Dane Fife: The Official Blog

In today’s practice (and the previous practice), we have worked on our interior defense as well as preparing for the pressure that Notre Dame is bringing. Early last season, we struggled with Valpo’s press and I do not want that to happen again. So, we feel confident that we can handle the pressure. This Irish team is young, but they do have great leaders in their upperclassmen. Colin Falls is as good a shooter as their is and Russell Carter has improved every year since he has been there. On the flipside, our guys are ready for the challenge of playing a Big East team on the road. We have seniors of our own that have paid their dues and we certainly have the talent/skill to get the job done. Although this game is not a do-or-die game, we will really take a step forward by playing to our capabliity. We must play at the top of our game in order to win…nothing else will do it. See you in South Bend. Go Dons’

Dane

At least it was a win. After losing an 11-point halftime lead, we found a way to beat the Foresters. I am not sure we would have been able to win that game last season and I am very proud of our team. Defensively, we need to be much improved. I thought that our seniors we solid offensively, but must contribute much more on the defensive end. We were slaughtered in the post during the second half and that must be corrected. The problem is that our post players are not used to defending the undersized, quicker post players that Huntington presented. We felt like our bigger guys would be difficult to score over, but we just could not keep them at bay. We do have a fronting package as well as a post trap that we are working on, but I am not sure that we are ready to execute these. Overall, this is a great experience and I am eager to learn from this. We came away healthy and happy, for the most part.

Notre Dame on Friday.

DF