[BasketballAlum] Bulldog Basketball

[gary holquist]

Bulldog Basketball Alumni and Friends:

We came away with a split this past weekend in the UMD Thanksgiving 
Classic.  The first night was a very toughly contested game against 
Michigan Tech University that ended 62-58.  Like all our games over the 
past few years against Tech, truly a possession-by-possession game that 
came down to the last ten seconds.  The game was prototypical of recent 
UMD/MTU basketball games.  I felt that there were six key defensive 
plays that we did not make that contributed to the loss.  We gave up 
easy scores-it was not so much the scores, but the fact that we did not 
make Tech work hard to get them that comes back to haunt you in a game 
like this.  Four times, we went underneath an on the ball screen when 
guarding a dribbler and gave up three three-point baskets because of 
our lack of toughness in getting over the top on ball screens.  We 
never defend this type of screen by going underneath it, but mental 
errors in defending this type of action hurt us.  Plain and simply, it 
was a lack of toughness both physically and mentally.  The other two 
defensive breakdowns came from not defending cross screens properly in 
the post.  We defend a big on big or small on big post cross screen by 
taking the cutter chest on chest and riding them out high or low, never 
trailing the cutter across the lane.  However, two times against Tech's 
post player, we got in a trail situation across the lane and they laid 
it in us.  Through these six breakdowns, we gave up 13 points and as I 
alluded to, in a possession-by-possession game you will get beat if you 
give up scores in an easy fashion by not making your opponent work hard 
to get them.  For the most part, I liked our effort and play-we out 
rebounded Tech, made free throws, sought out good shots, and only 
turned the ball over 9 times.  We went for the win at the end of the 
game having the ball with 10 seconds to go down two.  We ran a set to 
give Jordan Nuness the option of taking a three or feeding the post. 
The play unfolded for Nuness to take a three when Tech lost him 
fighting through a screen and he got the ball wide open at the top of 
the key.  His shot rimmed out, we lost the rebound and were forced to 
foul.  It was good execution and he got a great look-a shot he usually 
makes, unfortunately it did not go in.  Ryan Meissner (6-6, 190 lbs, 
Sr-Osseo, MN) did an excellent job on their leading scorer holding him 
to only 10 points when he had been averaging over 20 a game.  Jordan 
Nuness (6-3, 210 lbs, Sr-Eden Prairie, MN) scored well again having 18 
points and Brian Sykora (6-7, 210 lbs, So-Bloomington, MN) had 21 
points and 9 rebounds.  This was a great teaching game for the team. 
We came away knowing what we had to do as a team to win (saw our lack 
of defensive execution in certain trips)-hopefully the lessons we 
learned in this loss will help us down the road.  The need for 
consistency of playing at a high level for every possession was evident!

The next night I was pleased with our player's preparation and 
readiness to compete against Northern Michigan University.  We jumped 
on them immediately and won 79-53.  The entire team had a chance to 
play and everyone contributed to a good team performance.  Nuness led 
us with 18 points while only playing half the game.  Sykora had 15 
points and 9 rebounds.  As a team, we out rebounded NMU 44-29, shot 
52.6% from the floor, and only turned it over 9 times, while having 22 
assists for our 30 baskets.  We executed at a high level in the team 
concept both offensively and defensively.  NMU started in a zone but 
moved out of it after we stretched the lead to 25 in the first half. 
Meissner once again took a 20-point scorer and held him to 5 points.

(UMD flip flopped opponents with Minnesota State Mankato during the 
weekend.  MTU beat MSUM 78-76 on Saturday and MSUM beat NMU 67-59 on 
Friday.  Nuness was named MVP of the classic and Sykora was on the all 
tournament team).

We play three at home this week-Concordia St. Paul University on 
Tuesday, Northland College on Thursday, and College of St. Scholastica 
on Saturday.  We stand at 4 wins and 1 loss and are improving.  The 
young team we have is starting to understand how competitive they must 
be on every possession to be successful.  This week will be a good test 
for us-I will let you know.

Go Bulldogs!


Gary W. Holquist
University of Minnesota Duluth
Head Men's Basketball Coach
218-726-6185