The 6-foot-6, 225-pound senior has made 14 starts, but he’s also played single-digit minutes in seven other games. Whether he plays a lot or a little, he follows the Boy Scouts’ motto each night: Be prepared.
“I never know what the lineup is going to be coming to the game, but I just know I’ve got to keep a level head and play the game to the best of my ability,” he said. “I just try to play my role to help the team win.”
He was part of the first unit against Northern Kentucky on Friday and had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting along with five rebounds and a career-high (including one Division-I season at Houston Christian) five assists.
Sargent singled him out afterward for bringing some “pop” to the lineup, even though the Raiders extended their losing streak to three games.
In the last four games, all starts, Imariagbe has averaged 8.8 points and 6.8 rebounds while playing 22.5 minutes.
He’s also the unofficial team leader in maintaining a positive attitude.
The Raiders have gone 2-9 in one-possession and overtime games, but Imariagbe said: “The feeling is always, ‘We’re going to win. Just stay locked in. We don’t know what the outcome is going be, but just keep doing what we’ve got to do to win the game to the very end.’
“I don’t feel like there’s any doubt on the bench with us. We just try to finish as best we can.”
The Raiders will play Cleveland State at 9 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2, and that will give folks back in Imariagbe’s hometown of Houston a chance to see him in action — not that he’ll be giving them much thought.
“I just want to win,” he said. “We lost to (CSU) the first time, and we want to get back at them. It could be on whatever network, and we’re still going to play as hard as we can.”
The Raiders have had three other games on national TV this season, including the opener at Kentucky and two games in the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
The Horizon League has worked out a flex schedule with ESPN to put five regular-season conference games on one of their channels. The network picks the game and the timeslot.
For comparison, the Mid-American Conference also has five league games on ESPN2 or ESPNU. It also plays 10 times on CBS Sports Network.
“I think our league deal with ESPN is great. … I think it puts our league on a different platform,” Sargent said.
“But specifically, where our team is now, none of that’s registering. We just need to find a way to win.”
The sheer number close losses has been unusual for the Raiders. They were 0-3 last season and 2-5, 4-4, 0-5, 4-4 and 3-5 in the five years before that in games decided by four points or fewer.
It’s no mystery to Sargent why they’re not ending well this season.
They made just 4 of 13 free throws and had 14 turnovers in the 80-76 loss to Northern Kentucky, which went 13 of 23 from the free-throw line while committing just eight turnovers.
“I just think we’re not making the basketball plays when we need to. Untimely turnovers, missed free throws — that’s how you lose close games, and that’s what we did (against NKU,” he said.
THURSDAY’S GAME
Cleveland State at Wright State, 9 p.m., ESPN2, 101.5, 1410
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