Wright State basketball: Nagy sees plenty to work on despite back-to-back wins

But that doesn’t mean Scott Nagy is worryfree going into a two-game road trip against Robert Morris on Wednesday and Youngstown State on Friday.

The ever-vigilant coach is addressing another issue this week to make sure his team stays on track: complacency.

Asked whether he sees an upsurge in confidence, Nagy said: “I think there’s a better feeling. But I was saying to Clint (assistant Clint Sargeant), ‘The natural tendency is to take a deep breath. But I know if you do that, you’re going to get whipped.’”

The Raiders, who played a taxing non-league schedule, are 8-8 overall and 3-2 in the league, while the other 10 HL teams all have at least one conference loss.

After facing Robert Morris (5-11, 1-5) and YSU (11-5, 3-2), they’ll play eight of their final 13 league games at home, putting them in prime position to make a title run.

“Because of our schedule and the struggles of trying to fit everyone together, it was hard to get everybody pulling in the same direction. But this is the most I’ve felt all year that our kids are a team,” Nagy said.

“We’ve still got to keep our heads down. A couple games have gone right, but we know how quickly it can go in the other direction. It’s pretty important to keep that perspective. And we’ve just got to press in on our defense.”

The quandary for the Raiders is that they’re almost always going against more athletic teams. That’s been the primary issue on defense, not effort.

Stopping drives to the basket has been close to impossible.

“I know this to be the case even with our not-so-good defensive teams: We can generally, if people are going to run stuff, take them out of that. The problem is, when we take them out of that, they just go start making plays, and that’s when we struggle to guard people,” Nagy said.

The Raiders are first in the league in scoring (84.8 per game) and last in points allowed (80.2)

“Most teams are more athletic than us. I’ve always felt that way. We’re pretty athletic. We start three guys for sure who are really, really good athletes,” Nagy said, referring to Trey Calvin, Tanner Holden and Brandon Noel. “We’re not STIFFS.

“But since I’ve been here, it’s been a good offensive league. It puts a lot of pressure on your defense.”

The Raiders, though, are putting plenty of stress on opponents. They’re first in the nation and on pace to set a program record in the Division-I era in field-goal shooting at 53.7%.

They’re also 21st nationally in offensive efficiency at 1.137 points per possession.

But Nagy doesn’t believe they’ve hit their ceiling yet.

They averaged only 11.4 turnovers the first 14 games but had 18 against Cleveland State and 17 at PFW.

“The last two games, we turned it over 35 times and won. We’ve got to quit doing that. We’re too good offensively. We need to have those shots,” he said.

WEDNESDAY’S GAME

Wright State at Robert Morris, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410