Key stretch at home awaits Davis, UNH basketball team
Jan. 24—DURHAM — University of New Hampshire men's basketball coach Nathan Davis knows how important it is to have homecourt advantage in the postseason. He's also aware that to earn that advantage, you have to win a good number of your home games during the regular season.
UNH (11-7, 3-2 America East) is 0-2 in conference home games this season, but will be looking to even that record when it faces Binghamton (8-9, 0-4) at Lundholm Gym tonight, and the University of Albany (10-9, 2-2) at home Saturday.
UNH enters tonight's matchup fourth in the America East standings, one spot ahead of UAlbany.
"I think the league is very strong," said Davis, in his first year on UNH after, most recently, an eight-year coaching stint at Bucknell. "We're capable of beating anybody, but I think everyone else is also capable of beating us. So we have to continue to improve and play at a high level because you want to get a higher seed in the tournament so that you play as many games as possible at home. Preferably you finish first so that you can play them all at home. I've been on that side and it's a huge advantage. And it's the way it should be in a one-bid league. I think they're doing it right.
"In the grand scheme of things, when you're trying to build, you're trying to be successful, you have to approach every game like it's an important game. I'm looking at it like (Binghamton) is the only game we have control over right now. That's where our focus needs to be. We have to play our best game Thursday. That's how you build so at the end of the year you're playing in the situation you want to be playing in."
UNH has won three of its last four games, and is 5-2 overall at home this season. The Wildcats rank fourth among America East teams in defense (72.9 ppg) and fifth in offense (76.6).
UNH's Clarence Daniels, a 6-foot-6 forward, leads the conference in scoring (20.2 ppg) and is second in rebounding (9.1 rpg). Daniels, a senior, is 51 points shy of scoring 1,000 points during his college career.
The Wildcats beat Maine, NJIT and UMBC in their three America East road games, but lost to Lowell and Bryant in their only America East home games. They enter tonight's matchup having prevailed in three of their last four outings.
"We certainly haven't played perfectly, but we've played pretty well," Davis said. "Overall I think we've progressed and gotten better and better. Looking forward to seeing how we grow moving forward."
Davis said cutting down on turnovers is one area that needs improvement for that growth to continue. The Wildcats are turning the ball over 12.1 times per game, but that average has increased since conference play began.
"We have to get a hold on that," Davis said. "In the halfcourt, we have to execute better.
"There's always something you have to improve. The key is to keep working to get better at those things while winning games along the way."
