While Wright State is approaching the finish line of a tough 30-game regular season schedule, Wright State head coach Billy Donlon is trying to keep his players focused on the task at hand.
While the Horizon League Tournament is within two weeks, and with it, the possible return of up to four injured Raiders, Donlon wants his team to focus on breaking WSU’s five game losing streak Wednesday night versus Oakland.
“I don’t talk very much, I don’t say at all when we get these guys back, I never talk about that,” Donlon said. “I talk about these are the guys that can play, here’s our expectations, we need to go out there and meet those expectations.”
Despite the Raiders playing without many of their top players in recent games, Donlon believes he has a lineup capable of winning games.
“It is not about this guy coming back, because you can’t rely on that,” Donlon said. “It is not right to them. Basically what I am saying to them is, ‘When these guys come back, you other guys aren’t going to be playing as much.’ The message that delivers is not the right one.”
While newcomers like Grant Benzinger and Michael Karena likely would have played large roles for the Raiders during conference play if the Raiders were healthy, freshmen like Justin Mitchell and Grant Evans have been pressed into action.
In WSU’s first seven games of the year, Mitchell played a total of 17 minutes. In the Raiders’ last two games, he has played over 30 minutes in each contest.
“Justin was starting to play because he can guard the ball,” Donlon said. “He has still has to learn some of the off ball things you see in college that you don’t see in high school or the AAU basketball. That is hard to adjust to with the speed of the game, but he can really defend so we have had no problem putting him on really tough players in our league.”
Evans was a healthy scratch as recently as WSU’s contest at Detroit on Jan. 26. In WSU’s last two games, he has averaged around 30 minutes per game.
“Evans is different because he is so much like Grant Benzinger and I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Donlon said. “He is getting more minutes based on what is going on. They’re all getting a little bit more than they would have, but to their credit, they’re improving.”
With four games remaining in conference play, the Raiders are deadlocked with Illinois-Chicago for the No. 6 seed in the Horizon League Tournament. The Nos. 5 and 6 seed host the Nos. 7 and 8 seed to kick off the tournament. The Flames currently have the tiebreaker between them and the Raiders, but that could change as the two teams close out the regular season against each other. The Raiders could help their chances of hosting a tournament game with a win over Oakland Wednesday.
“It is crazy but if we can win two games, we can go in as the five seed,” Donlon said. “I haven’t talked to (the players) about it, but guys are getting better. What Benzinger did, what Karena did, they put us in position to win both of our last games.”
The Golden Grizzlies have wins against all three teams at the top of the Horizon League standings. The Raiders nearly upset the Grizzlies last month but fell in overtime after WSU lost Kendall Griffin due to a season-ending concussion.
The Raiders could welcome guard Chrishawn Hopkins back to the lineup versus Oakland. Hopkins had concussion-like symptoms following a car crash involving him and teammate Joe Thomasson last week on WSU’s campus.
