You kind of feel like there’s something heating up as more teams outside of California get active.
The notable game outside of the West is most certainly Lindenwood traveling to Jonesboro, Ark. to face Arkansas State.
They don’t ease into it, do they?
This is the start of the serious run to a playoff campaign for both teams. Lindenwood Head Coach Josh Macy is under no illusions as to how tough the game will be … because Arkansas State is always tough.
“They’re ranked #7 for a reason,” Macy said, adding that assistant coach (and former Lindenwood player) Corey Harmann ran a film session with the forwards showing old footage of Lions vs Red Wolves games.
“The point was to show that it’s always been like this. They have always been this physical. It’s a really cool occasion and there’s a lot of history in the game. And we have to remember that in some ways we’re the hump they’re trying to get over. For us we have four very competitive games without a break and that’s meant to test all our systems and our urgency and our preparation and to mirror a playoff run.”
Coming off a CRAA Fall Classic win over Mount St. Mary’s in December, ASU is looking for more.
“The boys are eager,” said Head Coach Dominic Shaw. “We’re super excited. Lindenwood always poses a physical challenge. We just want to make sure that we can make them play to our tempo and that control the ball on attack. That experience at the Fall Classic was really nice. Playing Mount was different, and the guys at CRAA make a hell of an effort to put it on. What we took out of it is we have to be sure about our discipline.”
Interesting Shaw says that, because Macy is looking maybe to unleash his players a bit.
“We need to play with an edge,” he said. “We are at our best when we do that and we have to play that way, not just reserve it for each other at home on a Tuesday.”
