Nagy still believes Raiders are Horizon League’s top team
WSU 8-10 overall, 0-7 in games decided by seven points or fewer.
Wright State coach FAIRBORN —
Scott Nagy paused as if needing time to think when a TV reporter asked him to discuss what his team has been doing well.
The Raiders are 8-10 overall, 2-3 in the Horizon League and have just six wins over Division I teams, so it’s probably understandable that Nagy wasn’t prepared to rattle off a bunch of positive traits.
“I don’t know if we do any- thing WELL,” he said. “We haven’t been very consistent offensively. We’ve had games where we really scored it well, and we’ve had games where we absolutely can’t shoot the ball.
“Defensively, we’re better than we were earlier in the year, but against Northern Kentucky, we gave up a lot of easy baskets (in a 68-64 loss Friday). But we’re the best defensive rebounding team in the league. Our kids are playing hard. Even though we’re not as big as some of the other teams, we’re still rebounding well.”
Despite the erratic play, Nagy hasn’t lost faith. The Raiders were the preseason conference favorites, and he expects them to live up to that billing the rest of the way.
“I still believe we’ve got the best team in the league,” he said, noting that they’ve already faced the top four teams in the standings, three on the road. “I look at how we played against UIC, how poorly we shot the ball, and we ended up in overtime (losing 75-72 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer). That makes me feel good about
continued from C1 our team.
“I look at how poorly we played at Northern Kentucky, and we lost by four. I just know if we get our kids’ con- fidence right, there’s not a game we can’t win for sure.”
The Raiders have plenty of time to make a title run with 13 league games left, including Youngstown State (6-13, 2-4) tonight and Cleveland State (5-14, 0-6) on Saturday, but they’ll have to start pull- ing out close games and fare better on the road to do it.
They’re 0-7 in games decided by seven points or fewer. In all seven defeats, they either had a lead, were tied or were within two points with less than two minutes to go.
“When you have a season where you struggle, you look back, and that’s what you say (went wrong). And when you have a season where you win 25 games, like we did last year, you win a lot of those games,” Nagy said.
The Raiders were 10-5 in games decided by seven points or fewer in 2017-18.
“That’s what we have to figure out how to do — not just play close games, but win them,” Nagy said.
Reversing their fortunes away from the Nutter Cen- ter seems doable given the remaining schedule. Though they’re just 1-6 on the road (1-8 counting neutral-site games), five of their final six road games are against teams ranked 221st or worse in the RPI standings.
The Raiders, who are ranked 200th, have never won fewer than three road games since going 0-12 in 2002-03.
“The team that wins the league every year wins at least half of their road games and probably all of their home games,” Nagy said. “We have some work to do. We still have a lot of road games left, and we’ve played pretty much the top of the league to this point. We know going on the road is how you win championships.”
Streaking: Junior point guard Cole Gentry has made 31 straight free throws over his last eight games and is shooting 94.8 percent, second in the nation. Only Oklahoma State’s Lindy Waters III is shooting better at 95.7 percent.
Jesse Deister holds the school record for consecutive free throws with 47 and season percentage at 94.9 in 2000-01.