[BasketballAlum] Bulldog Basketball

[James Kuronen]

After our first week of play we stand at 1-1.

A week ago today we went to Bemidji State to open the season against a 
team that has 12 seniors on it's roster, 9 of whom are in their first 
year at BSU. We played a tough game under some difficult conditions and 
found ourselves down by 7 points with 1:40 left on the clock. We had 
played well but their pressure defense and athleticism was something we 
hadn't seen yet this year. To our players credit we hung in there and 
got some key stops, rebounded to ball, which we hadn't done well in the 
2nd half and ended up evening the score by scoring with 0.4 seconds 
left on the clock. BSU missed a free throw with 2.9 seconds on the 
clock, we rebounded the ball and called time-out. We tried to throw it 
long and BSU tipped the ball out of bounds right in front of our bench. 
We didn't call time-out but ran our circle play where each player 
simply "reads" the defense and either tries to get himself or a 
teammate open. Ryan Breidenbach (Jr., Oregon, WI) simply went to the 
rim after his defender tried to deny him coming to the ball, and Bryan 
Foss (Jr.-Osseo, MN) threw a lob that Ryan tipped in as the buzzer 
sounded. In overtime, we won the tip, got a post pass to one of our 
guards, Sean Seaman (Sr.-Duluth, MN) who scored and got fouled to put 
us up 3 10 seconds into the OT. That combined with the buzzer tip-in 
finished BSU. They ended up not scoring in the OT and we won 77-66. One 
interesting note BSU went 0-7 in the overtime and Bryan Foss rebounded 
all 7 misses. Bryan ended up with 16 rebounds for the game. We 
out-rebounded BSU 45-39, something all three Division I teams didn't do 
in their exhibition games.

Saturday we went back on the road to Winona, MN to play former NSIC 
opponent Winona State. WSU is ranked in every pre-season DII polls 
we've seen, anywhere from #8 to #18. We ended up losing on the road by 
15 points 81-66. Our effort was a little lacking in our opinion, but at 
this point in the season it's good learning experience. Winona does 
have a very good team with 2 senior guards, one of whom will be the 
all-time leading scorer at WSU before the end of the season, and a very 
good post player. They surround those three with some good athletes who 
defend and rebound very well. Lucky for us we get another shot at them 
this Saturday on the second night of the American Family Insurance 
Classic.

The American Family Insurance Classic tips off Friday with St Cloud 
State taking on Winona State and your Bulldogs playing Michigan Tech. 
Saturday WSU and MTU switch opponents to complete the Classic. A great 
thanks to American Family Insurance for this season as it marks the 
25th time we've hosted the tournament. It all started back in 1980 with 
AFI District Manager Tom Holmen and UMD Coach George Fisher and is 
still going strong.

The ballots are coming steadily to my office with votes for the UMD 
Basketball 75th Year Team. Every envelope I open is exciting to me. 
After being here so long it makes me feel good to have been a part of 
something as special as UMD Basketball. Please get your ballot in as we 
need to make arrangements in December for awards and other things. 
Deadline remains December 1st. If you haven't received a ballot please 
return this email to me with your mailing address and I'll get one out 
right away. We'd like everyone to get a vote.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from us.

Butch Kuronen
Assistant Basketball Coach
University of Minnesota Duluth
218-726-6199 (office)
218-591-7618 (cell)
jkuronen at d.umn.edu