There’s a lot at stake for the University of North Florida’s Men’s Basketball team this weekend, as they play not just for the Atlantic Sun Championship, but a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
That’s not something the team will be focusing on, though, if Head Coach Matthew Driscoll has any say.
“You can’t win the Championship unless you win the first game, which was JU. And then you can’t win the Championship unless you win the semifinals. So we always take it one game at a time, and we always tell our guys everybody is 0-0, because if you don’t win, your record’s irrelevant,” Driscolll says.
On Thursday night, the Ospreys beat Lipscomb, advancing to the ASUN Championship against Florida Gulf Coast Sunday. If they win the Championship, it means a spot in March Madness for only the second time in their history, with the first coming two seasons ago.
Driscoll tells WOKV he has thought about what it would mean to get in to the Tournament again, but his focus now is the Championship.
“I’ve reflected on it more of- this is Dallas [Moore] and Chris [Davenport] and Aaron’s [Bodager] second Championship in three years,” he says.
UNF’s seniors were given a strong sendoff from the home crowd during the ASUN Quarterfinal against JU. Driscoll says he knows it’s challenging to play a game like this on another team’s turf, but they’ve already faced talented teams and big opposition crowds.
“If you make it more of a deal than it is, then it becomes a deal. But if they understand we’re on the road and everybody hates you, then they understand,” he says.
And he knows that the program has a big impact on the University overall.
“To all of our alums in the city, and all of our alums that have supported us and that have followed us and have become part of us- that they understand it’s always been and always will be that there’s no one like you, and there is certainly no place like us. And UNF is a special place, and I’m blessed to be the Men’s Basketball Coach here,” Driscoll says.
The game will air on ESPN on Sunday at 3PM.