By the IV Leader Staff, Oct. 25, 2007
Tom Canale expects two basic fundamentals from his men’s basketball team: To box out and to talk while on
defense.
If the players cannot measure up to those goals, they won’t see the floor. “I’m stressing defense,” Canale said when discussing his team’s early practices and scrimmages before the regular season opens on Nov 2 vs. Oakton in the Triton Classic.
“We must defend and keep the score low to compete against these teams. We can’t get into a high scoring game,” he
said.
That defensive philosophy means some changes for some of his players, according to Canale, who may not have been asked to play man-to-man in high school or who may not have played with the defensive intensity that he
expects.
In fact, Canale’s focus on defense has led to a challenge for his team: Canale wants the Eagles to keep their opponents under 70 points per game this season. He admits the challenge will be great, but he said he expects to see his players working hard during every minute of every contest to make that goals a
reality.
Since Canale was hired by the board at the end of September, well after some teams had started putting in open gyms, he said his team is about two weeks
behind.
That lag may have been felt in some early scrimmages and the jamboree hosted by IVCC on Oct. 8.IVCC lost its three games in the jamboree by a total of four points. In addition, the Eagles have dropped preseason contests to Illinois Central and Lincoln College, but Canale is not discouraged.
“I’m starting to see some promising things,” he said. The first-year head coach says he will not name a starting five until closer to the first official game, but he has 11 players from which to choose.