The most starting combinations in the country going into the weekend was 15 by Wyoming and San Diego. And the Raiders’ dozen is the seventh-most among 355 DivisionI teams.
Brandon Noel has started all 29 games, while Alex Huibregtse and Keaton Norris would have had 29 starts if they hadn’t missed a combined five games because of injury and illness.
Six other players have cracked the first string for at least one game. And having such a revolving door means a team is having a hard time either staying healthy or stringing together solid performances. For the Raiders, it’s been the latter.
“I’m trying to find consistency, and I still don’t know if we’ve seen everybody show up (simultaneously),” Sargent said.
“We’ve seen it throughout the year: we just struggle with consistency.”
The Raiders have a deep roster. It’s not hard to imagine even 6-foot-9 Drey Carter, who averages the 10th-most minutes, starting for several teams in the Horizon League.
But it can’t be easy for Sargent to juggle playing time while keeping everyone engaged.
Previous coach Scott Nagy would say it’s not his job to keep players happy. It’s their job to make HIM happy.
But he’d seen it all in 30 years on the sidelines. Sargent, who’s in his first year, might be a little more sensitive to how it feels to go from having a prominent role one game and then not getting off the bench the next.
“Sometimes depth can be good. Sometimes depth can create all these different layers to your rotation and your starting lineup — all these extra mental dynamics to your team,” he said.
“But certainly, it’s kind of been who we are, and I’m just trying to figure out, as their coach, how I’m contributing to the inconsistency.”
The Raiders (13-16, 7-11) are coming off a demoralizing, 80-76 home loss to Northern Kentucky, a team it beat on the road one month early, 78-70.
They had a 76-72 lead after a Jack Doumbia layup with 4:03 to go but didn’t score again the rest of the game.
They’re eighth in the league with two games to go and need to stay there to get a first-round home game in the HL tourney.
Huibregtse, a fifth-senior and preseason second-team all-conference pick, is going through the worst slump of his career while dealing with back issues.
He went 0 of 9 from the field and 0 of 6 on 3′s against NKU and was held scoreless in 33 minutes.
He’s averaged 4.8 points while going 12 of 49 from the floor and 5 of 29 from the arc in his last six games.
“I was proud of Alex. I know he was 0 of 9 and 0 of 6, but I thought his emotional presence for our team was there,” Sargent said.
“Down the stretch in the second half, we found it. We had the momentum. But I thought the untimely missed free throws hurt us.”
The Raiders went 4 of 13 from the foul line and are eighth in the league at 70.1%.
“They just made the plays and we hit that wall of, ‘We’ve lost all these games this year.’ I thought, again, that showed up, and I need to do a better job of helping them down the stretch.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Cleveland State at Wright State, 9 p.m., ESPN2, 101.5, 1410
About the Author