Drexel Looking Forward To NIT Season Tip-Off
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – After a solid split of a couple of tough road games to start the season, the Drexel Dragons are getting ready for the NIT Season Tip-Off. They will open that up on Monday when they play Elon in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Drexel opened the season out in Los Angeles with a 72-67 loss to #24 UCLA last Friday. Then on Wednesday, the Dragons traveled out to Normal, Illinois, and picked up a 78-70 win over Illinois State.
"I liked our energy," Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint tells KYW Newsradio. "I thought we played hard. We've got to clean up some things at the end of the games. We had a nice lead against Illinois State, played a little sloppy at the end and made it a little closer than it should've been. Then against UCLA we had our chances to win at the end of the game, but we made some sloppy plays and then some turnovers not to win it. But I like our energy and I like how hard our guys have been playing."
Bruiser Flint Interview
Flint hopes that energy leads to a run in this tournament.
"It's always great to be in the Preseason NIT," Flint says. "Get a couple game on TV if you continue to win. It's one of the most popular tournaments. So hopefully we can get a couple, get to New York City, because that's all the guys talk about, we would like to be playing in New York over Thanksgiving."
Elon is 2-0 (they will visit Charlotte on Friday, prior to the match-up with Drexel) this season and went 21-12 a season ago.
"They shoot a lot of three pointers," Flint says. "They're a really high scoring team (94.5 a game so far this season). They're going to be in our conference (CAA) next year, so we get a little sneak peek of them. They have pretty good size, they have a 6'8" small forward and two 6'9" guys they start in the front court. They are picked to win the Southern Conference this year, so we're going to be going against a really good team."
Winner of this game plays the winner of Rutgers and Canisius on Tuesday. The losers of the two games meet in a consolation match-up, also on Tuesday.
Monday's game will tip-off at 5:00pm.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
