Basile prepared for more as Raiders face life without Love
When Wright FAIRBORN —
State was stunned in the Horizon League quarterfinals by visiting Milwaukee last March, no player took it harder than Grant Basile.
He’d just had a 35-point, 14-rebound night, hitting career highs in both, and the only thing that kept his performance from being considered one of the greatest in program history was the result.
The Panthers went on a 33-9 rampage at the end of regulation and pulled out a 94-92 OT win — the third two-point loss for the Raiders in an ultimately disappointing 18-6 year.
Basile sat alone on the bench afterward, removed his sneakers and spent the next 30 minutes deep in thought.
“Those moments are what make you,” he said of dealing with defeat and resolving to come back stronger.
“That was obviously a really tough game for all of us. That shouldn’t have hap- pened. We just collapsed. And it’s something we’re all looking to avenge.”
Milwaukee and the rest of the league have ample reason to dread facing the Raiders this season, mostly because of the emergence of Basile.
After a 74-72 home loss to Youngstown State last season, dropping the team’s record to 7-3, coach Scott Nagy put the 6-foot-9 forward in the starting lineup with 6-8 center Loudon Love, and both ended up thriving.
Basile averaged 17.1 points and Love 17.0 over the last 14 games and left opponents feeling helpless on defense.
Nagy compares Basile to Mike Daum, a player he recruited to South Dakota State who ended up becom- ing one of the top 10 scor- ers in NCAA history.
Both have lanky frames and an innate ability to pile up points.
“Grant is going to score because it’s just not that hard for him. He’s good at it,” Nagy said.
“He gets to the free-throw line. He’s a good free-throw shooter. He’s a good 3-point shooter. Offe nse c omes pretty naturally to him. But
the defensive side is where we need him most because of who we lost.”
Love was a defensive presence inside, clogging lanes to the basket, but Basile actually led the league in blocks with 1.6 per game.
“That’s a great stat, but there’s a lot that goes into defense besides blocking
shots,” Nagy said. “We need him to be 50 times better defensively.”
Basile knows he’s been lag- ging behind in that department.
“That’s Cqoach Nagy’s big thing. He doesn’t care what you do on the offensive end of the floor. It’s what you bring to the team defensively. I think we’ve all kind of embraced that,” he said.
Few teams could lose a two-time league player of the year like Love and still believe they can improve on last season. But that’s the sentiment around the Raiders.
They also have three other returning starters in wings Tanner Holden (a first-team all-league pick last season) and Tim Finke (an all-de- fensive team selection) and point guard Trey Calvin.
“Every year we go into the season thinking we’re going to have a great year — and I think we could (be better),” Basile said. “We’re going to play faster. We’ll space the floor more. Loudon was obviously a tremendous player. Our team will look different without him. But I think we have a chance to be really special again.”
Basile says he’s grown about a half-inch since last season, measuring 6-9 now in socks.
He’s also grown in con- fidence.
He shot a league-best 61.7% from the field, 47.6 on 3s and 66.3 on foul shots last season.
His 3-point clip would have led the conference if he’d had enough attempts.
That won’t be a problem this season.
“We want him to shoot more 3s,” Nagy said. “It puts a lot of pressure on the defense — particularly at the 5. When he’s playing the 5, it’s hard for teams to guard a guy who can move around.
“He can handle it, and when you can shoot it like he can, it opens up the middle of the floor, which we didn’t have before because Loudon was always in there somewhere.
“Offensively, it could benefit us. But it hurts us in offensive rebounding. If he shoots a jump shot, we don’t have a big guy in there rebounding, where we always did before.”
Basile averaged 7.0 rebounds last season, while Holden was at 7.3 and Finke 7.0.
Nagy still hasn’t settled on a fifth starter, but he seems to be leaning toward a power-forward type who could be active on the glass.
Basile knows it’ll take a collective effort to make up for losing Love’s 10.1 per game, but he’s ready.
“Practicing with Lou made me a better player. He helped me a lot the last three years,” he said. “It’ll be good to assume more responsibility. It was easy to play with him, but it’ll be fun to have a new challenge.”