“It’s hard for me to imagine we could shoot much worse from 3,” he said.
The Raiders were an abysmal 5 of 28 from the arc. Even with that frigid display factored in, they’re easily first in the Horizon League and 15th nationally in 3-point shooting at 38.0%.
“We’re probably going to take more 3′s against them than we do in most games just because they zone, and they really make it difficult to throw it in,” Nagy said.
“They double-team (post players). We’re just going to have to shoot more of those and be better at it.”
But they didn’t just have problems hitting from long range in the first game.
They shot 33.8% against the Grizzlies in the 74-60 defeat at the Nutter Center on Feb. 10. It was their lowest percentage in two years and the only time they’ve scored fewer than 71 points this season.
They’re first in the country in field-goal shooting at 53.3%, and only two other teams are even making more than half of their shots: Gonzaga at 51.4% and Indiana State at 50.2.
The NCAA record is 57.2% by Missouri in 1979-80.
Wright State has had only two other sub-45% games: 41.2 at Indiana and 40.3 at Youngstown State. Those were losses, too.
But Nagy said: “Where we’ve got to play better is defensively. I’m not concerned about the offense. I never have been. I think we’ll play better offensively.
“Oakland is good defensively, and they’re good offensively. They’re good at both. We’ve been great offensively and just about as bad defensively. It has us where we are.”
The Raiders are 16-12 overall and fourth in the league at 11-6, while the first-place Grizzlies are 19-10 and 14-4 and finish the regular-season at home Saturday against Detroit Mercy (1-28, 1-17).
Green Bay is 17-11 and 12-5, and Youngstown State is 20-9 and 12-6.
“I’m not even not spending time talking about (the league race) with our players. We can’t control whether or not we can win it,” said Nagy, whose team closes the regular-season at home against Purdue Fort Wayne (18-10, 9-8) and Northern Kentucky (15-13, 10-7).
“Nobody’s dumb. We’re two games back, and they have two games to go. We need to win all three of ours, and they need to lose their two. The chances of that aren’t great, so I’m not spending time worrying about that. We’re just focusing on trying to get ready for them.”
The Grizzlies, who have won four straight games, were picked sixth in the HL preseason poll.
Trey Townsend, a 6-foot-6 junior, is sixth in the league in scoring with a 16.7 average and fourth in rebounding at 7.4 per game. He was a second-team all-league pick last year.
And they landed an impact transfer in guard Jack Gohlke, who is in his sixth year of college after spending five seasons at Division-II Hillsdale (including a redshirt year).
He’s second on the team in scoring with an 11.8-point average. And he’s got a league-high 100 threes this year, including five against the Raiders.
“Greg is doing a great job,” Nagy said of Oakland coach Greg Kampe, who is in his 40th year at the school. “He’s got them playing well and confident.
“They’ve only had one game from way, way back in the season where Fort Wayne went in there and beat them by 20. Other than that, they’ve either been in overtime and lost or blown people out. They’ve had a chance to win every game but one.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Oakland, 3 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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