[BasketballAlum] BIG WIN!

[James Kuronen]

We won our first ever NCC Tournament game last night when we defeated 
Augustana College in Romano Gym 80-71. Our philosophy is pretty simple. 
Get the best percentage shot we can get each possession and hold the 
opponent to a low percentage shot each defensive possession. Last night 
in the second half it came about when we shot 46% and held Augustana to 
34%. We didn't give them many open shots in rhythm. We had great 
balance with all 5 starters scoring in double figures (our two seniors 
Emerson and Seaman with 15, Breidenbach and Foss with 14 and Vaudreuil 
with 10). We also had 40 rebounds which is a lot for us. It was a game 
with too many possessions for our taste but we hung in there. The first 
half had the feel of a pick-up game at times and we really felt lucky 
to be down only 1 point.

We now face the NCC regular season Champion Minnesota State Mankato on 
Saturday at 4pm. The other semi-final is at 2pm when St Cloud State 
faces the Univ of South Dakota. The two winners play Sunday afternoon 
at 2pm. All games are at the Taylor Center on MSU-Mankato's campus.

We lost to MSU twice during the season. They were our first and third 
games of the NCC season. It feels like all of the 6 weeks ago that it 
was. For us to win on Saturday we need a possession by possession game. 
Mankato likes to score points and would much prefer a high scoring 
game. We lost at UMD 63-60. If the game is in the 50's we really feel 
like we'll win it, in the 60's we have a chance but a game in the 70's 
or above will be won by MSU. We will accomplish it by getting into the 
shot clock on most possessions and make MSU play defense for 25-30 
seconds as much as possible. They are a good defensive team and shots 
we get early in the shot clock will most likely be lower percentage 
shots. We also need to convert and make it a 5 on 5 game for our 
defense. The deeper MSU gets into the shot clock on offense the more of 
an advantage we think we have.

There's a reason MSU won the Conference. They led the league in 
Defense, both scoring and FG%. They also led the league in Scoring 
Margin out scoring league teams by almost 8 points. On top of that, 
they are the best rebounding team in the conference. We have our work 
cut out for us, but really feel with a good team effort it'll be a very 
good hard fought game.

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