FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team (9-14, 5-9 SSC) will take on the Florida Tech Panthers (14-11, 4-9 SSC) in Melbourne, Florida Saturday at 4 p.m. on 640 Sports. On Monday, the Sharks will face Palm Beach Atlantic (9-14) at 7:30 p.m. in the NSU Arena on Senior Night. NSUSharks.com spoke to Gary Tuell prior to the matchup.
 
Q: The loss Saturday gave NSU their second straight overtime defeat. What has been your message to the team during this rough patch?
 
A: Stay positive, keep grinding, live in the real world by taking responsibility and being accountable for your mistakes so that you can recognize them and fix them in future games. Anytime you lose the number of close games we've lost it's easy to look back as a coach and/or a player and say, "If only I'd done this." I make mistakes and I need to recognize them and learn from them. The guys make mistakes. We don't want a lockerroom of guys pointing fingers. We need to own up for our own mistakes, whether they be a bad shot, a missed block out, an ill-advised pass, whatever. Don't dwell on it, but do fix it so we don't repeat the mistake if we're in that situation again.
 
We've lost two in a row, to Barry and Rollins, in overtime. We've lost a two-point game at PBA, a three-point game to Florida Southern a three-point game to Florida Tech, a three-point game at Eckerd. That's six games that could have been won if we had all done a little more or eliminated a few unnecessary mistakes. We could easily be 15-8 overall and 10-4 in the league right now. Easily. We need to focus on how close we are, how different the world would seem if we had just done a few small things just a little better. I've told these guys all year that we're very, very close to being a really good team. Would we probably be there if Casey Carroll (Jr., Youngstown, Ohio) had not needed back surgery and if Nick Rosa (Fr., Coral Springs, Fla.) had taken care of business in class? Sure. Probably. But we've been good enough to win a bunch of games without those guys if we had just taken care of a few little things. There's still a lot of basketball left in the season and still an opportunity for guys to clean it up. We have to learn from the past and focus on the future.
 
Q: As a fan, us novices live in the moment a little too much. Regardless of the latest results, NSU has two games in three days against teams that defeated them earlier this season. Can wins in the coming days be the spark the team needs going into the tournament?
 
A: The loss to Barry on Saturday was a back-breaker and the kind of defeat that can snowball into an avalanche if you don't have the mental toughness, the courage and the fortitude to keep fighting. What makes a great fighter? His ability to take a punch, maybe get knocked off his feet, but still get up and fight on. Some guys get knocked down and decide they don't want to hurt anymore, so they stay down. Some guys are tenacious and get angry at themselves for getting sent to the canvas, and they can't think about anything else but getting back on their feet and fighting more ferociously than they did before the knockdown. Barry knocked us off our feet. Most of what happened to us in the final minute of that game was our own undoing. Most of our wounds were self-inflicted. Nevertheless, we went down  We did not get back on our feet with the same fight against Rollins. We did not play angry, as they like to say at Wichita State. We did not resolve to make Rollins pay for what happened to us Saturday against Barry. We did not have the eye of the tiger, the heart of a champion or the tireless, indefatigable spirit of a winner. If it exists outside the coaching staff on our team, we better find it in a hurry. If we do, then we can beat anybody. If we don't then we're just another lifeless, heartless team limping to the end of a long season.
 
I love the Monty Python movie where King Arthur goes in search of the Holy Grail and encounters the Black Knight. Arthur and the Black Knight engage in a sword fight and Arthur slices off the Black Knights left arm, to which the Knight responds "Tis only a flesh wound!" Then Arthur slices off the Knight's right arm. "I've had worse," the Knight says. His legs are taken off next and as Arthur and his men pass by the Knight he hollers, "Come back here and get what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!" One of the classic movie scenes of all time, but also an example of the fighting spirit we need now as we head into the next three games. No matter what an opponent does to you, regardless of the harm he lays on you, regardless of your physical state, keep fighting. That's the stuff of a champion. In the Knight's case, perhaps a bit deranged, but you have to admire his will and desire to keep fighting.
 
Q: NSU finds themselves in fifth place, but Florida Tech is knocking on the door. They took No. 1 Florida Southern to overtime and gave Barry a 16 point loss on Wednesday. Is there a catalyst behind this recent run?
 
A: Florida Tech's coach, Billy Mims, is the catalyst. He had the fortitude to sit down veteran starters like Jermaine Jackson and Akeem Johnson when they weren't living up to his expectations and inserted younger, less experienced players who were giving Billy the effort he was looking for. Their season could have gone south, but instead they began playing harder and their performances showed it. Give Jackson and Johnson credit. They didn't fold their tents and pack it in. Eventually they've worked themselves back into Coach Mims' good graces and have performed the way he expected. Their return to the lineup has been a boost for Tech. And the continued improvement of freshman guard Jordan Majors has been an important ingredient for them. I really admire Chris Carter and Corbin Jackson because through all the changes and the growth period, they remained rock steady and did a great job leading their teammates. At least, that's how it appears from an outside observer.
 
Tech has always been one of the most talented and one of the deepest teams in our league. Their talent level is right up there with Barry and Southern and Lynn. There was never any question that Tech was talented enough to beat anyone in the league and establish itself as one of the league's best teams. The question was whether or not they were going to put it all together and play up to their enormous ability. They didn't do it last year when everyone expected it. This year people jumped off their bandwagon early in the conference race, but Coach Mims made the right moves and the players responded and now they're poised to make a run at the Big Three (Southern, Barry and Lynn) in the conference tournament. The way they played against Southern last Saturday (an overtime loss) and the way they handled Barry Wednesday (a 16-point victory) you have to say there's a new kid on the block ready to challenge the guys who have bullied this league all year.
 
Q: The last loss for Florida Tech was a 78-73 defeat at the hands of Palm Beach Atlantic. Is that a program that has turned the corner heading into the SSC next year?
 
A: PBA? I've said all year that they are a very, very good team. Nothing has happened to change my opinion. When they're playing well they are as tough as anybody we've faced. We lost 62-60 at their place earlier this year and I thought we played extremely well, with great effort and passion. It was a terrific game, both teams played hard and played well. It was another case where we lost a game that could have been won had we done a few little things slightly better. PBA has thumped Saint Leo at Saint Leo. They've thumped Rollins. They've beaten Tech. They've beaten us. They've played a bunch of close games against good teams. (Rollins coach) Tom Klusman and I were talking about our league's expansion, bringing in PBA and Embry-Riddle in the future, and we both agreed that the addition of those two teams is only going to make our conference stronger but also it's going to make it that much more difficult to win.
 
Outside the Ivy League or maybe the Patriot League, both in Division I, there's never going to be a level playing field in any conference in DI or DII basketball. Admission standards and philosophies and locations and tradition and all sorts of things go into that, too many to mention here, but Vanderbilt is always going to be Vanderbilt and they are never going to be able to recruit the kind of guys who can consistently compete with the Alabama's and Auburn's and LSU's of the SEC. Northwestern is always going to be Northwestern, and they can't realistically compete year-in and year-out for the same athletes that wind up at Michigan State or Michigan or Ohio State or Indiana. I don't know if Embry-Riddle or PBA can recruit to the level of talent that Southern and Barry and Lynn have on their existing teams, but I do know that they are well-coached and competitive and strengthen the overall body of basketball teams playing in the SSC. We have always had a league where all nine teams are good and the strength and depth of our league has been as good or better than any DII league in America. Nobody – and I mean nobody – in DII has as many quality teams in the bottom half of their league as we have. The addition of PBA and Embry-Riddle won't change that. If anything, they will make overall league stronger and more difficult. There never have been nights off in this league, and adding two more quality basketball programs only adds to the nightmares.
 
Q: Sharks are 2-4 in conference on the road this year, and statistically, the biggest difference between home and away has been on offense (NSU scores over five points less per 100 possessions on the road). With only one home game left, what can NSU do change that narrative?
 
A: I don't know if you can change who you are at this stage of the season. Teams playing at home are a little better rested, playing in front of family and friends, and their effort is usually a little better, their focus a little sharper, and that makes it more difficult to execute when you're on the road. The goals are 10 feet and the court is 50 by 94 everywhere you play, so the difference is in the peripheral things, the things not connected to the court itself. Tough-minded guys and tough-minded teams can overcome those things. I enjoy the challenge of playing on the road. But I'm a guy who loves a challenge. Not everybody embraces challenges the way I do. I understand that. I don't necessarily like it or accept it, but I understand it. You need supreme confidence in yourself and your teammates to take your game on the road and be successful. But there's nothing more satisfying than a bus ride home after a road victory.
 
Q: Monday night is senior night for Brian Cahill (Arlington, Va.), Stian Berg (Baerum, Norway), Maurice Fuller (Westfield, Ind.) and Justin Jeangerard (Weaverville, Calif.). What does this group mean to you and what do they mean to the school they have represented for the last few years?
 
A: Those are four quality young men that anyone be proud to have as a son, a son-in-law, a partner, a friend, a teammate. Class. Character. Humorous. Intelligent. Caring. Compassionate. Sincere. We have been very fortunate as a university, as an athletic program and as a basketball team to have those four guys represent us over the years. And we'll be equally proud as they move on in life because all four of them will be successful in whatever they choose to do. We try very hard to recruit the right kind of people here who will represent our university and our athletic program in the proper manner. So I don't know if it's fair to say we've been lucky or fortunate to have those four guys because they represent all the core values we look for in a young person we recruit. But I do know that I feel extremely blessed to have been their coach, and I look forward to being their friend for the remaining years of my life. They are special young men and it will break my heart when the final horn sounds on their careers. I'm sure I won't be able to properly address them in the lockerroom after the game because they mean a lot to me personally and professionally. The day they leave our program we will all feel the loss for a long, long time.
 
Q: After Wednesday's game, you were quoted as saying, "as a coach all you can do is put your guys in a position where they have a chance to win." You've been coaching collegiate basketball for 45 years. Based off your experience, what can these student-athletes do to end this year on a positive note?
 
A: Well, that's a good question. All any coach can do is give his guys a chance to win games. In the end, the players have to find a way. Make the big shot, secure the big rebound, get the big stop, knock down the important free throw. If your players are committed, and if they're chemistry is good, and if they're good enough, they'll usually find a way. That's been the frustrating part of this season for me as a coach. I truly believe our guys are good enough to finish some of the games we've lost. It usually isn't the end game stuff that wins or loses for you. What goes on in the final minute or two is always remembered and stands out. But you can go back through the course of any game and find where the team was negligent in doing the little things that impact the final outcome in a major way. Taking care of business the first 35 minutes usually prevents you from having to perform under extreme pressure in the final five minutes. But if you're sloppy in your execution and you don't pay attention to the small details in the first 35 minutes, you're playing with fire in the final five.
 
I believe in my players. I believe in their ability to make good decisions and big plays. But I'd like to see us improve our focus for the full 40 minutes on things like blocking out and making the extra pass or giving better effort on contesting opponents' shots. For us to finish the season on a high we need to take care of the things the average fan never notices. Do some dirty work and enjoy the process. We still need to learn how to trust each other and play for our teammates instead of ourselves. When you begin to lose, especially if you're immature, you can lose focus on your team and lose sight of the big picture. You begin to focus only on yourself, again, especially if you're immature. Seniors have to be especially careful because it would be very easy for a senior to say, "What the heck? We're not going to beat this team or that team. We're losing. We're not going to win a league title or a conference tournament. I'm going to get mine. Why not? It's my senior year. I've put in my time. I deserve it."
 
As coaches we have to battle that, try to keep the guys focused on the greater good of the team and the team's goals. You have to do that all the way up to the final second of the season. I need to do a better job of getting Troy Spears (Fr., Martinsville, Ind.) and Mike Chalas (Jr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.) more minutes because they're young and hungry and still want to keep playing. I thought they were terrific against Rollins and probably deserved to play more, especially down the stretch. Same thing in the loss to Barry. As a coach I want to defer to the seniors and the older guys and give them a chance to win the game for us because your heart goes out to them. You care about them personally and deeply and you want to see them enjoy the success for all they've given to the program. But sometimes you need to play young guys more at the end of the season because they're generally more team-oriented and feeling less pressure than seniors. I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer. It probably depends on the situation and the people. But I look at our recent losses as "flesh wounds." Nothing fatal. Hopefully, our players do, too. If they do, then they still have a chance to improve and win some games and accomplish their goal.
 
This is not the time to pack it in. We've been knocked around and knocked down a bit. But not knocked out. We need to fight to the final bell. And hopefully there's enough fight left in us that the final bell is a long, long way off.