[BasketballAlum] newsletter 2/27/06

[James Kuronen]

NCC Tournament Begins
We begin play Wednesday night in the post-season! We were able to 
secure home court for the first round of the NCC Tournament despits 
losing both games last week end. We tied with Augustana at 5-7 for 
fourth place but owned the tie breaker over them as a result of us 
sweeping the two games with them.

We defeated Augustana in Duluth on January 12th by a score of 76-56. 
Ryan Breidenbach (Jr.-Oregon, WI) did not play in the game. John 
Emerson (Sr.-New Richmond, WI) led us in scoring with 22 points on 8/11 
shooting. We shot 53% for the game and made 10 3-pointers. Augie had 
only 1 starter in double figures with their post player scored 12 going 
6/6 from the foul line.

On Feb. 1st it was much more difficult as we won in Sioux Falls 75-67. 
Again we shot 51% for the game, but only went 5/17 from beyond the 3 
point arc. Sean Seaman was hurt in the game and ended up missing the 
next few games for us. John Vaudreuil (So.-Bloomington Jefferson) led 
us scoring 17 going 7/8 from the field. John was double teamed every 
time he started to dribble and was still able to score 7 field goals. 
Emerson also scored 13 and Sean Seaman (Sr.-Duluth, MN) had 11. In 
Sioux Falls we played a zone for a majority of the 2nd half due to both 
Vaudreuil and Matt Rawley (Jr.-Milwaukee Lutheran) being in foul 
trouble. It was amazing sitting on the bench and watching our zone 
confounding Augie. Foul trouble or not we have to try it this Wednesday.

Last week we traveled to Omaha for a Thursday game after beating them 5 
days earlier and were beaten 66-58. Ryan Breidenbach suffered a slight 
sprain to his ankle during the second half and finished the game but 
was affected. It was a defensive struggle for both teams with both of 
us unable to shoot even 40% from the field. The difference in the game 
was UNO scoring 5 or 6 uncontested lay-ups off of our turn overs.

Saturday night the Univ. of North Dakota beat us 74-62. We were down by 
14 at half-time and were never really in the game. We did cut the lead 
to 7 at one point in the second half but UND responded with 3 scores in 
a row. Just as Thursday in Omaha we shot less than 40%. It just seemed 
we got good shots early and were unable to make them and we let it 
affect the rest of our game. UND shot a great percentage the first half 
(59%) in building their lead. It was a strange game as we out-rebounded 
them by 17. Attempted 17 more shots than them, only made 5 less free 
throws and got beat pretty good. It comes down to putting the ball in 
the hole.

After a win on Wednesday vs. Augustana we will travel to Mankato, who 
has the #1 seed in the NCC Tournament and play them in the second 
semi-final at 4pm. The winner will play for the NCC Tournament 
Championship and the NCAA North Regional Automatic Bid at 2pm Sunday 
March 5th.


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