Augustana’s men’s basketball ventures to Bradley Nov. 6 to play their second game of the year, thus looking to continually progress as a team, rather than solely focusing on the competition.
“It hasn’t been much about our opponent,” said head coach Grey Giovanine. “It’s more about getting our team to progress in the three areas that we really value which are defending, rebounding, and running; those have been our constant points of work.”
Before Bradley, the Vikings played Benedictine on Nov. 1 in a scrimmage game at home where they won each half as both a varsity and junior varsity team.
Senior guard Mark Roth said that the game against Benedictine showed the team’s overall depth, due to the team’s ability to avoid any drop offs from their starting five to their second five. The game also exposed what the team needs to work on before playing Bradley.
“We have to continue to work on rebounding the ball better,” said Roth. “And we have to take greater care of the basketball, which will be two keys for us against Bradley.”
Not only will the Vikings have to be physically prepared to play Bradley, they will have to be mentally prepared, as well.
“I want my men to have a fearless and aggressive attitude coming into the game,” said Giovanine, “even though playing a division 1 program might be intimidating, we have to play our game.”
Roth agrees and expects the team to have the same goal as they did last year when playing Iowa.
“We went in with a goal to out compete Iowa, and we have the same goal going into the Bradley game,” said Roth. “We want to bring a high level of energy and play the style of game we want to play.”
With the Vikings looking to play their style of game, they are set to use this contest as another tool towards team progression.
“A lot of our focus is to use the Bradley as a measuring stick to see where we are at,” said Roth. “We aren’t worried about where they are as a team, but want to see where we are as we prepare for the season.