pecking order, and with a lot on the line in these games it's natural to lean toward rewarding the older guys first. But they have to earn that right in practice and by doing the right things on the floor just the way the younger guys have to earn it. I like our guys and I like our team. When we're playing together and when the bench is enthused and bringing energy I think we can beat anybody, regardless of who we put on the floor."
Q: It was a bit of a missed opportunity in the grand scheme of things, as the SSC standings became even more bunched up, with four teams now tied for fifth place. The conference is always ultra-competitive, but is it even more so this year? GT: "I think this is the deepest our league has ever been in top to bottom talent, and one thing that has always separated the SSC from other leagues has been the fact that our bottom teams are so strong. There has never been a cupcake team in this league. I have no doubt that any of our bottom five teams could finish first or second in some other DII leagues. Right now we have Barry, Eckerd and Rollins who are 1-2-3 in the league and separated by one game in the loss column. Saint Leo is sitting in a pretty good place at fourth, two games out of second place in the loss column. Then you have five teams who are in a virtual deadlock for fifth place because we're all tied in the loss column. It's a shame one of them is not going to make it to the postseason. But all five teams have a chance to win their way into the conference tournament. We also have two provisional members in the league, Palm Beach Atlantic and Embry Riddle, who have had good years. We all play PBA and Embry home and away, although the results of those games don't count in the league standings. I wish they did, because we're 3-0 against them so far and would be solidly locked into fifth place right now if the games against those two teams counted.
"If you counted the provisional games, here's what the standings would be today: 1.) Barry 11-3; 2.) Eckerd 11-4; 3.) Rollins 10-4; and 4.) Saint Leo 10-5. So the top four teams would be the same with or without the provisional games counting. But if those games counted there would be more separation from 5 through 11. For example, the standings for 5-11 would be this: 5.) NSU 7-8; 6.) PBA 7-8 (but we beat them twice so we would have the tie-breaker there); 7.) Embry Riddle 6-8; 8.) Lynn 6-9; 9.) Florida Tech 5-10 and Florida Southern 5-10; and 11.) Tampa 3-11. Unfortunately for us, those provisional games don't count so we have a lot of work to do in the next three weeks to try and gain some separation from some other teams. And it won't be easy with the top two teams – Barry and Eckerd – still left on our schedule, as well as Tampa at home and Florida Southern on the road the last day of the season in a game that might have a huge impact on who makes or doesn't make the postseason tournament.
Q: Just three weeks ago, you visited Tampa in what was yet another odd finish, a 22-point comeback win. Then again, Tampa just beat Eckerd, who started out the year 8-0 in conference play. What more can you say about the Spartans? GT: "Tampa is a very good team. Everybody in this league is a very good team. Tampa may be the best defensive team in the league, although you can easily argue in behalf of Eckerd and a few other teams. But look at what Tampa has done since we pulled out a miracle win up there: A 59-58 loss to Rollins; a 66-60 win at Florida Tech; a 59-58 loss at Embry Riddle; a 65-52 win over Eckerd. They've given up 59, 60, 59 and 52 points in their last four games, and they gave us fits at their place until our freshmen came off the bench to knock down some huge threes that sparked our comeback. Finding points against Tampa's defense is tougher than finding an honest politician. They held us to 24 points in the first half at their place and that was more about their defense than our offense. I think when they pushed the lead to 22 with 13 to play they probably relaxed and thought the game was over, which is something I can relate to do because I've seen our guys do the same thing. But Austin, Nikita and Harrison went 8-for-10 on 3's in the final 13 minutes and I think that took them by surprise. Once we had the momentum and the energy going, there wasn't much they could do to stop it. We were very fortunate that day. We know we can't afford to fall behind by 22 and expect to win. We need to be much better this time, but we will. We're a better team now than we were then. We respect them but we'll be ready to play."
