Most guys ready themselves for a game by working in the gym. But Wright State coach Billy Donlon thinks A.J. Pacher should take his preparations to the library:

“No one is smarter on our team or has more of a knowledge of what we want to get done, but with him it’s just between his ears. With him the sky is always falling — he’s a guy who is really, really hard on himself. He wants to please everybody. That’s a great attribute, but as a basketball player I don’t know if always trying to be a pleaser is that good.

“You’ve got to be able to move on to the next play. But he dwells way too long on bad plays and not nearly long enough on the good ones. He doesn’t have balance.

“Every day he needs to read ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ Honestly. Every day he needs to read it.”

Used to teach optimism and hard work, the children’s book is about the little steam engine that keeps telling itself “I think I can” and finally pulls a long train over a mountain.

And that’s nearly what happened Tuesday night when Pacher came close to carrying the Raiders past Horizon League front-runner Valparaiso at the Nutter Center. The 6-foot-10 junior scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed six rebounds, but unfortunately a few teammates were dragging their feet in the caboose and the WSU train never quite overcame the Crusaders.

The final: Valparaiso 68, Wright State 61.

After the game Valpo coach Bryce Drew praised Pacher: “He had a tremendous game. He scored in the post. Shot the ball outside. Rebounded extremely well. If he sees Valpo on a jersey every time he plays, he’s gonna be all-conference.”

What makes this night stand out all the more was that in the Raiders past two games, victories at Green Bay and Milwaukee last week, Pacher played nine total minutes and never had a point or a rebound.

In fact, Pacher has had one double-figure scoring game this season — 10 in the opener at Idaho.

Some of it has to do with the Raiders’ depth and a lot of it is because he’s playing with a stress fracture in his foot that kept him out of three games in late December, limited his minutes other times and still forces him to wear a protective walking boot around campus.

But a big drawback has been his self-flagellation, something he admitted: “At times I do make it way too hard on myself.”

That happened early Tuesday night when he opened the game missing a 3-pointer, fouling, turning the ball over and missing his first free throw.

On the sidelines he was visibly distraught. That’s when he said Donlon and assistant coach Scott Woods told him to believe in himself.

After the game Donlon stressed that again: “Tonight you saw A.J. has potential and we’re going to need that down the stretch from him.”

Time to hit the library.