The Alabama State men’s basketball team, coaches and support staff left Montgomery, Ala. Wednesday. They’ll return next Wednesday. Such is life as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The Hornets go from Omaha, where they will take on Creighton at 7:05 p.m. Friday night, to Ames, Iowa for a Sunday matchup with Iowa State, to Flagstaff, Ariz. on Tuesday to play Northern Arizona.
“It’s tough,” said Alabama State Sports Information Director Jasher Cox. “It’s tough for people with families and tough for the students.”
Eight of the team’s first nine games will take place away from home, a necessity if Alabama State is to come close to balancing its athletic department budget. In addition to the opportunity to take on solid competition, ASU collects a big check for playing against many BCS and mid-major schools looking for home games.
The Hornets took down Georgia Southwestern State, 67-57, in their only exhibition game. We had a chance to talk with head coach Lewis Jackson before the team acclimated itself to the Qwest Center on Thursday night.
White & Blue Review: From practice and your exhibition game, what concerns you the most about your team?
Lewis Jackson: Our interior defense. Right now we’re not playing post defense as well as we should be. We’re not getting up and down the floor the way we really want. We’re constantly trying to go out and improve each day in practice and get better. The guys are working hard and we’re excited.
WBR: You lost your top two scorers from last year. Who’s the guy we should watch out for Friday night?
LJ: Right now we’re still trying to identify that guy. We’ve got some guys who have come in and worked hard, but we’re going to be getting things done by committee. No one has stepped up offensively and taken the lead and demanded a bulk of the shots, so right now it’s going to be a committee thing until someone steps up and we find someone who’s going to lead the program.
WBR: How did you guys get involved with the Global Sports Hy-Vee Challenge?
LJ: A friend of mine was telling me about an event where we could play some games and get to play against some stiff competition, and we don’t like to pass that up, so here we are.
WBR: Eight of your guys’ first nine games are on the road. How tough is that? Is it difficult to keep your team motivated and energized during the long road trips?
LJ: We always play a tough preseason schedule. I like to think that it prepares us for our conference. We go out and compete, and our intent is always to win. We know we’ve got a tall order with Creighton here — they’ve got a lot of veteran players, some good shooters, a good inside game — but we’re going to come out and compete and try to have a chance to do something down the stretch.
It just depends on the mentality of the team. What we try to do with the staff and with our leadership is keep the guys motivated knowing that each time we go out is a new chance to win. You’ve got to play like that, with some confidence. Most of the time, the guys are upbeat and excited about the opportunity to compete, and that’s what we try to stress to them.
WBR: What does your team know about Creighton? What’s going to be the biggest challenge Friday Night?
LJ: We don’t know a lot about them. We know that they’ve got some good inside play; we know that they’ve got Korver and those guys that can shoot the ball from long range and really stretch the defense; they’ve got a good point guard who can really get up and down the floor with some quickness and finishes well in the lane. They’ve got a good, balanced team as far as we’ve seen, so we’re just going to go out and try to put ourselves in a position to win.