When: 8 p.m. Thursday
TV/Radio: ESPN+/980
Series: Wright State leads 38-32
Coaches: Scott Nagy is 149-77 in seven years at Wright State and 559-317 in 28 years overall. Bart Lundy is in his first year at Milwaukee. He’s 453-199 in 21 years, including six at High Point and 14 in two stints at Division-II Queens University.
Probable Wright State starters
Name Ht. Class Pos. Avg.
Brandon Noel 6-8 Fr. F 13.0
Alex Huibregtse 6-3 So. G 8.6
Tim Finke 6-6 Sr. G 8.1
Andrew Welage 6-6 Jr. G 6.7
Trey Calvin 6-0 Sr. G 20.1
Probable Milwaukee starters
Moses Bol 7-1 Sr. C 3.1
Vin Baker Jr. 6-9 Sr. F 2.3
Ahmad Rand 6-8 Sr F 8.1
Justin Thomas 6-7 Sr. G 7.3
BJ Freeman 6-6 So. G 17.0
About Wright State: Scott Nagy has the second-best winning percentage among active coaches in the Horizon League tourney. He’s 9-4 for a .692 mark, trailing only Northern Kentucky’s Darrin Horn, who is 5-2 (.714). No one else has a winning record: Detroit Mercy’s Mike Davis is 3-3, Robert Morris’ Andrew Toole 2-2, Oakland’s Greg Kampe 7-9, Purdue Fort Wayne’s Jon Coffman 2-3, Youngstown State’s Jerrod Calhoun 2-5, IUPUI’s Matt Crenshaw 0-2 and Green Bay’s Freddie Owens 0-1. Cleveland State’s Daniyal Robinson and Milwaukee’s Bart Lundy will coach their first games in the quarterfinals. … From the It-May-Mean-Nothing Dept., the Raiders split with only two league teams this season (Robert Morris and Northern Kentucky) and had eight sweeps, going 2-0 and 0-2 four times each for a 10-10 record. That’s the most sweeps in seven years under Nagy. What does it say? “I think some matchups are better than others for some teams. But some of that is just hard to explain,” said Nagy, whose team went 2-0 against Milwaukee.
About Milwaukee: The Panthers staged one of the biggest turnarounds in the nation, having gone 10-22 in 2021-22 for their sixth straight losing season. … Freeman was named second-team all-league. Rand, who had a league-high 68 blocks, was named defensive player of the year. And Elijah Jamison, who averaged 7.2 points and shot 48.1% from 3, made the all-freshman team. … The Panthers bring the 6-4 Jamison and two double-figure scorers off the bench: 6-3 Kentrell Pullian (10.9) and 6-0 Markeith Browning II (10.3). … Freeman’s 12 20-point games are the most by a Panther since 2004-05. The newcomer from Dodge City (Kan.) Community College notched a triple-double against Purdue Fort Wayne and 31 points against Cleveland State to lead the Panthers to a pair of wins last week and help them claim the second seed. … They went 5-1 against the other top-4 seeds, Youngstown State, Cleveland State and Northern Kentucky. But they were 7-5 against teams seeded 5 through 10, including a shocking home loss to lowly Green Bay.
Next game: If the Raiders win, they’ll play in the semifinals Monday at Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indy. Depending on seeding, they’d either play at 7 p.m. on ESPNU or 9:30 on ESPN2.
About the Author