One more before real deal for men’s basketball
In their final tune-up before the regular season, the Frogs play Saturday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
By Danny Gillham
Sports Editor

In the standings it may not be an official game for the Frogs, but men’s head coach Neil Dougherty wants his team to treat it like one.

“ As far as we’re concerned, our season starts tonight, and lets play it that way,” Dougherty said.

Dougherty expects a more in shape and more fluid squad on both ends of the floor when the Frogs take on Makesure Sport at 7 p.m. Saturday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Sophomore guard Corey Santee agreed the exhibition is more than another game.

“We look at as a learning process, but we do want to win,” Santee said. “It can build confidence for the season.”

In order to do that, the team said they must improve from their previous exhibition game against Slovakia-Select.

The Frogs ended up winning 104-77, but were given all they wanted for the first 25 minutes of the contest.

Senior guard Junior Blount said the team must get out to a better start on Saturday.

“Last exhibition, it kind of started off real slow,” Blount said. “So this game we just want to get down like how we want to come out when the regular season starts.”

The Makesure Sport team is a traveling squad composed of mainly former collegiate athletes. However one member of the squad that might be familiar to some is 7-foot-2 center Benoit Benjamin.

Benjamin played 18 seasons in the NBA for nine different teams. He ranked in the top 10 in blocked shots for five consecutive seasons.

Dougherty said the contrast from the Slovakian team will benefit the Frogs.

“It’s an American team, so that to me adds a different element to it,” Dougherty said. “Some of the players will actually recognize some of the players who just recently just finished their college careers. There are couple of people who have played either professional here or overseas.

“I think probably, we’re expecting a much more challenging game, just from the standpoint that the talent level is much higher.”

Danny Gillham