FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team is set to begin its 2013-14 season with two road exhibition games this coming week against Marian on Sunday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m. and NCAA Division I powerhouse Butler on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Both games will broadcast live on Radio X 88.5 FM.
NSU figures to be a long shot to finish among the leaders in the Sunshine State Conference this year. "We say it every season, but it's true. From top to bottom, this league just continues to get better and better. The talent level of the players and coaches in the SSC is extraordinary," says head coach
Gary Tuell, who enters his 10th season as the Sharks' head coach. "I don't think the media in Florida, or basketball fans in this state – even our own players who go to war every night against each other – have a proper understanding or appreciation for the coaching talent in this league. Do you realize the nine head coaches in our league have about 200 years of head coaching experience between them? For their careers this group probably has as many or more Coach of the Year awards, conference championships and NCAA tournament appearances than any group of coaches in any NCAA Division II league in America. There's a reason why this league is rich in talent and parity and continues to grow and have success on a national scale. And that reason is the remarkable talent of the head coaches in the SSC. Somebody needs to sing the praises of these guys."
Silence… So Tuell took it upon himself to do the singing.
"Tom Klusman, in his 34th season at Rollins, 12 seasons of 20 or more wins, eight conference championships, six SSC tournament titles, nine NCAA tournaments, over 600 wins and 25 or more winning seasons. A lot of people don't know this but Tom didn't win his first conference championship until his 11th season at Rollins. But he's owned the 21st century with six regular season and three conference tournament titles. So much for the theory that coaching is a young man's game.
"Richard Schmidt at Tampa, in his 31st year there, 27 or 28 winning seasons – so many that I've lost count. Over 600 wins, 15 NCAA tournament appearances, eight conference titles, five SSC tournament championships, a state high school championship as a young head coach in Kentucky. Two years as head coach at Vanderbilt in the SEC and an assistant coach at Virginia in the ACC. Coach Schmidt and Coach Klusman have been battling each other longer than the Hatfields and the McCoys.
"Butch Estes is in his first year at Barry, but if my math is right he's been a head coach at least 30 years and won almost 500 games at some of the toughest places in America to win. And I believe Butch has won at least one Coach of the Year award at every school he's coached, which is saying a lot because he's coached a lot places. He comes to Barry after going 80-14 in three years at Palm Beach State in the JUCO ranks. But Butch has been a highly successful coach at the DII level at Presbyterian and the DI level when he was the head coach at Furman.
"Billy Mims at Florida Tech. I think this is Billy's 27th or 28th season as a head coach and he's won over 200 games in college and over 300 games as a professional head coach in Europe. He led Tech to the league's regular season title and an NCAA tourney berth in 2011-12 and scared the pants off people with the way his team finished so strong last year. If he's not the winningest coach in FIT history already, he will be sometime early this season.
"Tommy Ryan, in his 19th season at Eckerd. How can that be? I swear he doesn't look a day over 30! Tom has aged so gracefully that he's gone from one of America's great young coaches to one of America's great middle-aged coaches. He has over 300 wins already, including both a regular season and post-season SSC championship. He's way ahead of the curve when it comes to NCAA tourneys. He's already taken eight of his Eckerd teams to the tournament and been a model of consistency every year.
"The first time Jeff Price was Lynn's head coach back in the early and mid '90s all he did was go 134-44 and stood the SSC on its collective ears by winning 20 of 28 games in conference and nearly winning the NCAA DII national title. In 17 seasons as head coach at Lynn, Georgia Southern and South Alabama he's won almost 300 games, been to eight national tournaments and posted seven 20-win seasons. Nobody outside of Boca Raton is happy to see Jeff back in the league, but it's great for the SSC.
"Linc Darner has had so much success at Florida Southern it's almost nauseating. In seven seasons as their head coach he's won four regular season conference titles and four post-season tournament titles and gone to the NCAA tournament six times. Before coming to Southern he worked the same magic at NCAA DII St. Joseph's in Indiana, which is a job nobody wanted before Linc taught them how to win. He's won 230 games in just 11 years as a head coach, including 156 in seven seasons at Southern. Do the math. The guy is winning over 20 games a year. Last year he took Southern to the NCAA Elite Eight. If there's an NCAA DI team that wants to turn its program around they should hire Linc, and believe me the other eight coaches in the SSC will gladly chip in to pay his moving expenses.
"Last but certainly not least is Lance Randall at Saint Leo. Former DI assistant coach at Saint Louis and Loyola of Chicago, former associate head coach at DIII Wisconsin-Stevens Point where he helped them win the 2010 national championship, a couple of state championships as a head high school coach in Wisconsin. All he's done in two years at Saint Leo is not only make them relevant, but make them champions. They shared the regular season title this past year with Florida Southern, and in two seasons at Saint Leo Lance has gone 40-20 overall and 22-10 in the league and been to two straight NCAA tourneys. Now that the great one, Cesar Odio, has retired at Barry, Lance probably inherits the unofficial title of 'best defensive coach' in the SSC. The numbers would certainly back that up. He's done just a remarkable job in two seasons, turning the league upside down.
"How can you do a season preview of any team in this league without talking about the talented coaches you have to compete against night in and night out? Find me another NCAA DII league in America that has both the coaching talent and coaching experience that you find in the Sunshine State Conference," says Tuell. "It truly is remarkable to find all this coaching talent in one nine-team league. Look, in DII we mostly work in total obscurity. There's no Dick Vitale announcing games. No TV lights, no 20,000-seat arenas filled to the rafters. No 'One Shining Moment' at the end of the season. Just nine very good teams competing their tails off against each other and great coaches with great success in their careers matching wits and doing their best to scratch out a win.
"What sets the SSC apart from other NCAA DII leagues is the remarkable legacy of those eight men," Tuell adds. "As long as we have that kind of coaching talent in our conference, the SSC will be the cream of DII basketball. Of course, great players make great coaches, and our league is full of talented and experienced players this year. This is my 10th season in the league and I've never seen so many talented teams. On paper, I understand why people believe our NSU team is a long shot in the SSC."
Tuell's praise of the league was backed up statistically, when the newly founded Bennett Rankings placed the Sunshine State Conference as the toughest league in the nation for both men and women's basketball. The ranking was based solely off statistics, with no other league fairing stronger than the SSC from top-to-bottom.
If the long-shot Sharks, picked seventh in the SSC preseason poll, are to crack the upper division of the SSC they will do it with the long shot – the 3-pointer -- which figures to be NSU's best weapon against a loaded league. The Sharks return only four players from 2012-13, but those four players – all juniors – have one thing in common: remarkable accuracy when shooting the three-pointer.
Brian Cahill (Jr., Arlington, Va.), a 6-4 guard, made 40.2 percent of his three-point attempts last year on 43-of-107 shooting.
Maurice Fuller (Jr., Westfield, Ind.), a 6-1 guard, connected on 42 of 105 three pointers for an even 40 percent.
Stian Berg (Jr., Baerum, Norway), a 6-2 guard, converted 26 of 62 3-pointers for 41.9 percent. The Sharks' top returning marksman is 6-3 guard
Justin Jeangerard (Jr., Weaverville, Calif.) who nailed 45 of 106 treys for 42.5 percent. As a team, the 2012-13 Sharks were especially accurate in league play. In 16 conference games, the Sharks led the SSC in overall field goal percentage (46.8), 3-point field goal percentage (42.2) and total 3-pointers made (166 or 10.4 per game). Jeangerard was a conference-best 50 percent on 3's (28 of 56), while Cahill was third best in the league (44.9 percent on 31 of 69 attempts) and Fuller finished 10th best in conference play (28 of 68 for 41.2 percent).
"Statistics have proven that individual 3-point shooting is very unpredictable from year to year, perhaps the least predictable stat in all of college basketball," says Tuell. "But we know going into this season that our four returnees are all capable shooters. Anytime you have four players shooting over 40 percent on threes you have a weapon that keeps you in games. I don't know if our newcomers can post similar stats, but I do know we've recruited a few guys who are capable of shooting at a pretty high clip."
Tuell's 10th NSU squad returns only 33 points and 13 rebounds from last year's 15-12 team that finished sixth in the SSC with a 7-9 record. NSU is the only SSC team without a senior on its roster. Five Sharks newcomers are freshmen who've never played a college game. Two transfers –
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.) and
Casey Carroll (So., Youngstown, Ohio) – have NCAA DI experience, but just barely. Both were redshirt freshmen who played a combined 41 minutes all last season. Three of the top five scorers on NSU's 2012-13 squad that won five games against top 25 opponents, including an upset of then seventh-ranked Southern Indiana, have graduated. Those three include 6-6 Iran Hollis, who led the Sharks in scoring and rebounding (12.4 and 6.7), 6-5 Luke Roesch, second in scoring and fourth in rebounding (11.4 and 4.3) and 6-5 Sean Mullan, fifth in scoring (7.6). The Sharks' leading returning scorer and rebounder is Cahill (10.3 points and 5.0 rebounds).
"Our four juniors – Berg, Cahill, Fuller and Jeangerard – are a joy to coach," says Tuell. "My only complaint with them both individually and as a group is that they are too inconsistent. The way we share the ball makes it very difficult for one guy to have big scoring nights on multiple occasions. But sometimes those four guys are unselfish to a fault. They need to own the floor every day in practice and in games, and trust me, they're capable of doing that. We're looking for more consistent efforts from all four of them at both ends of the floor. They need to play more aggressively, attack more on the offensive end and be more accountable on the defensive end.
"I like our guys. They definitely fit into the academic mission of the university, and – in time – I'm confident they can be successful players in our league. But there's no substitute for experience and it's going to take time for some of these guys to transition from where they were to where they need to be to compete at this level."
Page and Carroll, NSU's two NCAA DI transfers, should find the transition easier than their five freshmen teammates. Tuell expects Page and Carroll to join Cahill, Berg, Fuller and Jeangerard in some kind of regular rotation. The 6-6 Page comes to NSU from the University of Albany, while the 6-7 Carroll joins NSU after signing originally with Drexel. "Chris is a skilled guard who should be solid at both ends of the court for us," says the NSU coach. "And he's a very capable shooter. Casey does a lot of things well, including playing inside and outside. We think he's a great fit for us and brings a lot of athleticism to our frontcourt."
Of the five remaining freshmen, 6-6
Mike Terry from the Ashland, Ky., area, and 6-6
Cameron Denney from Ft. Wayne, Ind., figure to see plenty of playing time early. "When you add those two freshmen, Mike and Cam, with the two sophomore transfers, Chris and Casey, and blend in the four returning juniors in Brian, Mo, Stian and Justin, we feel we have a solid group of eight guys who can play multiple positions and give us a dangerous 3-point shooting team with some length and overall size. We're not very big, but we're long and more athletic than we were a year ago.
"Mike Terry can score in a variety of ways," says Tuell. "He was a prolific scorer in high school in Kentucky. Cam is one of those guys who does a lot of things and gets points in different ways. He's not great at any one thing yet, but he's very good at a lot of things."
Tuell's other three freshmen – 5-11
Cole Feaster a point guard from Manhattan Beach, Calif.; 6-7
Brandon Patchan a forward from Tampa, Fla.; and 6-6 forward
Remi Farrell a preferred walk-on from Woodbridge, Conn. – will contribute off the bench and have opportunities to work themselves into greater roles as they progress. Rounding out the roster is
Ryan Steed (So., Miami, Fla.), an incoming guard and former local talent at Dade Christian HS. "I like all three of those kids," says Tuell. "We will definitely play them early on. How many minutes they play and how much they contribute will depend on how fast they pick things up and how well they defend. They're not as far along as the other eight guys, but they're going to play. We're going to throw them in the pool early and see if they sink or swim.
"We're diving into the deep end of the pool right from the start by playing an exhibition at Butler, opening the regular season at home against top-ranked West Liberty and playing both the defending NCAA DII (Drury) and DIII (Amherst) national champions," the coach points out. "And just about everyone else on our schedule went to the NCAA tournament last year. Some people looking at our schedule have suggested we're in over our heads, but that's baloney. I have confidence in our guys. To be able to compete in a league as good as the SSC, our young guys need some early lessons in toughness, mental preparation and how to bounce back when you're feelings have been hurt. Non-conference games can be great learning experiences that make you better when it matters."
Tuell knows his baby Sharks won't find the swimming easy going when they play in the demanding SSC, which gets underway for NSU on Dec. 7 when defending league champ, NCAA South Region champ and Elite Eight participant Florida Southern visits the Shark Tank. Besides Butler, West Liberty, Drury and Amherst the Sharks have early-season games away from home against NAIA power St. Thomas, NCAA DI Florida International and NCAA DII powers Benedict and Belmont Abbey in addition to a home tilt with Livingstone.
"We tried to make our non-conference schedule as difficult – or more difficult – than our conference schedule. I think it's the best way to show our young players what it takes to compete and win at this level. I want them to be ready for what awaits them in the SSC. I don't want to play a soft non-conference schedule and have the league games be a shock to our kids. I want them to be accustomed to the challenges and tests that they're going to face in league play.
"I know we lack experience, and on paper we don't have some athletes like other people in this league," Tuell admits. "But I like the skill level and the basketball IQ of this team. To compete at the top of this league we have to defend better than we did last year. We have to rebound better than we did last year. We have to take better care of the ball and not make as many careless turnovers as we did last year. And we have to get to the foul line a whole lot more than we did last year. Those are four areas we have to improve on if we're going to be a better team than last year."
The Sharks were last in the league – by a wide margin – in both free throws made and free throws attempted a year ago. Tuell knows that weakness has to be addressed if the Sharks are going to be competitive against the nation's most difficult schedule.
"The easiest and best way to score is at the foul line," he says. "And the easiest way to win games is by getting to the line. We understand that. One of the drawbacks to relying on the 3-point shot is that kids often forget the importance of attacking the rim and settle instead for the three. We have to find a balance between attacking the rim and shooting the three. Some teams have made getting to the line an art form in this league. Some players are especially adept at getting into the lane and falling down to get to the line. I guess we need to learn that skill."
Still, Tuell concedes that his 2013-14 squad was built around three things: 1) the hybrid Princeton offense he and his staff installed a year ago, 2) the three point shot, and 3) a belief that the newcomers have the skills and basketball IQ to make a difference right away.
"The newcomers have to make a lot of positive contributions at both ends of the floor. Our coaching staff and our four returning juniors are counting on them to come in and contribute heavily.
"My expectations for us are tempered by the fact that we have so many young, inexperienced players. But my long term expectations for this group are as high as I've had for any of my previous teams here. People can call us a long shot and vote us near the bottom of the league, and rightfully so. But other people's expectations of who we are have nothing to do with the dreams and goals we set for ourselves. I never let other people's opinions influence my opinion of my players. In the end, we expect to be chasing a trophy. There are no third party influences on our team. We have leaders and we have great teammates and that's all we want in our locker room."
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