Coyote men’s basketball team in a tough spot, but will history repeat itself?

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This quote by Argus Leader beat reporter Mick Garry has in his story today from USD men’s basketball senior Dustin Little pretty much sums up what the Coyotes need to do to get back on the winning track.

“It’s time to stop talking about playing better and just start playing better. It’s time to go to practice, practice hard, then go into a game and get it done. We need to start playing to win.”

What else can you do after losing three straight North Central Conference games on the road? For one thing, no excuses, which is what you get out of a senior who’s a member of an NCC postseason tournament championship team his freshman year (2004-05) and last year’s NCC regular season and postseason title team.

The 75-60 loss the Coyotes suffered at the hands of Nebraska-Omaha last Saturday was baffling because of how lopsided the final outcome was and the fact that USD seemingly got outplayed by UNO.

The two losses in Minnesota to MSU-Mankato and St. Cloud State aren’t any better, but the Coyotes were MUCH closer in both of those games compared to the UNO game.

Consider the fact that the Coyotes were up 72-69 with 3:24 remaining on a 3-pointer by Mitch Begeman and again up 75-72 with 2:35 on a 3-pointer by Dylan Grimsley against MSU-Mankato.

Begeman had a chance in the final seconds with a floater, but it didn’t fall. The Coyotes really have had that one.

Then there was the St. Cloud State game in which the Coyotes were tied with 3:53 remaining before dropping a 75-71 decision.

What USD men’s basketball head coach Dave Boots told Mick Garry after the loss to the Huskies is exactly true, which is certainly why Boots said it.

“We’re not getting the stops we need at the end of games, we’re not getting the rebounds at the end of games, we’re just not doing the little things you do to win close games. This was a repeat of Thursday night where we simply did not make the plays down the stretch that we needed to make.”

So what happens now? Where does the team go from here? How do they get back on track and win games?

For starters the Coyotes get a home game Thursday with North Dakota at 8 p.m. The Sioux are a team that the Coyotes beat 88-65 earlier this year. That helps.

In my opinion, every game from here on out is a must-win for the Coyotes and they need to win out if they hope to have a very comfortable chance at the postseason. The Coyotes have lost to good basketball teams and teams that are contenders, but, when it comes to being a top team, you have to win them all.

Consider the fact that St. Cloud State wasn’t ranked in the North Central Region rankings, the Coyotes have a good chance of falling out of the rankings.

I’m sure none of the USD players or coaches are worried about this right now as they are more concerned with correcting their ills of the recent weeks. But looking forward, the Coyotes could finish the regular season with a 23-4 and 8-4 in the NCC if they win out.

That would probably put the Coyotes in either a tie for third at worst and possibly second if they get some help.

If the glass is half full, the Coyotes could pull out a run similar to the 04-05 team that nearly won the North Central Region after winning the NCC postseason tournament title after coming into the league tournament as a No. 2 seed and won the automatic berth into the NCAA Division II tournament.

The Coyotes then advanced to the North Central Region Finals before falling to a hot-shooting 3-point shooting Metro State team 89-84. That snapped an 11-game win streak for a team that set a school-record with 27 wins.

That team was aided by the experience of seniors Josh Mueller, Luke Tibbets and Steve Anderson. That team lost four games in a row before going on their run that included winning the final six NCC regular season games.

Will it happen again? Three straight losses could give way to four straight regular seasons, an NCC post season title and a significant run into the North Central Region tournament?

Little and Eric Hall each had significant playing time on that team. In their final season as a Coyote, you know those two want to go out on top and will do all they can to get the problems corrected and get back on top.

Yes, things can get worse for the Coyotes, but they’ll probably only get better and should be fun to watch.

- - Vance Janak

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