NATCHITOCHES – As part of a family of educators, there is little more Mike McConathy likes to do than teach.
 
With the typical non-conference schedule McConathy and his staff built for their Northwestern State men's basketball team, there was little time to offer detailed instruction early as the Demons played five games in the first 11 days of the season.
 
The five days ahead of Saturday's 4 p.m. matinee matchup against Champion Christian in Prather Coliseum gave McConathy a chance to get back to his roots. Saturday's game can be heard on 95.9 FM Kix Country and the Demon Sports Network while free streaming audio is available on www.NSUDemons.com and the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app. Subscription video can be accessed at www.NSUDemons.com and through the app as well.
 
"I think that made a real difference in our game against ULM because we really didn't have time to get better from one game to the next," he said. "It's really nice if you can play then have two or three days to go over what you didn't do correctly. We scored on 37 of our 81 possessions in that game and scored 83 points, which is enough to win a game unless you're not defending or you're not rebounding, so there's been a lot of teaching that's been going on."
 
Saturday's matchup between the Demons (0-5) and Cougars (1-0) finds Northwestern State in a bit of a unique spot for the 2020-21 season.
 
For the first time, the Demons have the physical advantage as Champion Christian's roster three players standing 6-foot-4 or taller. Through much of their early season schedule, the Demons have been the ones defending bigger players, which has affected NSU's shooting percentage.
 
Northwestern State enters Saturday's game shooting 34.2 percent from 3-point range and 40.7 percent from inside the arc. Conversely, NSU opponents are hitting 56.1 percent of their 2-point shots and 35.7 percent from long range.
 
"Some of it has to do with our individual personnel getting in position to be successful," McConathy said. "A lot of it has to do with the size of the opponents we've played. You had the Texas Techs and the TCUs. Louisiana Tech was pretty much bigger than we were, and UTA was a tad bit larger, but they were a difficult matchup.
 
"Playing larger opponents with more size, those things have an impact. We've got some larger opponents coming up after this Saturday. It will be a challenge, but it's something we can work on."
 
One thing that worked for Northwestern State in the loss to ULM was its depth. Despite losing three rotation players for the game, the Demons got a boost from up and down their bench.
 
Few loomed larger than the contributions from John Norvel and Robert Chougkaz.
 
Norvel continued to be a vital piece of the Demon point guard rotation, handing out four assists while not committing a turnover. Chougkaz, meanwhile, played a career-high 19 minutes, scoring a season-best five points and grabbing a career-high six rebounds.
 
"He did a great job," McConathy said. "He had six rebounds. He made a 3-pointer. I kind of got onto him because he wasn't shooting the ball, and he does that well. It was a great growth game for him."
 
The game will be an exhibition for Champion Christian, which is a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association. The Cougars defeated Bacone College on Oct. 30 in their lone countable game this season.
 
Champion Christian fell to LSU-Shreveport on Nov. 10 before facing Houston Baptist on Friday night, less than 24 hours before taking on NSU.