-          Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run

I am pretty sure that the great Bruce Springsteen was not thinking about college basketball when he wrote these lines to arguably the greatest rock-and-roll song ever, but they still can be applied very fittingly to the situation at hand. The overriding factor of conference tournaments is that no matter what kind of season you have had up until this point, you still have a chance at the glory of a conference championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament. There are only a handful of teams across the country that can be confident they have locked up an at-large berth; everyone else is fighting it out to get in – and the conference tournament is their best and final shot at doing so.

Postseason tournaments are a whole different story than the regular season. These games are extremely intense and emotional. In many ways they represent the best of what college basketball is about. The passion of the teams, the elevated levels of performance, the crowds, and the high stakes all come together to create an atmosphere that is unmatched by most other sports.

Teams are literally playing to keep their season alive, and they are putting everything on the line. These games are fought hard and usually become very physical; referees tend to blow the whistle less and let more contact go than in the regular season. The ramifications of each game are so high, and every possession is critical. You have to expect your opponents to give you their absolute best shot and fight to the very end.

To be successful in playoff basketball, you need to get the job done in all the fundamental areas. You must defend and rebound, take care of the ball, and be able to make shots at key times. A lot of these games will come down to the last few possessions, so elements like execution, determination, toughness, and will to win are going to separate those who advance from those who go home.

The Captains head into the USA South Conference tournament riding some solid momentum, having swept Methodist and Greensboro at home this past weekend. There were some good positives to take away from the games. We as coaches have begun to see the team's defensive identify firmly take shape, and I believe that we have a good understanding of what we will need to do to stop teams in the postseason. We had several different players step up in key moments of both games, which will definitely need to happen in the tournament as well.

From a strategy and game preparation perspective, there is very little new stuff being introduced at this point of the season. As a team, you are who you are by now – besides adding a slight wrinkle here and there, coaches simply must continue to drive home the same principles that have been followed all year and instill great confidence in the players going into the tournament games. Most importantly, coaches must ensure that the team sticks together. There will undoubtedly be moments of adversity during any tournament game; the teams that succeed and advance are the ones in which the players never stop supporting each other and continue to play hard, play tough, and play together for the common goal of winning a championship.

For the 2010-2011 CNU Captains, this last of leg of our journey begins tomorrow night at the Freeman Center against Shenandoah University. We were fortunate enough to defeat Shenandoah twice during the regular season. However, the Hornets have some very talented pieces on their squad, and have shown flashes of very good play over the past couple of weeks. They will certainly be giving us their best shot, and we need to be prepared to take it and respond with the toughness and execution that championship teams possess.

One of the many unwritten rules about tournament basketball is that you never look past the game that is in front of you. Although as a coach you are always preparing for all the different scenarios, you must keep you team's sole focus on the current opponent. With that in mind we will take the floor tomorrow and hopefully do everything in our power to keep our season going and give ourselves the opportunity to play in another huge matchup on Friday.

Now more than ever we need the strong (and loud!) support of our fans at the Freeman Center. Please come out and help give us a great home court advantage tomorrow night as we take off on our “last chance power drive”!