The Raiders are 6-8 overall and 1-2 in the league. And the season is already creeping toward the midway point, meaning time is running out to turn it around.
“That’s one thing high expectations do to you when they’re not met — you feel like a disappointment, you feel like a failure. It’s hard to view yourself differently,” coach Scott Nagy said.
“There’s 100 different ways people respond to things getting tough in terms of their reactions, but there’s really only two: You either continue to push forward or you just roll up in a ball. Which is it going to be?”
The Raiders had nine-point leads in the second half in both of their games in Wisconsin last weekend, but they weren’t able to hold up defensively.
Green Bay shot 68% in the second half and 58.2 for the game in an 88-77 win.
Milwaukee shot 67.7% in the second half and 54.8 for the day in a 91-83 victory.
The Raiders are on pace to set a program record in the Division I era (since 1987) for field-goal shooting — they’re second in the nation at 52.4% — but they also hitting all-time lows defensively.
Opponents are hitting 48.4% of their shots, which is on pace for the worst mark since 1993-94. Foes also are averaging 79.6 points, and Raider teams have only allowed higher averages twice: 88.6 points in 1990-91 and 84.2 in 1989-90.
“We’ve had patterns in the leads we’ve had that we can’t keep. Some of it is bad offense, but most of it is just bad defense,” Nagy said.
“I think teams are coming in already confident against us. They have the films. That’s part of the problem — the reputation we’ve created this year.”
Nagy thought he found an answer in tightening up his man-to-man defense, packing it around the lane to prevent drives. But that backfired on the weekend.
Green Bay went 12 of 26 on 3′s and Milwaukee 16 of 30.
The 12 threes matched the previous season high for opponents, and the 16 were the most allowed by Wright State since VMI went 17 of 31 in a 94-74 win on Dec. 7, 2013.
Nagy tried to shake things up by calling for a zone defense against Milwaukee, but it lasted only one possession.
“It was not good. We gave up a layup out of it from the top of the key,” he said.
“I talked about needing to look at strategy. It’s not strategy as much as it is attitude. It wouldn’t matter what defense we’re in X’s-and-O’s-wise. Our kids’ attitude about defense is the same. That’s what we’ve got to help get changed.”
Sensing they may be feeling the weight of expectations, Nagy is trying to instill some perspective into his players.
But he admitted he has to work on himself first. And that’s where wife Jamie has been helpful.
“We’ve had other bad starts to conference seasons. When you’re in the middle of it, you feel like it’s the end of the world. But when I look back — my wife has to remind me of these things, that you’ve had bad starts before and won the league and gone to the NCAA tournament,” he said.
“There’s all kinds of basketball left to be played. I’m trying not to overreact, even though there’s clearly things that need to be fixed.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Cleveland State at Wright State, 7 p.m., ESPN2, 101.5, 1410
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