Wednesday night the Wright State coach was explaining the experiment he’s used on occasion in his 28 years as a college head coach and especially in the past five seasons at WSU where he he’s turned starters — often the most veteran and accomplished players on the team — into super subs in an attempt to get the player and, sometimes the team, back on track.
»He did that five seasons ago with Bill Wampler, a 6-foot-6 junior who had played two seasons at Drake, transferred to WSU, scored 26 points in his Raiders’ debut and started the first 14 games.
Moved to the bench for the final 17 games of the season, Wampler continued to be a potent scorer, was named second team All-Horizon League at season’s end and finished his career with 1,414 points.
»Eight games into this season, Nagy briefly moved point guard Trey Calvin, who had started 65 games in a row and already was a 1,000 point scorer, out of the starting lineup. Calvin spent five games coming off the bench and since his return to the lineup 13 games ago, he’s averaged 22.6 points a game and that includes a 44-point outburst at Youngstown State and 31 at Northern Kentucky.
»Now two more Raiders are in the midst of a move from starter to sub.
Five games ago, Nagy moved lineup regulars A.J. Braun and Amari Davis to the bench for the opening tip.
Davis had started the first 21 games this season and 85 of his 111 college games at Green Bay for two seasons, Missouri last year and now back home — he’s a Trotwood-Madison grad — at WSU. He’s already scored 1,498 points in his college career.
Braun, a 6-foot-9 sophomore out of Fenwick, started 22 of 28 games last season and the first 21 this year.
But just before he was brought to the bench, he’d scored in double figures just once in nine games.
Now coming off the bench, he’s hit double digits in all five games, including a career-high 22 points —along with a team-high seven rebounds — in the Raiders’ 103-71 victory over IUPUI Wednesday night at the Nutter Center.
Davis was WSU’s second-leading scorer with 15 points along with five rebounds, two assists and a steal.
More importantly, Davis confirmed he’s returning to WSU next season. He’ll use his extra COVID year to play a fifth college season and get his degree he said.
“I love it here,” he said.
Although he admitted getting “benched” – or “getting taken out of the starting line up,” as he quickly rephrased it – “got in my head a little bit,” he said his teammates and coaches helped him through it:
“They told me a lot of guys go through that. It’s about how you respond.”
Although he admitted scoring has long been his personal measuring stick, he said “I took it upon myself to find other ways I could help the team.”
Nagy praised both Davis and Braun:
“A.J.’s response has been incredible. I can’t tell you how proud I am of him. It’s the same thing for Amari. He’s a great kid. I love coaching him. He responds to everything we ask of him.
“He’s handling it well. He is advocating for himself, which is what I want him to do. I want him to fight it. He’s asking: ‘What can I do to play more?’ Those are all good questions.”
Nagy said over the years he’s had some players balk at his moves to the bench:
“I always tell the guys, if we have disagreement at some point you’re going to have to see it the way I see it.
“Or, you have to change my thinking. And over the years I’ve had some players come into my office and help me see things differently and change my mind. I’m not so hard-headed that I think I’m right all the time.”
Difficult situation
Nagy has a special perspective on the whole situation.
He was a standout high school player in Illinois and then at Delta State in Mississippi. And he’s the son of a longtime college coach, the late Dick Nagy, a man who minced no words.
“I complained to my dad one time about my coach in high school and he about took my head off so that was it. I never mentioned that again.”
“And (later) that’s how I handled my own kids. I think it’s better like that — to not get involved.”
Wednesday night he talked about the college career of one of his three sons — Tyler — who played at Wayne State.
Tyler had been a high-scoring prep star in South Dakota, won all-state, first-team honors and was a finalist for Mr. Basketball in the state. His first season in college he started 20 games and averaged 6.3 points per game
In the next three seasons, he played sparingly in 44 games, never started and averaged one point per game.
Nagy said he knows how hard it is when family and friends — out of a sense of love and support — get involved in a player’s situation:
“I know what my wife was telling our son. But I think I was the only level-headed one in the group. She was just being a mom and she wanted to see her son play.
“She wanted to know what I thought and I was like: ‘I don’t see him practice every day. His coach does and I can promise you this — the coach is not trying to lose games and he’s not trying to screw our son over. That’s not his goal.
“‘He’s trying to win games and do the best he can.’”
Nagy said he thinks it’s the same debate that goes on in many players’ households:
“When all our guys go home, most of the time the talk isn’t about the team, it about the kid. And I don’t say that’s bad. We all want what’s best for our children.”
That becomes difficult when you’re the person in charge of the fate of over a dozen players on your team.
“It would be great if I could give everybody what they wanted all the time, but I can’t and our players understand that.
“I carry their hearts around with me and sometimes I have to make decisions that break my heart. But I have to do that. That’s part of being the head coach.”
No-nonsense Nagy
Nagy is Old School when it comes to all the bells and whistles of today’s college game.
“If it was up to me, when the buzzer goes off to the start the game, we wouldn’t do starting lineups,” he said. “We’d walk five guys out there and go play. That’s how I’d like to do it.”
The suddenly-darkened arenas, the over-the-top clips on the overhead video boards, the spotlighted introductions, the intricate handshakes before taking the court all are a little much for Nagy:
“All that fanfare drives me bananas. It takes too long. I just want to play.
“But for the guys, I know it’s important to them. It was to me too when I played, so I get that. Everybody wants to start and when they don’t, they sacrifice some of that glory. “
He said Braun and Davis — like Calvin and Wampler before them — have handled it well.
“It was a little weird to deal with, but things worked out,” Braun said. “For me, I just keep the same mentality: ‘Play me however you want, I’m still going to come with the same aggression. I’m going to play hard and try to help the team.’”
And Wednesday night that’s what he and Davis did.
Between them, they made 13 of 18 field goal attempts and 11 of 13 free throws. In a combined 38 minutes of play, they had just one turnover.
In the postgame media session, Nagy was teased:
“After what A.J. and Amari did tonight — and Trey and Wampler before them — you look like a genius.”
Channeling his no-nonsense dad, he scoffed at the crack:
“I’m no genius, that’s for sure. We have good players. We always have had since I’ve been here. That’s why we won. You win by having good players.”
And at Wright State some of the best ones often come off the bench.
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