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November 2009
Of buzzer beaters and all that
FAIRBORN — Losses aren’t easily forgotten at Wright State, and they can even spark the basketball team to better games.
“It’s easier to come back after a loss,” senior Todd Brown said Sunday afternoon, a day following a bitter, 70-67 loss at Northeastern on a nearly-half court buzzer-beater. “You’re so bitter about that last loss, you’re ready to get out on the court and prove you’re going to win some more games.”
Said Vaughn Duggins, who has been at school as long as Brown, but is a junior athletically since he was hurt last season.
“They hurt (tough losses), but it’s a shorter time. You have to force yourself to get over them (and onto the next game).”
While Brown and Duggins have been at WSU, the team has compiled a 67-35 record with many games decided in the final seconds. Last season, the Raiders lost at Central Michigan on a 3-point shot with eight seconds to go that sent the game into overtime where they lost on another 3-point shot with under two seconds to play. They also lost in overtime at UIC in a game Josh Mayo tied on a 3-point shot with two seconds left.
There was a game two years ago at the Nutter Center this week’s opponent, Cleveland State, won on a 3-point shot with 12 seconds left, and a game to end the regular season at Valparaiso lost on an off-balance last-second 3-point shot.
Brownell lost a classic buzzer battle in a first-round NCAA game in 2003 when he was coaching North Carolina-Wilmington against defending NCAA champion Maryland. That was the game Vandalia native John Goldsberry set an NCAA tourney record by making all eight of his 3-point shots.
Wilmington was up by a point and denying Maryland star Steve Blake the ball when Drew Nicholas drove the length of the court and with two players in his face, lofted a 3-point shot from the corner than won the game 75-73.
“You don’t want to look back and remember all the losses,” Duggins said. “You want to remember the good things.”
Wright State beat Miami by a point on a last-second drive by DaShaun Wood in 2006 and the next year, Brown beat the RedHawks with a final shot at the buzzer.
Remember what you will.
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A long, long shot to lose
BOSTON — I remember once Daytonian Bill Hosket telling me how he was on the bench for the New York Knicks during the 1970 playoffs against Los Angeles and he watched Jerry West launch a 70-foot shot that absolutely had no chance of being good.
In those days, there were no 3-point shots, and the Lakers were down by two.
“I watched the shot and I thought, ‘That’s going through,’” Hosket said, and it did, to send the game to overtime.
Saturday afternoon, I had the same feeling at Matthews Arena, where Wright State and Northeastern were locked in a 67-67 draw.
Wright State had the ball with 38 seconds to play and drained the clock to just a few seconds when Vaughn Duggins appeared to be open near the right elbow of the lane. He let the ball go with aobut four seconds left, but it was short.
Northeastern’s Chaisson Allen took the rebound, took a couple of dribbles, then one more just over midcourt and let go.
“I had a funny feeling,” Duggins said. “Everyone in the gym was thinking overtime. But I followed the ball, and it went in. It just kills you.”
Northeastern celebrated among an announced crowd of 945 at Matthews Arena, but students are on vacation and there might have been 300 in the place.
Once again, Todd Brown and Duggins led the Raiders in scoring, with 17 and 16 points, and the defense was excellent at the game’s start, but to win, WSU can’t be allowing 70 points, even on the road, even to a good team.
Wright State played a tough team tough. It just wasn’t quite enough.
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Raiders lose at buzzer
BOSTON — Northeastern’s Chaisson Allen took two dribbles past mid-court and launched a 40-foot shot that stripped the net and gave the Huskies a 70-67 victory over Wright State today at historic Matthews Arena.
The Raiders entered the game with a three-game winning streak and led by as many as 14 points in the first half. Northeastern cut that lead to four at the half and took a seven-point lead in the second half before WSU tied the game.
Allen ‘s two free throws with 38.8 seconds to play tied the game for the last time at 67-67 and Vaughn Duggins took the last shot for the Raiders, a 12-footer that bounced off the front of the rim with just a few seconds to play.
Allen grabbed the rebound, dribbled just past mid-court and let go.
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Raiders ranked among mid-majors
BOSTON — CollegeInsider.com lists today’s game between Wright State and Northeastern as one of the better ones among mid-major schools.
In its weekly ranking, CI lists WSU as the No. 13 team and Northeastern as No. 16. A new listing will come out Monday.
Of course, No. 1 is Butler, a companion of WSU in the Horizon League, while Gonzaga, a national power for a long time, is listed as No. 2.
Detroit, another Horizon League team, is off to a fast start, so it is listed at No. 20.
Wright State, on a three-game winning streak, plays at 2 p.m. today at Matthews Arena.
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Coach Brownell hammers home defense
FAIRBORN — There are always parts to a basketball game a coach isn’t going to like. For instance, the defense in the second half or the shot selection or the inability for anyone to block out underneath.
While he liked the overall results — two victories in three games in the Athletes in Action Classic in Seattle — from more than a week ago, he did find fault in the defense.
After all, the Raiders allowed the fewest points in the Horizon League last season, an average of only 57.5 a game.
So when the Raiders gave up an average of 72.3 points on the road trip, WSU coach Brad Brownell thought he had to do something about it.
He hounded his players to play better defense, and Central Michigan paid the price. The Chippewas are a team that likes to shoot from the outside. Brownell surmised his team could stop that from happening and hold CMU’s inside game down enough to win.
That’s exactly what happened in Tuesday’s 69-53 victory, during which CMU was just 4-of-9 from 3-point range, down from a usual 8.5-for-22.5.
It helped that Vaughn Duggins came back to contribute 21 points off the bench, and Todd Brown added 20, the third time this season he has gone over the 20-point mark. He had five of those games all last season.
Duggins was obvious in his defensive prowess, but maybe Ronnie Thomas and Cory Cooperwood were not. Thomas, who didn’t score any points, led the team with six rebounds, five of them on defense. Cooperwood, who scored seven points, had four rebounds, three on defense.
Now comes a game at Northeastern on Saturday against a team that has allowed an average of just 60 points to two teams and is 1-1. Northeastern knows something about defense, too.
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Raiders win third straight
FAIRBORN — With junior guard Vaughn Duggins coming off the bench to play his first game in nearly a year and scoring 21 points, the Wright State Raiders secured a 69-53 victory over Central Michigan tonight at the Nutter Center.
It was the third straight victory for the Raiders, who went to 3-1.
Duggins, who was hurt almost all of last season and did not play in the first three games this year because of a suspension, entered the game with 16:38 to play in the first half to applause from the crowd of 5,588.
He missed his first shot from the three-point line, then drove the lane for a layup and drew the foul for a three-point play with 14:17 left.
While his play helped, it may not have been needed as the Raiders showed renewed interest in playing defense, holding CMU to only five 3-point shots in the first half (3 made).
The Chippewas had been averaging more than 22 3-point shots a game, but couldn’t find many against the Raiders.
Meanwhile, senior Todd Brown made all four of his 3-point shots in the first half and finished with 20 points.
Last year, the Raiders played at Central Michigan and lost 70-68 in overtime after leading by 10 points with just more than four minutes to play in regulation and by five with just under three minutes left in overtime.
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Memory of last year still burns
FAIRBORN — Cooper Land says he is playing better this year because everyone else is, too.
‘It makes it a lot easier,” said Land after he finished a Monday afternoon practice to get ready for Tuesday’s game against Central Michigan. “Everyone kind of grew up. We’re not taking anyone for granted.”
This has been a recurring theme with the Raiders, who don’t rely on excuses for their poor 0-6 start to last season. They say they didn’t take the game as seriously as they should have.
“In practices (now) we have enthusiasm,” said Land, who has come off the bench to score 27 points in three games. “Everyone wants to play. There more team spirit. When the coaches talked to us at the beginning of last year and said we weren’t practicing hard enough, I don’t think any of us believed them. I think we just thought it was coach talk.”
Six games later, they found out and finally saved their season to go 20-13. This year, they hope not to hit a downturn.
“There’s better chemistry on this team,” Land said. “We’re looking forward to coming to practice.”
Meanwhile, the media is noticing. Associate head coach Billy Donlon as well as players Todd Brown and John David Gardner were on Channel 22 Monday morning at 8:20 and today Jim Bucher of Channel 2 will broadcast live from the Nutter Center at 5:45, 6:15 and 6:45 this morning.
Prior to the game tonight, Mark Schlemmer will do his WONE-AM (980) sports talk show from the Nutter Center and following the game, Scott Leo will host a post-game review from BD Mongolian Grill in The Greene.
Donlon said he wants the Raiders to “compete at the national level this year,” which it already has, losing by just five points at No. 14 Washington in the opening game.
Also tonight, former Dayton Daily News sports writer Chick Ludwig will be honored by WSU during a time out. Hal McCoy, who recently retired from the DDN along with Ludwig, will also be honored, on Dec. 3.
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Different week, different challenge for Raiders
FAIRBORN — Each week is different, Wright State coach Brad Brownell was saying. He has a different approach each week to match.
If he thinks his players are tired, Brownell pulls back on practice. If he thinks the team needs more conditioning, he adds that element.
This early in the season, he’s not so sure what the team will need.
“It’s early in the year,” Brownell said in the wake of winning two games in three days at the Athletes in Action Classic in Seattle. “We’re still trying to figure things out. We didn’t play as well as we needed to if we’re going to be good.
“We shot the ball at a terrific percentage (54 percent), but certainly, we’re glad to be adding Vaughn (Duggins). Now, we’ve got to assimilate him back into the team and see how that affects everything else.”
Games will come rapidly now, but more evenly-spaced. Tuesday, Central Michigan invades the Nutter Center. A year ago, the Raiders went to CMU’s place, squandered a late lead and lost in overtime. This year, Duggins joins the team for the first time this season after sitting out most off last season with an injury. He played in the CMU game and scored only eight points.
After Tuesday’s game, the Raiders go to Northeastern in Boston for a 2 p.m. Saturday game after which, suddenly, the Horizon League begins. Wright State hosts Cleveland State on Thursday, Dec. 3 and Youngstown State on Saturday, Dec. 5.
The next HL game won’t be played until the Raiders visit Chicago for games at Loyola and UIC Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.
Why are the first two games set apart from the others? The entire Horizon League participates in ESPN’s Bracket Busters event on Feb. 19-20. That means that weekend can’t be used for league games. Also, the league tournament — again set up to help get some of the games on television, lasts more than a weekend.
That means two games have to be played earlier, and league commissioner Jon LeCrone said most schools have either exams or trips planned for late December. That means two games have to be moved to early December.
And, as Brownell says, what you see now may not be what you see later in the season. It’s just that right now, what you see from the Raiders is mostly good.
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Duggins can set his own pace in return
FAIRBORN — Practice looked as usual earlier today.
It’s next Tuesday things will look different. That’s when Vaughn Duggins returns to action.
“I have a lot of work to do,” said Duggins, who has been practicing with the team all fall. “I can’t tell you how excited I am. Last night, I couldn’t get to sleep thinking about it.”
Duggins played in three games last season then, during a Thanksgiving Day practice, injured the ring finger on his right, shooting hand. It was thought to be a bad sprain at first, and Duggins had the finger taped to his middle finger while he attempted to play at Sam Houston State on the following Saturday.
He played. He led the team with 16 points. The Raiders lost and Duggins had his finger x-rayed when he returned home. It was broken, and while there was hope it would heal enough for him to return during the season, it didn’t. After deciding on a medical redshirt year, he had some clean-up done on an ankle.
He pointed to this year when he was picked up near campus on an OVI charge. Coach Brad Brownell suspended him for the first three games of the season, all in Seattle. The Raiders won two, so they’re not exactly needy. Into that situation walks a guy who left the program as its best player.
“It’s been awhile,” Duggins said. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m going in there and competing again.”
“Your program is always trying to be bigger than one player,” Brownell said, “but players make a difference. We played all last year without him. We did alright. And we did fine in Seattle. But I’m glad we have him back.”
Talk about your best of both worlds. The Raiders are playing well — especially at guard — and now a player of Duggins’ ability is back in the lineup with no pressure on him to perform at his best immediately.
In three games, WSU guards Troy Tabler, Todd Brown, N’Gai Evans, Scott Grote and Darian Cartharn made 48 of their 90 shots (53.3 percent) and Tyler Koch — also a good shooter — didn’t play long enough to take a shot.
So the Raiders seem set at guard, and Duggins hasn’t even played yet.
By the end of next month, John David Gardner might even join the mix. He has been out with a hip injury.
The Raiders could be in for a very nice season.
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Raiders did it right
FAIRBORN — Unlike the Wright State basketball team, I did some other stuff out in Seattle over the weekend.
The Raiders, of course, just played basketball, although they did walk two blocks one night for dinner, and following closing ceremonies on Sunday (they won two of three games and nearly beat No. 14 Washington), they sang happy birthday and had cake for point guard N’Gai Evans and coach Brad Brownell at Red Robin.
You know, if you want a little of Seattle’s atmosphere, go to Red Robin. They’re all the same, I’m told.
Anyway, the Raiders didn’t have time to walk eight blocks to the Pike Street Market or take a short tram ride to the Space Needle or do anything else.
The games were Friday, Saturday and Sunday against Washington, Portland State and Belmont. WSU arrived Thursday before noon and went directly to practice. The team took the red-eye home Sunday night.
Todd Brown and Troy Tabler made the Athletes in Action all-tournament team. Everybody played, and generally played well. It was a basketball-only trip for them.
I, on the other hand, was with my wife, so there was a little sight-seeing involved, which I add here in case you’re planning a future visit.
The Space Needle offers a spectacular view. My wife took a boat trip around Puget Sound (even I didn’t have time for that) and saw the water house used in Sleepless in Seattle. She said it recently sold for $2.5 million.
Okay, we weren’t going to be in the ballpark on that one.
One morning we even took a trip through the Seattle underground, where the city was first built.
You could also spend hours and hours in the market, which we didn’t, but at least we walked through and it was fascinating.
Now, I’m trying to shake a cold and the Raiders are taking exams. A few of them have spent some time shooting around at the Stezer Pavilion or lifting weights, but the next scheduled practice isn’t until Thursday. The next game in Tuesday, vs. Central Michigan.
That’s the same Central Michigan that came from behind to beat the Raiders in overtime at Mount Pleasant last season.
“After exams this week, all we’ll have to concentrate on is basketball,” said WSU senior Todd Brown.
He certainly isn’t going to go sight-seeing.
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What a difference a year makes
SEATTLE — Three games into last season, guard Todd Brown scored 11 points. He scored none in the third game, against Miami. Wright State was 0-3, on its way to 0-6.
Three games into this season, Brown has scored 57 points, including 25 during an 82-73 victory over Belmont on Sunday. The Raiders are 2-1.
Three games into last season, guard Troy Tabler had scored 14 points. He also scored none agianst Miami.
Three games into this season, Tabler has 36 points.
Sunday night, both were named to the All-Tournament team in the Athletes in Action Classic at the University of Washington, where the host Huskies won all three games, WSU won two and Belmont one. Washington’s closest game was against WSU, a team Washington beat by five.
“Todd is playing like a senior,” WSU coach Brad Brownell said. “He’s playing like a guy who has urgency. He’s not longer just a shooter. He’s making more plays off the dribble.”
“We pretty much worked over the summer and it’s paying off,” Brown said. “We know we’re a good team. We play defense, and our defense helps our offense. I wanted to come out 3-0, but I take 2-1. It’s a lot better than 0-6.”
After Sunday’s game, the Raiders ate near the airport and took the redeye to Cincinnati, where they expected to arrive about 7 a.m. Monday. Then, they faced a bus trip back to campus and exams this week.
Their next game in Tuesday, Nov. 24, vs. Central Michigan at the Nutter Center. Not only is it WSU’s only home game of the month, it will be the season debut for former All-Horizon League guard Vaughn Duggins, who sat out almost all of last season with an injury.
Duggins was on this trip and practiced with the team, but was suspended by Brownell for an off-court incident.
“The guys are excited about having him back,” Brownell said.
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Raiders win again in Seattle
SEATTLE — It took three weeks for Wright State to win its first game last year, and another week to win its second.
Sunday, the Raiders matched that two-game winning streak in the basketball season’s third game in three nights, defeating Belmont 82-73 in the Athletes in Action Classic at the University of Washington.
After falling short in a comeback on Friday against No. 14 Washington, 74-69, the Raiders beat Portland State 75-70 on Saturday and then Belmont on Sunday.
The games were significant because all four teams in the Classic won at least 20 games last season and WSU was the only one of the four that didn’t go to a post-season tournament.
A year ago, the Raiders lost six games before they won once.
For the second time in three games, senior guard Todd Brown led the Raiders, scoring 25 points. He was joined by Troy Tabler who had 16 and Cory Cooperwood who added 12.
After an early close game, the Raiders held the Bruins scoreless for about 7:30 in the first half and led 43-27.
That lead expanded to 52-27 early in the second half when Belmont staged a comeback that cut WSU’s margin to just 11.
A 3-point Tabler basket stopped the bleeding and WSU was out of danger, although Belmont cut it to 9 in the final minute.
After the game, the Raiders were to take a redeye flight home, arriving in Cincinnati about 7 a.m. Monday, then bussing home to Fairborn, where they face exam week.
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Maturity makes a difference
SEATTLE — Talent usually wins out, but maturity means alot as well.
Take Wright State, for instance, with four seniors and five juniors. Maturity can make a difference in how a team handles itself when it trails by 18 points or when it leads by the same margin.
In two days, WSU found itself on both sides of that deficit.
Friday, trailing Washington by 18 less than four minutes into the second half, WSU cut the final score to 74-69. It was a loss, but the Raiders never looked like they thought they were out of the game.
Saturday, it was the other way around. WSU was up by 18 at almost the same juncture in the game, beating Portland State. And Portland State came back to the Raiders, cutting the margin to just four points before the Raiders won, 75-70.
To some, there was a big difference in the teams. Washington is ranked No. 14 and Portland State is unranked, but the Vikings have attended the NCAA tournament in each of the last two seasons and has two starters back from last season’s 23-10 record.
Wright State might be more experienced than that.
“Hopefully, we have a mature team, an older team,” WSU coach Brad Brownell said. “We have to do it one more time against a good Belmont team (Sunday night).”
Senior Cory Cooperwood, who was in foul trouble for most of Friday’s game, was able to play more on Saturday and responded with a team-high 19 points.
“Coach was more eager to see how we were going to bounce back,” Cooperwood said. “I think we showed how well we could bounce back. We wish we would have won Friday, but yesterday’s over. It’s a long season.”
Cooperwood put faith in his coach.
“I knew we needed some stops,” Cooperwood said of the end-game vs. Portland State. “I knew coach Brownell was going to give us the right instructions.”
Maturity, and talent, won out.
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Raiders even record at 1-1
SEATTLE — It became much closer than they would have liked at the end, but Wright State held off Portland State 75-70 tonight in the Raiders’ second game of the Athletes in Action Classic at Bank of America Arena.
Cory Cooperwood scored 19 points, Troy Tabler 16 and Todd Brown and N’Gai Evans 11 each as WSU went to 1-1 on the season.
In a near image of Friday night’s game, one team moved way ahead, then had to hold off the opposition in the final minutes.
Only Friday, it was host Washington holding an 18-point lead early in the second half before WSU closed to within six, eventually losing 74-69.
Today, Wright State made five straight 3-point shots to take an early 15-3 lead and didn’t seem to be in any trouble as the Raiders increased their lead to 50-32 in the first six minutes of the second half.
Uh, oh, that was an 18-point lead. And it quickly evaporated, or at least most of it, as the Vikings closed to 56-51 with just under seven minutes to play.
When Portland State’s Dominic Waters hit a 3-point shot with 31 seconds left, the Vikings trailed only 70-65. Nine seconds later, Melvin Jones hit a 3-point shot to close the score to 72-68, but that was it.
Sunday night, the Raiders finish the tournament with a game against Belmont, which faced Washington in tonight’s final game.
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No excuses; Raiders just got beat
FAIRBORN — In his world, Wright State basketball coach Brad Brownell thinks excuses don’t exist.
He doesn’t want to hear that he has a player hurt and another injured. He doesn’t want to hear the officiating didn’t go quite his way. He doesn’t want to hear he was playing on the other team’s court, 2,000 miles from home.
Oh, he’ll mention those factors casually from time to time, but when he loses a game, it’s always about how his team could have played better, not that somebody else had the advantage.
So it was Friday night when the Raiders visited Bank of America Arena, home of former coach Marv Harshman’s Court.
They lost, 74-69 to No. 14 Washington, with senior Todd Brown scoring 21 points and junior N’Gai Evans adding 17. It was not enough to overcome Isaiah Thomas, who poured in 30, and wiggled his way to the foul line enough to make 14 of 18 free throws.
“No, I’m not happy about how we played,” said WSU coach Brad Brownell, who told his team so at halftime when it trailed by 12. “We missed some open shots. Our defense wasn’t very good.”
The second half was better, so Brownell relented a little.
“We playd a very good team reasonably well,” he said.
He refused to say anything about not having suspended junior Vaughn Duggins or injured senior John David Gardner in the lineup. He refused to say maybe top rebounder Cory Cooperwood did not deserve two fouls in the first two minutes, necessitating his being taken out of the game for most of the half.
He refused to say most of the crowd of 8,239 was for Washington.
“That disrespects your players who played and the team you played,” Brownell said. “We certainly felt we had a chance to come in here and win a game.”
That’s the way Brown and Evans felt.
“We came out a little sluggish,” Brown said. “The shots weren’t falling for us. Any time you see somebody who’s good or (people think are) better than you, you want to win. I wanted to win real bad.
“You’ve got to play every game, whether it’s Central State (in an exhibition game) or Washington. We were trying our best.”
Evans, who a year and a half ago was being contemplated for a redshirt season but was pressed into service because of injuries to others, said he never gave up.
“We were just playing the game to win,” Evans said. “We don’t give up. It started when the ball was tipped up.”
Brownell is concerned with the two other games his team has to play in this tournament, tonight’s game with Portland State, and Sunday’s with Belmont. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m., Dayton time.
“Sometimes you’re down because you lost to a ranked team, then you have to play somebody else the next day,” Brownell said.
Well, it happened to the Raiders once before. They lost in a three-game tournament to No. 17 LSU in 2006-07, Brownell’s first season. The next two nights, they beat Samford and Mississinawa Valley State.
That was a long time ago, Brownell said, who used that tournament as a springboard to his first 20-win season and hasn’t missed the mark since.
It might also have set a trend.
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Wright State close, but not quite enough
SEATTLE - Putting up a late-game fight few in the crowd of about 8,000 expected, the Wright State Raiders made a close game of their opener with Washington tonight.
Trailing by as many as 18 points, the Raiders made a comeback that closed the score to just six points with just more than five minutes to play, but couldn’t shake the No. 14 Huskies before losing 74-69 at Bank of America Arena.
Todd Brown led the Raiders with 21 points and point guard N’Gai Evans scored 17, although both were outdone by Washington sophomore Isaiah Thomas, who scored 30.
Saturday, WSU plays Portland State as the Athletes in Action Classic tournament continues. It finished Sunday with WSU playing Belmont. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m. Dayton time.
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Raiders looking for way to win
SEATTLE — Wright State’s basketball team walked a few blocks from its downtown hotel Thursday night to eat dinner at Fox Sports Grill.
You know, why not? The place had a ton of televisions. And what does a college kid know from food?
Before that, the players spent the day on a bus to Cincinnati and a non-stop plane trip to Seattle. When their luggage didn’t come off the conveyor belt in timely fashion, coach Brad Brownell decided to skip checking into the hotel right away, instead instructing the bus driver to head directly for Bank of America Arena, home of Marv Harshman Court.
The Raiders practiced an hour and a half, then checked into the hotel.
Today, they’ll wake up, walk around a little, eat, have a few meetings, have a final walk-through at the arena, rest, then head back for tonight’s game against No. 14 Washington (No. 13 if you believe the ESPN/Coaches poll).
Wright State is 6-17 against ranked teams and 1-14 on the road. The only road victory was the famous 90-87 double overtime victory at then No. 20 Butler on Jan. 2, 2002. Ed Schilling coached that team.
Anyway, don’t think just because Washington is ranked so high and WSU will be operating without star guards Vaughn Duggins (suspension) and John David Gardner (injury), the Raiders will be thinking more of Saturday’s game against Portland State or Sunday’s game vs. Belmont.
“I’m pretty honest in what I tell our guys before games,” Brownell said. “I tell them what my expectations are. I don’t tell them every team we’re getting ready to play are the Lakers.
“There’s always a way to win. Every game is different. You have to play better against certain teams. You have to play a more perfect game. That’s just the nature of your opponent. There’s always a way to devise a way to win.”
Washington has three starters returning from a team that was 26-9 last season and went two deep in the NCAA tournament. Wright State was 20-13 last season and didn’t play in the post season. Four starters return, but two of them are Duggins and Gardner, sort of. Duggins didn’t play much last year because of injury, and Gardner missed a third of the season, because of injury.
That gave N’Gai Evans plenty of playing time. We’ll see what that means tonight, and if the rest of the team can help him.
“There’s always a way, absolutely, that team can beat you, and you better know what it is,” Brownell said. “And then your players better know what it is. You better be prepared to keep that from happening.”
There’s also a way to figure out how to beat a team better than you as well. Brownell spent the night trying to figure that out.
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Raiders get 4 commitments for next season
FAIRBORN — Wright State basketball coach Brad Brownell always likes to praise his coaches.
“I would like to commend my coaching staff for their hard work and efforts in securing what we feel is a strong recruiting class for Wright State University,” Brownell said just prior to conducting an early-afternoon practice today. “We feel we have met the majority of our recruiting needs with this class.”
Not only does WSU have a commitment for four players for next season, but confirmed the admission of Chaminade Julienne’s Matt Vest as well. Vest, a senior who just turned 17, will walk on next season and receive a scholarship beginning in 2011.
Vest, at 6-foot-4, stands in the middle of a recruiting class that includes 6-9 A.J. Pacher of Vandalia Butler; 6-7 Cole Darling of Holt, Mich.; 6-4 Kegan Clark of Jeffersonville, Ind., and 5-11 Cory Stanton of Springfield, Tenn.
As juniors, Pacher averaged 15.5 points and 9.2 rebounds, Darling averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds, Clark 14 points and 7 rebounds and Stanton 19.1 points and 7.5 assists.
The coaching staff that pulled this class together: associate head coach Billy Donlon, Victor Ebong, Mike Winiecki, director of basketball operations Scott Woods and administrative assistant Lucas McKay as well as strength coach Jason Bradford.
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All letters in at WSU
FAIRBORN — By mid-morning, all four Wright State men’s basketball recruits had faxed in their national letters of intent and coach Brad Brownell was awaiting word from his compliance director to make certain everything was in order.
Vandalia Butler’s A.J. Pacher was one of the first to sign and send.
“I sent it at about 7:30 this morning,” Pacher said at a noontime celebration at his school. “It was during first period. I’m excited about this.”
Pacher joined Kegan Clark of Jeffersonville, Ind.; Cole Darling of Holt, Mich.; and Cory Stanton of Springfield, Tenn., as the signees with WSU. He was not alone at Vandalia, either.
Four other Butler athletes signed Division I letters, including sisters Brianna and Lianna Innocent, Kacie Cassell and Kerry Winchester.
All are basketball players, although Winchester is going to Cleveland State on a volleyball scholarship. Cassell will be attending Akron, Lianna Innocent will go to Morehead State and Brianna Innocent will be at Western Michigan.
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Schedule missing just one ingredient
FAIRBORN — Brad Brownell wanted his Wright State basketball team to play in an in-season tournament, so he’ll cart the Raiders out to Seattle to play Washington, Portland State and Belmont this weekend.
He also wants his team to be on television as much as possible, so the ESPN2 game at Mississippi State on Dec. 16 is attractive.
But if you look down the WSU schedule, only four home games will be played against non-Horizon League opponents.
“We just don’t get enough home games,” said Brownell Monday at the school’s basketball luncheon.
It’s the same old refrain. The big schools don’t want to come here and the small schools want a lot of money. The schools the same size want home-and-home contracts, such as Arkansas-Little Rock and Sam Houston State, which are visiting this December.
Still, Brownell is extremely proud of that date at Mississippi State, even though the Bulldogs promise to be one of WSU’s tougher opponents.
“This is the second year in a row we’ll have a nationally-televised game,” Brownell said. “That means everybody in the nation can watch. Last year, we had a game on FOX with Wake Forest. Thse games are unbelievably hard to get. Unbelievably hard to get.”
They’re tough to win as well. Wake beat the Raiders 66-53 last season as WSU was trying to find out how to win without injured Vaughn Duggins.
Duggins is expected to be in the lineup for the Mississippi State game.
Regardless of what happens, expect WSU to go after more home games next season.
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Another recruit for the Raiders
FAIRBORN — Cory Stanton, a point guard from Springfield, Tenn., has given a verbal commitment to Wright State and says he expects to sign his letter of intent on Wednesday, the first day of the signing period.
Stanton, listed at anywhere between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot, will be the fourth commitment for the Raiders, who also have a commitment from Chaminade-Julienne’s Mark Vest, who will enter school next fall but not receive a scholarship or begin play until the following season.
“I have a great relationship with my high school coach,” Stanton said, “and I want to have that same kind of relationship in college. I felt comfortable with the coaches at Wright State and wanted to get this out of the way. I didn’t want to be bothered during my high school season.”
Stanton averaged 19.9 points and six assists for Springfield as a junior.
Wright State’s other recruits for 2010 are 6-4 Kegan Clark of Jeffersonville, Ind.; 6-9 A.J. Pacher of Vandalia Butler and 6-7 Cole Darling of Holt, Mich.
When they sign, the Raiders will have one scholarship remaining.
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New lineup, lots of options
FAIRBORN — When the starting lineup was announced Thursday night for the exhibition game against Central State, Vaughn Duggins wasn’t in it and neither was John David Gardner.
Oh, and in the stands was Will Graham.
Those are three starters from last year’s team that went 20-13.
Part of the reason — okay, most of the reason — the Raiders didn’t win more was because Duggins missed all but four games with an injury and Gardner missed 12 with an injury.
However, that helped this year’s team. N’Gai Evans and Troy Tabler, both juniors now, had to play more, and both were in the starting lineup Thursday, taking the place of Duggins (short suspension) and Gardner (a little longer injury leave of absence).
For now, the point guard duties will be left with Evans and freshman Darian Cartharn, but even those two were outdone on the assist line by Tabler (five) and another junior, Scott Grote (four).
This was just one game, and against a Division II opponent as well, but WSU fans had to like what they saw. Everybody played, everybody scored, and the Raiders hit 56.1 percent of their shots, 47.6 percent from the 3-point line.
Wright State won 83-55, and at one point led 70-35.
Senior Todd Brown showed he’s ready to become a leader on the team and is working hard to avoid the early-season slump he encountered last year. Ronnie Thomas and Cory Cooperwood are stronger inside.
But it’s players such as Evans and Tabler, forced into action a year ago, who might make the biggest difference in the Raiders.
Duggins is expected to come back strong following his three-game regular-season suspension, and coach Brad Brownell hopes Gardner will be able to finish the season the way he started last year.
All is not lost without them, though. Evans and Tabler — and Grote — are playing more with Duggins and Gardner out of the lineup. That additional experience should help considerably by the time the Horizon League schedule begins.
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Raiders make it look easy in exhibition
FAIRBORN — Exhibitions are supposed to be a mismatch, and this one was, although there was some worry that nearby Central State would give Wright State a tough battle tonight at the Nutter Center.
The Raiders took an early 16-4 lead and went on to beat the Marauders 83-55 in front of about 3,000 fans.
Since it was an exhibition game, the Raiders, a Division I team, had to play down a division. Central State is Division II.
Wright State, which opens its regular season in a four-team tournament in Seattle on Nov. 13, opened the scoring on a Ronnie Thomas layin just 35 seconds into the game.
Soon, every player in WSU’s starting lineup scored, including Todd Brown, Cory Cooperwood, Troy Tabler and N’Gai Evans. Tabler took the place of Vaughn Duggins, who was suspended for this game and the first three games of the regular season by coach Brad Brownell for an off-court incident.
Evans is in the lineup because John David Gardner is out following hip surgery. Gardner also missed the final 10 games of last season, allowing Evans, a junior, to gain valuable playing experience.
Brown led the Raiders with 17 points and Tabler added 12. Gino Smith led Central State with 19.
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A first look at the Raiders
FAIRBORN — Exhibition games serve their purpose, I guess, allowing teams to play a game and find out what their early-season strengths and weaknesses are.
Sometimes, they’re used just to allow a Division I school to show superiority over a school in a smaller division.
Whatever the reason, it’s a first chance to see the team other than in a scrimmage against itself, and Wright State provides an interesting game tonight against Central State at 7 o’clock.
Not only will the Raiders be on display for the first time, but they’ll be playing another area team, and one that is also expected to be good this season.
This is the second straight year the Raiders have provided an interesting match-up. Last year, WSU invited a DII school from Texas that featured Cooper Land’s bother. Land is a WSU junior forward.
Always, a DII school such as Central State, wants to test itself against a DI school, and in this case, the two schools are only a few miles apart. So fans shouldn’t come to expect a rout.
That’s good, even in an exhibition. Wright State will be expected to win, but the teams should make it an enjoyable evening.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, WSU senior Todd Brown has changed his number from 21 to 32. The change is because his father wore 32 as a player. Asked why he didn’t change his number sooner — since no one else on the team has worn that number in Brown’s previous three seasons — Brown said James Craft had the number when he came in.
Craft left the team before Brown’s freshman year began, but Brown never bothered to make the change.
Now, with one year left, he has.
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Shorthanded Raiders not complaining
FAIRBORN — John David Gardner walked into the Setzer Pavilion without crutches Monday and impishly said, “I should be ready to play next week.”
Of course, that’s not the case following a second hip surgery just last week, but Gardner said his rehab is coming along fine.
“They didn’t do as much as they did the last time they went in (in April),” Gardner said. “But no, I won’t be able to play next week.”
Gardner was being counted upon to help the Raiders to a faster start than last season’s 0-6 nightmare. Now, not only will he be on the sideline when WSU is at Seattle for three games in a tournament with Washington, Portland State and Belmont, another key teammate will be there with him.
Sunday, the Raiders participated in a closed scrimmage at Eastern Kentucky. Under NCAA rules, coaches aren’t allowed to give scoring summaries and the like about those scrimmages, but WSU coach Brad Brownell said the scrimmage went well.
Over the weekend, Brownell also suspended junior Vaughn Duggins for three games, the result of a drunk driving charge in August.
That leaves the Raiders short-handed, but Brownell said he did what he thought was right.
It might also be pointed out the Raiders played their final 10 games last season without the injured Gardner or Duggins in the lineup and won six of them. Two of the losses were to league champion and nationally-ranked Butler.
Certainly the Raiders have replacements, with juniors N’Gai Evans and Scott Grote likely to fill the early-season holes. One thing about injuries and suspensions, they give opportunity to others. Evans especially has gained valuable experience the last two seasons because of injuries to others.
Thursday, we’ll be able to see how it’s working out as the Raiders host Central State in an exhibition game at 7 p.m. at the Nutter Center.
Just a week after that, the team will be flying to Seattle, where Gardner and Duggins won’t be needing their uniforms.
