“I was thinking to myself, Purdue has to be wondering, ‘What in the world happened to this team?’’ Nagy said with a hearty laugh.
“No question about that. Those players at Purdue — not the coaches, because the coaches get it — but the kids probably think, ‘Wait a minute.’”
Yep, the Raiders were so overmatched in that game that a mercy rule would have seemed appropriate. They scored just 17 points in the first half and trailed by 34 at halftime, losing 96-52. But they evolved enough over the season to claim the Horizon League’s automatic bid.
Getting there, though, took some major adjustments and tested their character.
The Raiders looked so lost against zones at one point that even strict man-to-man coaches around the league were borrowing a page from Jim Boeheim’s defensive playbook.
And while that strategy worked for much of the regularseason, the Raiders solved three straight 20-win zone teams in the HL tourney: beating Oakland, Cleveland State and NKU.
“Compared to where we were when we played Cleveland State the first time (an 85-75 road loss Dec. 5), we were prepared for it,” Nagy said. “We saw so much of it after that, we were just in a way better spot.
“You wouldn’t have known it watching the first 30 minutes (against the Norse), but the last 10, we finally started playing.”
The Raiders rallied from a 14-point deficit with 11:34 left to win, 72-71.
Asked what changed, Nagy said: “It was the placement of where we put guys in our zone offense. Nothing earth shattering.”
He plopped tourney most valuable player Grant Basile in the heart of the zone, making foes contend with his 6-foot-9 frame.
The fourth-year junior averaged 21 points and 9.7 rebounds in the three games.
“Really, it makes Grant a better rebounder. If teams play man-to-man, Grant is all over the floor. When they’re in a zone, and we play him at the 5, we have him posting most of the time,” Nagy said.
“He gets way more offensive rebounds that way. When he’s out on the floor, shooting jump shots, he doesn’t rebound.”
The Raiders are waiting for the NCAA bracket to be revealed Sunday. But if experts like ESPN’s Joe Lunardi are right, they won’t have to travel far.
They’re projected to be a 16 seed and play in the First Four at UD Arena.
The Raiders have climbed to No. 193 out of 357 teams in the NET ratings — the highest they’ve been all season. But outside of Oakland, which is 175th, the entire league is in the bottom half of the standings.
“I was thinking, if that were the case, I might be the only coach in NCAA history to sleep in his own bed the night before the game,” Nagy said with a chuckle.
Actually, until 1988, the NCAA allowed teams to play home games in the tourney.
And the Flyers played at UD Arena when they were sent to the 2015 First Four as one of the last four at-large teams.
They beat Boise State, 56-55, with fans virtually willing them to victory.
“You think it’d be a pro-Wright State crowd. At least, I would hope,” Nagy said. “I don’t know who gets those tickets, but if it’s UD fans, I hope they’d root for us.”
In the projected bracket, they’d face 16-seeded Bryant. The plus is that it’s a winnable game, which would earn a valuable unit (payout share for each game played) for the league.
They still could be one of the two 16 seeds that go directly into the field of 64.
No Horizon League team has ever been seeded that low. When Butler made two straight trips to the NCAA finals in 2010-11, it was seeded 5th and 8th.
“I obviously wouldn’t like being a 16 seed, if we were. ... We just didn’t have a good enough start to the season,” Nagy said.
But he added: “We’re just happy to be in it.”
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