It is no surprise that there are NCAA Division III teams out there that are happy to live the life of a “big fish in a small pond” in an easy conference with limited challenge, rather than having a competitive and demanding existence as a “small fish in a big pond” in a tough conference. Some teams have an easy schedule besides their mandatory conference games and it seems like they are afraid of challenging themselves and playing tough games, because they might lose. Unfortunately a lot of sport teams and athletes today focus too much on the statistics instead of the quality of the games. Those teams never take the vital step in order to become a better team and one day evolve to “a big fish” that can swim in a “big pond” together with the other “big fish”. Yes, it is great to win a lot of games, and it looks good on paper, but the best feeling is to win a game you worked really hard for, and you feel that all your intense and diligent work pays off. The sweetest victory is the one you have to fight for with sweat and tears.
There is no question as to where the Suffolk University men’s basketball team stands on this issue and in this famous “fish analogy.” The Rams would much rather fight for every point, play their hearts out and grow as a team instead of winning easy games against weak teams. This is why the Rams are grateful for not only playing in the extremely tough GNAC conference which consists of many serious opponents such as JWU and Albertus Magnus, but also grateful for having the exclusive chance of repeating the story of “David and Goliath” and take on the star-filled Division I giants – the University of New Hampshire Wildcats. This weekend the Rams traveled to New Hampshire to play the mighty America East Conference team that pride themselves of having 13 players that are on scholarships. No doubt that this game was a truly amazing opportunity to learn from the best and the Rams gained a lot of important experience from the clash with the “big fish in a big pond” who was superior in basically all aspects of the game.
The Suffolk players put their game face on and showed a brave performance, fighting hard for every single point on the court and showing great character. The Rams managed to score 51 points against UNH who were “Goliath” in this game. Aury Leyva and Chris Torres did especially well on offense for Suffolk, respectively scoring 16 and 12 points. Matt Pepdjonovic did an amazing job on defense, where the forward had 15 defensive rebounds for the rams and 17 rebound in total in the game. Even though Suffolk lost 51-91, it is important to notice that the team only lost the second half by nine points. This shows that the players are in top physical condition and if they can keep up the pace with a Division I team full of players on scholarships, they can achieve great results against Division III teams in the GNAC conference as well. No doubt that the Rams can leave New Hampshire with a sense of pride and completion after putting up a real fight against the Wildcats. UNH might have won the game by 40 points, but the team that got the most out of this match was Suffolk. This Division I experience will without question benefit the Rams in the future. Every Division III coaches’ dream exhibition game prior to the season is against a Division I team. That dream came true this weekend and the team finished their last preparation game successfully despite the defeat.
When head coach Adam Nelson was asked how the season preparation had been going prior to the UNH game and whether the team is prepared for the new season, he said: “The basketball season is a funny one, because we feel like we have a lot of time to prepare. We start practice on Oct. 15 and we don’t start playing until Nov. 16 so that is almost five full weeks of practice. You can never be fully prepared and we never feel like we are fully prepared, but we’ve been going at it for a long time. Offensively and defensively we got all of our stuff in there, so we are definitely ready to play somebody else. We’ve beat each other up for about a month here so we are definitely ready to play somebody else.”
UNH is not the only team that the Rams have been playing against in the preseason: “We had a scrimmage last week against Wheelock College; we were up 55-20 in the half so we just cleared the score and just played the second half to get some experience. That was a good test for us because one of our things this year is [that] we want to be physical and aggressive defensively and when we get out there we pressed them the whole time and [they turned over the ball] 30 times. That is our thing – to be physical and aggressive. The Wheelock game doesn’t really count and we don’t want to be fat and happy about it, but it shows that we are definitely headed towards where we need to be”, said Coach Nelson.
Every sports team has their own goals prior to the season and while some coaches like to think a long time ahead and at several games at once, Coach Nelson takes it one step at a time: “I want to come and play hard every game. One of the things that we’ve talked about this year as a team is that we got (sic) 25 regular season games and we are not gonna (sic) look ahead. That next game – the game that is coming up is our most important game, we are only looking at that game. Nov. 16 we open up against Maine, Fort Kent – that’s the game we are focused on now. So that is kind of our goal to take it one game at a time, and if we can do that, we’re gonna (sic) win a lot of games.”
Being able to focus on one game at a time can prove to be vital for Suffolk men’s basketball, who play in an extremely competitive conference in which the last year’s winner made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Coach Nelson is not afraid of the competition and he made one thing very clear: “We want to finish in the top half, and get a playoff home game, that is our goal. Can we do it? I think so. We’ve got the talent to really make a run at it, but again we gotta (sic.) look at one game at a time.”
Adam Nelson has already led the Rams to the GNAC championship semifinal once before and he is hoping he can do it again this year, or go even further. The Rams are more ready than ever to make a slam dunk in the GNAC conference and after being able to handle a Division I school for half a game, the Rams have the confidence to handle Division III schools from the GNAC conference for a full game. The Rams are hungry for a victory against University of Maine, Fort Kent, who they will face on Friday Nov. 16.
