Raiders’ rebounding a work in progress
FAIRBORN — Wright State coach Scott Nagy doesn’t like to nitpick after a win. He knows they need to be savored, especially during an up-and-down season like the current one has turned out to be.
But he couldn’t avoid zeroing in on the Raiders’ rebounding effort — or, in this case, lack of effort — in their 95-81 win over Milwaukee on Saturday.
Nagy was flabbergasted that they were so thoroughly manhandled on the boards. Not only were they out-rebounded, 35-21, but they finished with just one offensive rebound — yep, one single solitary offensive rebound in 40 minutes of action.
“I’ve never seen that in my entire career,” he said. “I can’t believe it.”
He’s been a head coach for 29 years and in the business for 36. But that stat is so eye-poppingly abnormal that he’s probably not exaggerating.
Making it even harder to comprehend was that the one credited to the Raiders wasn’t actually a rebound in the traditional sense. A missed shot by sub Logan Woods ended being a tugof-war battle until a ref blew his whistle for a jump ball.
The possession arrow was in Wright State’s favor, making it a team rebound in the stat sheet.
“We didn’t have one guy with one offensive rebound — not one guy,” Nagy said.
“I’m sure in my entire career — and that’s a heck of a lot of games at this point — that’s never happened. I’ve never seen it. And for us to win and not do that amazes me even more.”
Considering they had as many offensive rebounds as the guy eating popcorn in the second deck, his players were sheepish about their feeble showing.
“The biggest thing from this game was our rebounding,” senior wing Tanner Holden said. “We got our butts kicked. Thank God it didn’t translate into a loss.”
The Raiders are in the middle of the pack in the Horizon League at a meager plus1.4 rebounds per game.
They’ve never been out-rebounded in Nagy’s eight years. But they were only plus-2.2 and plus-1.2 the previous two seasons, and the coach wants to see them rule the boards like they did in 2020-21.
That Loudon Love-led squad had a plus-9.3 edge, which was sixth-best in the country.
Nagy said of this year’s average: “That’s not great — not for what we’ve done historically. We don’t have a great rebounding team, and I’m frustrated by it because I think we should be.
“Part of it is we’re not a great defensive team. If you’re a better defensive team, there’s more defensive rebounds. That’s where you get most of your rebounds.”
Brandon Noel is third in the league with a 7.8 average.
But Holden is snagging only 6.0 per game, which is his lowest average in four years.
And center A.J. Braun, though he plays fewer minutes than the other starters (23.1 per game), has just a 5.3 average.
“It doesn’t happen very often that you get beat by 14 on the glass and you win. You’re going to have to shoot a high percentage like we did in order to combat that,” Nagy said.
The Raiders hit 78.6% in the second half and 63.6% overall.
They topped 90 points for the seventh time this season.
But as prolific as they’ve been on offense, that’s probably going to catch up with them in a crucial game.
It almost did against Milwaukee.
GOOD CROWD: The Raiders have been the league leaders in attendance for years, and they were averaging 4,146 going into the Milwaukee game.
The school held a free T-shirt night and drew a crowd that was listed at 5,398.
After a listless showing in the Green Bay loss on Thursday, the players seemed to respond to the turnout.
“We had a great crowd. I appreciate that. It makes a difference,” Nagy said.
“I thought our administration did a great job getting people here and promoting it. I think that really helped our players with their energy.”