Injuries to forwards JT Yoho and Steven Davis has forced Wright State to constantly play with at least four guards on the court at all times. While Wright State has struggled to win games lately, it does not mean opponents have had an easy time stopping the Raiders.
Though Cleveland State defeated the Raiders last weekend by 16 points, Vikings head coach Gary Waters channeled his inner Marvin Lewis during the postgame press conference describing the challenge posed by playing a guard-oriented squad.
“It is hard to guard midgets running around,” Waters said last Saturday. “(Wright State) did a great job and what it is called is ‘small ball.’ They did a great job with small ball. We’re usually the ones running small ball, but they ran it and did a great job. The reason they did a great job: They have worked on it constantly.”
Wright State head coach Billy Donlon hopes that the Raiders can utilize their guard play to break out of doldrums that has cost his squad six of the last seven games.
“(Guards) Joe (Thomasson), Chrishawn (Hopkins) and Reggie (Arceneaux) can make plays and they did a really good job,” Donlon said. “When you play four guards against (Cleveland State’s defense), it is hard to defend that way and have success. We were fortunate that it helped. And then when they went four guards against our four guards, that perimeter player isn’t used to that responsibility."
Despite shooting 66.7 percent in the second half against Cleveland State last Saturday, the Raiders were unable to make up an 11-point halftime deficit. WSU had one rebound in the final 17 minutes of the game Saturday.
“We didn’t get stops, you don’t get rebounds when you don’t get stops,” Donlon said. “It is not a rebounding issue, it is a getting stops issue… We played an excellent offensive game against probably the best defensive team in our league.”
The Raiders are looking to use a three-game home stand as a way to break out of their losing ways. WSU has four of its next five in the Nutter Center starting with Illinois-Chicago Thursday evening at 7.
“I just think the guys need to win a game,” Donlon said. “When we went up to Michigan for that trip, we were 2-4 on the trip and just beating Detroit and what it did for us.”
The Raiders enter Thursday’s game at 3-7 in Horizon League play, but only one game ahead of UIC. A win against the Flames is important for WSU as it looks to avoid having to travel for the first round of the Horizon League Championships next month.
“I think you can’t play the records,” Donlon said. “The one thing I say (to our players) over and over again is, ‘You can’t let your record impact how good you think you are.’ I think that is really critical with this team. Just like the teams with two losses, you can’t act like you’re better than everybody else because the parity is so great in our league and in college basketball.”
