NCDS: Ken Dempsey, Assoc. Head Coach - New Hampshire

By: Ken Dempsey, Assoc. Head Coach - New Hampshire

It is an early morning as we begin to prepare for our first game in the month of December. We headed to Pittsburgh yesterday and play the Pitt Panthers tonight in what we know will be a big task for our club. Due to the class schedules of several of our team members, we had to practice at 6 a.m. yesterday morning so we could have everyone at practice at once.

We normally don't go with the early morning routine but our travel schedule to head to Pittsburgh forced us to make some adjustments. All in all this should work out well for our team because it will give them time after practice to handle their academic responsibilities for the day.

We are coming off a very impressive win over Marist College which evened our record at 2-2. The victory was a big step for our team for several reasons. First we able to follow through on a very specific gameplan and get off to a good start to the game. We had not been able to do this in our previous games against Maryland and Harvard. We also spent a majority of our prep time for that game letting our guys know how important it was for us to get back on the winning track. While both of those teams are very good, it was a concern to our staff with the start that we had in both games. In addition to the carryover with our gameplan, we received two very good efforts from two of our junior leaders in Dane DiLiegro and Alvin Abreu.

Dane, who scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in our win, is an interesting story. His only Division I scholarship offer after spending a post grad year at Worcester Academy was from UNH. While there were those who wondered what kind of player he would be, Dane brought two great things to our program other than his size (6-9, 240) when he arrived here. Toughness and an ability to work hard each day is what Head Coach Bill Herrion saw in him. Each year he has added more to his game and it is our hope that his improved offensive game will balance his very solid rebounding ability. Dane competes each day and Bill certainly knows how to push him. His hard work has paid off which is backed up by the America East Player of the Week honor which he garnered this week.

We have three games left before we head into exams later this month. The Pitt game is followed by a home contest with the always tough Central Connecticut State Blue Devils before we head out on the road again against Hofstra.

The Pitt game will also present a very noteworthy sidepar. Bill's younger brother, Tom, is the Associate Head Coach for Jamie Dixon's squad. This is just another test for us to get better as a team against one the nation's elite basketball programs. As a staff we preach each day how important it is to practice and compete each and every day. While practice is most difficult step to master for all younger players, Bill always reminds our team how prepared he is for practice each day. He is constantly stressing that to our team. That approach is a trademark of our program.

Go Wildcats!