Yep, the world’s No. 1 golfer is the best ball-striker (by far) on the PGA Tour, but he’s near the bottom statistically in putting. And announcers often wonder aloud how good he could be if he were just AVERAGE on the greens.
The same could be said of the Raiders on the defensive end. They’re fifth in the country with an 86.2 scoring average but 342nd out of 351 teams in points allowed at 80.4.
Middle-of the-pack teams are giving up 71.9 per game, and it’s safe to say Wright State would be running away with the Horizon League title with a defensive average like that.
They’ve given up 80-plus points in 16 games this season. That’s the most since allowing 80 or more 22 times in 1990-91, the first year of the Nutter Center.
From 2005-06 to 2012-13, Raider foes only managed to score at least 80 a combined 14 times.
But Nagy said: “We’re getting closer. We’re getting better. That’s all we can do. We’re not going to just suddenly change.
“If you look at the overall, we’re not going to be the best defensive team in the league, but let’s try to be the best defensive team here at the end of the season. That’s all we’ve got to be.”
The Raiders are showing signs of doing just that.
They’ve held their last four opponents under 80 after never having done that more than twice in a row all year.
And they reached their goal of holding teams under one point per possession in two of those games. They’d done it against a D-I foe just once previously.
But they’ll be challenged to reach their objective against visiting Purdue Fort Wayne at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
In the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 6, Wright State prevailed by an NBA-like score of 106-98.
That was the most combined points in the league this season until the Raiders beat Cleveland State, 107-99, in overtime later in the month.
Wright State has given up more points to a league foe just once, getting beat by UIC, 109-84, on Jan. 29, 1994, when the team played in the Mid-Continent Conference.
But Nagy said of slowing down the Mastodons: “It’s not going to be an easy thing to do with them because they have four really good guards that just put so much pressure on you.”
PFW scored 130 against Division-II Andrews University on Nov. 9. That was just four shy of the league record set by Youngstown State in 2017.
“They spread you out and drive you. And they’re physical. They are not an easy guard. They could be as tough a guard as anybody in the league,” Nagy said.
The Raiders are coming off a stunning 96-75 thrashing of first-place Oakland on the road, giving them five wins in their last six games.
They’re 17-12 overall and 12-6 in the Horizon League, while PFW, which is third in the conference with an 81.5 scoring average, is 18-11, 9-9.
“Things can look like they’re going bad one day, and they can just flip in a hurry. There’s no way to put your finger on why that happens,” Nagy said.
The Raiders shot 56.1% and solidified their hold on the nation’s top spot in field-goal shooting at 53.4%. Gonzaga (51.6), Kansas (50.2) and Indiana State (50.2) are the only other teams over 50%.
“I think our players are in a good frame of mind. They’re becoming more defensive minded. They know how important it is, that we’re trying to get to one point per possession. That was a big deal for them (against Oakland),” Nagy said.
“They see what happens offensively when we do that. We usually explode.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Purdue Fort Wayne at Wright State, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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