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WSU’s victory good for the sole

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By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer 10:29 PM Sunday, February 12, 2012

FAIRBORN — Billy Donlon’s victory smile quickly faded and his face turned noticeably red.

“Who told you that story?” the Wright State coach said with sudden surprise. “Well, there’s no chance — absolutely no chance — I’m telling it to you. I’d be the laughingstock. They’d use it ... ”

He didn’t finish the thought. He just shook his head: “I can’t believe one of my guys ratted me out.”

Wright State had just snapped a three-game losing streak, blowing out Milwaukee 70-46 at the Nutter Center Sunday afternoon. This was the same Panthers team that had embarrassed the visiting Raiders last month, holding them to 25 percent shooting and beating them by 20 points.

As for the difference this time, some may point to the fact that the Raiders shot over 57 percent from the floor, or that they played stingy defense or had four players in double figures, including Cole Darling who had a career-high 21 points to go with nine rebounds.

But several players also pointed to Donlon and a personal story he told them just before the game.

“There’s just a certain way he tells a story,” Darling said. “It triggers something in all of us. It gets your blood pumping and motivates you.”

Reggie Arceneaux, the freshman guard who finished with 14 points, agreed: “Today he told us about when he was a little boy going to Catholic school and how this bigger guy took his shoe from him in the bathroom and how he got it back.”

To set the stage you need to know about a study done on Wright State basketball last season by Justin Ray, then a grad assistant on the Raiders staff.

“For his masters’ thesis, Justin researched our team,” Donlon said. “He interviewed every player and one of the things they told him was how they appreciated it when I told a story, which I did maybe five times during the year.

“Well, I hadn’t done it much with this team and then today — right as our guys were leaving the dressing room for their last warm-up before the game — Matt Vest comes over and said, ‘Coach, we miss your stories. I really think we need a story today.’ ”

It’s been a tough year for the 12-15 Raiders. Mixed in with a few nice wins, they set a program low with just 34 points against Air Force. They lost by 28 to Ohio University and most recently had lost six of their last eight games, a streak that began with the flop in Milwaukee in early January.

After the prompting from his injured sophomore guard, Donlon had a little over 10 minutes to think of something and that’s when he remembered a story from his days growing up in Providence, R.I., where his dad was coaching at the time.

“All I’m going to say is that I was in second grade at St. Augustine Catholic School and back then, we wore our typical uniforms — blue shirt, khaki pants and brown loafers. I think they were Hush Puppies,” Donlon said. “And this kid who was a couple of years older and bigger stole one of my shoes.

“But the thing is, I didn’t put my tail between my legs. I had pride that if someone was gonna steal my shoe, I definitely was getting it back any way possible. And the other thing was that I came from a blue collar family and there was no way I was coming home with one shoe and dealing with my mom and dad and having to tell them I did nothing about it.

“So I remember going to the nuns — Sister Sally and Sister Maureen — and telling them I wanted to point out the kid. Well, ironically that day we had a big school assembly. The whole school was there, K through eighth grade, and I marched in with just one shoe, saw the guy and pointed to him.

“I got my shoe and put it on and I’ve never felt more proud of myself in my life.

“That’s the story I told our guys. I told them Green Bay took our shoes last Friday night. I told them Milwaukee had our shoes from the last game. What were we going to do about it?

“And then at the half, I just brought it up once more. I said, ‘Milwaukee still has our shoes. We have 20 minutes to get them back.’ ”

The Raiders opened the second half with a 19-5 run and upped their lead to 21 points in just over eight minutes. Their 24-point victory was the biggest since they topped Division III Kenyon by 24, three months and 25 games ago.

“Coach Donlon’s story really worked today,” Darling said.

And that made you wonder what other stories he has used.

“Well, they’re not always personal,” Donlon said. “Last year before Hofstra I talked about Dale Earnhardt. Another time I told them about when my mother broke my nose.”

Asked for the details on that one, he thought about his late mom, smiled, then squirmed and finally shook his head:

“Be delicate on that one ... I was in the sixth grade, but just know I absolutely deserved it. In fact, I’m grateful, I wouldn’t have turned out like ... ”

He didn’t finish that thought either.

“Geesh, my dad is gonna be furious,” he said with a faint smile on a face that again had red cheeks to go with a nose that is barely crooked.

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