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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (3-8, 0-1 SSC) return to Sunshine State Conference action Saturday when they travel to St. Petersburg, Fla. to face the Eckerd Tritons (7-4, 0-0 SSC) at 4 p.m. on 640 Sports.
"Eckerd is the same as always," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "They have experienced, talented guards and big, strong, physical post players who wear you out in the paint and pound you on the glass. Defensively they pressure you, occasionally trap you and do everything they can to push you out of your offense. Tom Ryan is an outstanding coach and he has a style and system that he recruits to that has been very effective for a long time."
NSU enters the game looking to repeat last year's efforts at the McArthur Center. The Sharks went into Eckerd as the underdog and left with a 79-74 win. It was Eckerd's worst home loss of the 2012-13 season. The Tritons would return the favor, ending the Sharks' season in the 2013 SSC Tournament quarterfinals, 62-48. Eckerd parlayed their victory over NSU into a NCAA Tournament appearance. The Tritons have won three out of their last four games and will look to build momentum at home Saturday.
"I don't know where we have an advantage in this game," said Tuell. "Their perimeter players are every bit as talented and certainly more athletic than ours. In the post, it's a total mismatch. Unless our inside guys grow a few inches and add about 40 pounds of muscle in the next 24 hours, I have no idea how to keep them from scoring and rebounding in the paint. Even if we pack it in around them they'll probably out-jump and out-muscle us for the ball. And packing it in just opens up the perimeter for Alex Bodney, E.J. Moody and Jerrick Stevenson to shoot the three. They definitely want to attack you inside first, but you can't sleep on their guards. They can shoot and they can all score. And no team in our league is better at driving it and getting to the foul line than Eckerd. We thought the key to beating them last year was keeping them off the free throw stripe. That's easier said than done because of their inside strength and their guards' ability to draw fouls off the dribble.
"It's always tough beating Eckerd, and especially tough doing it at their place. We've done our best with our nonconference schedule to prepare our guys for games like this. We've seen a lot of very good teams and very good players and most of them were bigger, stronger and more athletic than us. Heck, most high school teams are bigger, stronger and more athletic than our guys. We'll do what we do and hope it's good enough to keep us in the game. Obviously we don't have an answer for their size and strength. Ray Darnell, Malcolm Brunner, Josh Snodgrass and Junior McLeod, if he's healthy and back to playing, are just so much bigger and more physical than our guys. And they have a couple other bigs on the bench who will undoubtedly come in there and rough us up. But we're going to see that a lot. Eckerd is big. Rollins is bigger. Barry might be bigger. Florida Tech is biggest. We can't worry about what we don't have or what we can't do. We just have to focus on what we do and try to do it well enough to give them problems."
NSU recently finished arguably the toughest stretch of games any team in the nation has faced. After a historic win over NCAA Division I FIU, 77-59, the Sharks faced three top-15 nationally ranked teams. The Sharks were competitive in every game, but would fall to NCAA South Region Champions No. 4 Florida Southern, 79-73, powerhouse No. 13 Livingstone, 82-65 and NCAA DII National Champions No. 3 Drury, 75-71.
The Sharks' followed one game against national champs with another, facing the NCAA DIII National Champions Amherst on Wednesday. The Sharks gave the Lord Jeffs their 11th loss in four seasons, 105-101 (OT).
Brian Cahill (Jr., Arlington, Va.) returned from a two-game absence to score a career-high 31 points on 9-for-12 shooting. However, his status is still day-to-day.
"Brian Cahill reinjured his ankle in our win against Amherst," admitted Tuell. "We won't know until he warms up Saturday if he can go, but obviously he's an important part of what we do and we need him. Despite our deficiencies and weaknesses, I love our team. They are fun to be with on and off the floor and a blast to coach. They listen and give you their best effort and that's all you can ask from guys.
"Our guys have paid their dues in the non-conference games. They've faced a lot of challenges and competed well. They're prepared to compete in the league. Are we good enough to win any games in the Sunshine State Conference? Who knows. That's why we play the games. But we've beaten a few pretty good teams and hung in there with some of the top teams in the country, so we'll see how we do in league play. It's a great conference. Every team is solid and very good. But we've proven against some non-conference teams that are among the best in the nation that we can be pretty good, too. We're just excited to play and looking forward to the opportunities in front of us."
Tune into 640 Sports 15 minutes prior to the game for the preshow. Online, fans can watch the game via live video
HERE (fee applied), listen via live audio
HERE and follow live stats
HERE.
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