“I was just looking for some spark,” he said.
Forget about trying to find a spark. Somebody needed to check the Raiders for a pulse.
Their 95-79 home defeat likely moves to the front of the line among the most listless performances of the year.
It’s their worst home loss since falling to Robert Morris, 80-59, on Dec. 1, 2022.
They were coming off a 78-70 win at rival Northern Kentucky, seemingly poised to go on a run. But their erratic play resurfaced, leaving Sargent exasperated.
They’re 10-11 overall and 4-6 in the Horizon League going into Saturday’s home game with Detroit Mercy. They’re five games behind 9-1 Cleveland State with 10 to go.
“We kept trying to shake something loose with whatever five guys we had out there — to have some type of life, belief, energy. It just felt like whatever we tried didn’t work. We’re going to keep going back to the drawing board,” he said.
Milwaukee, tied for second with Purdue Fort Wayne at 7-3, was shooting 29.7% on 3′s but started 10 of 18 and finished 11 of 24.
That might be expected in a road game in front of the opposing team’s fans, but not in your building.
“I feel like a good word for it would be ‘lifeless.’ We didn’t have much going for us. We tried to create a little at the end, but it was far too little, far too late,” star Brandon Noel said.
“Energy is what we lacked, and it’s becoming a trend throughout the year.”
One of Sargent’s preseason objectives was to fare better at home. The Raiders were 18-14 and 18-15 overall the last two seasons and 9-7 and 9-6 at the Nutter Center.
They were 5-5 last year in league home games and are 2-3 so far this year.
“It’s not acceptable — not if you want to win a championship, not if you want to put yourself in a position to be successful in the league race,” Sargent said.
“It just doesn’t make sense to me. There’s clearly something (wrong). … I hate this for our team. I hate it for so many people because (there was) a different feel to our team, and I have to figure out why.”
The players are as befuddled as he is. Asked to assess the team at the midway point of the conference season, Noel said bluntly: “We’re under-performing.”
Redshirt freshman Solomon Callaghan added: “We had high hopes coming into the season. Obviously, being halfway, we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and refocus on what we can do from here on.”
Noel, the league preseason player of the year, attempted only 13 shots in 37.5 minutes against Milwaukee, making six.
Alex Huibregtse, a preseason second-team all-league pick, uncorked just nine shots in 35.5 minutes and made six, going 4 of 6 on 3′s.
Opponents might be doing something to take them out of the offense. If not, they seem to be grossly underutilized.
“I continue to feel confident about our team and what we can do. But I don’t know if we’ve had to own a loss quite like this one, in terms of how much it’s going to hurt,” Sargent said.
“The next game is Saturday with Detroit, and we’ll show up. But I’ve got to make sure we’re not missing something mentally, emotionally or with our technicalities because this one was jarring to me.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Detroit Mercy at Wright State, 1 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
About the Author