Warriors Hit the Road in NSIC Play

Hey everyone, Coach Moore here from out in windy Marshall, MN, home of the Southwest Minnesota State University with an update on our travels and our game for tonight.

This weekend we get to share a bus with our women's team so to say the least it was packed traveling over here but it was a good time with the movies we had to watch. So far on this trip we have watched the New Indiana Jones Movie and Step Brother. Both were okay in my eyes but some people I know really enjoyed both of them. I have never been a huge Indiana Jones fan so this I didn't really get into this one much but I was kind of confused by the whole parent thing. I didn't really care for it and I don't think of Indy as having parents so for me it didn't really fit in with the movie, he is like a super hero in my eyes. Step Brothers was a funny movie but at times a little long, don't get me wrong I love watching Will Ferrell but after a while the same lines kept coming up which seemed to drag the movie out. But it still was a good movie if you like a comedy with good one liners that you can use later on your friends.

Anyway onto basketball and our game tonight against the Mustangs. This will once again be a battle between two great teams. SMSU is a team that does not have one or two guys to key on, they are a team that plays great team basketball and have seven or eight guys capable of having a big night. Currently the Mustangs are leading in scoring by bench player Jon DeRock (10 ppg) and senior Ross DeMasi (9 ppg and 10.9 rpg), DeMasi is currently the leading rebounder in the NSIC. Other players to keep an eye for the Mustangs are Andrew Peschong (8 ppg) and Kevin Andrews (9 ppg). Peschong is leading the team in field goal attempts, while Andrews is one of the top three point shooters, behind DeRock for the Mustangs. As a team the Mustangs are leading the NSIC in rebounding as they have out rebounded opponents by 11 rpg on the season.

Keys for the Warriors for tonight's game will start with rebounding the basketball. Currently we have been rebounding the basketball much better since the start of the season but we will be facing our toughest challenge tonight. We need to limit SMSU to one shot every time down the floor as they are a great offensive rebounding team and we need to make them work on the defensive end by crashing the boards attempting to get second change points. Another key will be our hustle. SMSU is a team that is always hustling after loose balls, getting on the floor for balls and doing whatever it takes to get the ball. We must out hustle them tonight to every loose ball. Finally we have to be fundamentally sound as SMSU is going to pick up full court the entire game. We must use pass fakes, jump stops, back dribbles and all of those things needed to handle the pressure. This pressure is not a trapping type of pressure but the type to attempt to slow down the pace of the game and to make our guys tired as the game goes on. So we need to attack them, get easy buckets off the press and make them work to the point they get tired while pressing.

Overall this game should be fun to play tonight. Our guys had a great shoot around this morning and they seemed ready to play. If we can knock down our outside shots and control them on the boards we should have a excellent opportunity to win this game.

Go Warriors!!!

For more info on SMSU you can follow this link: http://www.smsumustangs.com/index.aspx?tab=mensbasketball&path=mbball