INFORUM.com

WDAY: Your News Leader

print article Print     e-mail article E-mail
Published March 14, 2010, 09:12 AM

A head coach's thoughts on the 2009-2010 season

Fargo, ND (WDAY Sports) - So with the brackets now out and this being a big day for college hoops, we thought it seemed right to look back at this past Bison men’s basketball season. Dom Izzo sat down with Saul Phillips to get the head coach's thoughts on a year that was drastically different than his first on the bench.

By: Dom Izzo, WDAY

Saul Phillips: “It's a results based business. 11-18 isn't where we aspired to be. That being said, there's a lot of optimism around here because we remained competitive all season long.”

With your goals to win the league, go to the tournament, did you have to adjust those as the season went along?

“It kind of became win the next game as the season went along. It was a year that lots changed during the year and that made a difference. You can't use that as an excuse because it doesn't make any difference, nobody wants to hear about that. I'm really proud our guys didn't use that as a crutch and we went into the game vs. Oral Roberts in the tournament saying why not win three in a row?”

Playing 2 true freshmen all season long, was that something you'd like to do in the future or was that a necessity thing?

“I don't want to ever do it again to be honest. But it may happen at times if you have a kid that can do it. The guys that did it played admirably. Jordan (Aaberg) certainly hit more of a freshman wall physically. It worked out well that Mike Felt's injury happened when it did so he can medically red shirt. So we still red shirted half of our class.”

How much does it help that Nate played so much, and Jordan, and even Mike Felt before he was injured looking ahead to next season?

“You build on those experiences, both positive and negative. But boy those positive experiences, when we had good games and you were a part of it, that's invaluable.”

I know you always want to play the best competition but you also want to schedule smartly. Do you see something like that coming down the pike next year?

“There’s going to be something interesting wrinkles in the schedules next year. I can say this: the Gopher game will renew. We'll play Minnesota again. Who knows? Maybe some old rivals will resurface on our schedule at some point soon. I think there's a willingness on both sides to get that game back together. I think it'd be good for the state and good for both programs.”

Tags: , , , ,