Duggins can set his own pace in return

By Marc Katz | Thursday, November 19, 2009, 11:02 PM

FAIRBORN — Practice looked as usual earlier today.

It’s next Tuesday things will look different. That’s when Vaughn Duggins returns to action.

“I have a lot of work to do,” said Duggins, who has been practicing with the team all fall. “I can’t tell you how excited I am. Last night, I couldn’t get to sleep thinking about it.”

Duggins played in three games last season then, during a Thanksgiving Day practice, injured the ring finger on his right, shooting hand. It was thought to be a bad sprain at first, and Duggins had the finger taped to his middle finger while he attempted to play at Sam Houston State on the following Saturday.

He played. He led the team with 16 points. The Raiders lost and Duggins had his finger x-rayed when he returned home. It was broken, and while there was hope it would heal enough for him to return during the season, it didn’t. After deciding on a medical redshirt year, he had some clean-up done on an ankle.

He pointed to this year when he was picked up near campus on an OVI charge. Coach Brad Brownell suspended him for the first three games of the season, all in Seattle. The Raiders won two, so they’re not exactly needy. Into that situation walks a guy who left the program as its best player.

“It’s been awhile,” Duggins said. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m going in there and competing again.”

“Your program is always trying to be bigger than one player,” Brownell said, “but players make a difference. We played all last year without him. We did alright. And we did fine in Seattle. But I’m glad we have him back.”

Talk about your best of both worlds. The Raiders are playing well — especially at guard — and now a player of Duggins’ ability is back in the lineup with no pressure on him to perform at his best immediately.

In three games, WSU guards Troy Tabler, Todd Brown, N’Gai Evans, Scott Grote and Darian Cartharn made 48 of their 90 shots (53.3 percent) and Tyler Koch — also a good shooter — didn’t play long enough to take a shot.

So the Raiders seem set at guard, and Duggins hasn’t even played yet.

By the end of next month, John David Gardner might even join the mix. He has been out with a hip injury.

The Raiders could be in for a very nice season.

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Raiders did it right

By Marc Katz | Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 09:19 AM

FAIRBORN — Unlike the Wright State basketball team, I did some other stuff out in Seattle over the weekend.

The Raiders, of course, just played basketball, although they did walk two blocks one night for dinner, and following closing ceremonies on Sunday (they won two of three games and nearly beat No. 14 Washington), they sang happy birthday and had cake for point guard N’Gai Evans and coach Brad Brownell at Red Robin.

You know, if you want a little of Seattle’s atmosphere, go to Red Robin. They’re all the same, I’m told.

Anyway, the Raiders didn’t have time to walk eight blocks to the Pike Street Market or take a short tram ride to the Space Needle or do anything else.

The games were Friday, Saturday and Sunday against Washington, Portland State and Belmont. WSU arrived Thursday before noon and went directly to practice. The team took the red-eye home Sunday night.

Todd Brown and Troy Tabler made the Athletes in Action all-tournament team. Everybody played, and generally played well. It was a basketball-only trip for them.

I, on the other hand, was with my wife, so there was a little sight-seeing involved, which I add here in case you’re planning a future visit.

The Space Needle offers a spectacular view. My wife took a boat trip around Puget Sound (even I didn’t have time for that) and saw the water house used in Sleepless in Seattle. She said it recently sold for $2.5 million.

Okay, we weren’t going to be in the ballpark on that one.

One morning we even took a trip through the Seattle underground, where the city was first built.

You could also spend hours and hours in the market, which we didn’t, but at least we walked through and it was fascinating.

Now, I’m trying to shake a cold and the Raiders are taking exams. A few of them have spent some time shooting around at the Stezer Pavilion or lifting weights, but the next scheduled practice isn’t until Thursday. The next game in Tuesday, vs. Central Michigan.

That’s the same Central Michigan that came from behind to beat the Raiders in overtime at Mount Pleasant last season.

“After exams this week, all we’ll have to concentrate on is basketball,” said WSU senior Todd Brown.

He certainly isn’t going to go sight-seeing.

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What a difference a year makes

By Marc Katz | Monday, November 16, 2009, 11:04 AM

SEATTLE — Three games into last season, guard Todd Brown scored 11 points. He scored none in the third game, against Miami. Wright State was 0-3, on its way to 0-6.

Three games into this season, Brown has scored 57 points, including 25 during an 82-73 victory over Belmont on Sunday. The Raiders are 2-1.

Three games into last season, guard Troy Tabler had scored 14 points. He also scored none agianst Miami.

Three games into this season, Tabler has 36 points.

Sunday night, both were named to the All-Tournament team in the Athletes in Action Classic at the University of Washington, where the host Huskies won all three games, WSU won two and Belmont one. Washington’s closest game was against WSU, a team Washington beat by five.

“Todd is playing like a senior,” WSU coach Brad Brownell said. “He’s playing like a guy who has urgency. He’s not longer just a shooter. He’s making more plays off the dribble.”

“We pretty much worked over the summer and it’s paying off,” Brown said. “We know we’re a good team. We play defense, and our defense helps our offense. I wanted to come out 3-0, but I take 2-1. It’s a lot better than 0-6.”

After Sunday’s game, the Raiders ate near the airport and took the redeye to Cincinnati, where they expected to arrive about 7 a.m. Monday. Then, they faced a bus trip back to campus and exams this week.

Their next game in Tuesday, Nov. 24, vs. Central Michigan at the Nutter Center. Not only is it WSU’s only home game of the month, it will be the season debut for former All-Horizon League guard Vaughn Duggins, who sat out almost all of last season with an injury.

Duggins was on this trip and practiced with the team, but was suspended by Brownell for an off-court incident.

“The guys are excited about having him back,” Brownell said.

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Raiders win again in Seattle

By Marc Katz | Sunday, November 15, 2009, 09:17 PM

SEATTLE — It took three weeks for Wright State to win its first game last year, and another week to win its second.

Sunday, the Raiders matched that two-game winning streak in the basketball season’s third game in three nights, defeating Belmont 82-73 in the Athletes in Action Classic at the University of Washington.

After falling short in a comeback on Friday against No. 14 Washington, 74-69, the Raiders beat Portland State 75-70 on Saturday and then Belmont on Sunday.

The games were significant because all four teams in the Classic won at least 20 games last season and WSU was the only one of the four that didn’t go to a post-season tournament.

A year ago, the Raiders lost six games before they won once.

For the second time in three games, senior guard Todd Brown led the Raiders, scoring 25 points. He was joined by Troy Tabler who had 16 and Cory Cooperwood who added 12.

After an early close game, the Raiders held the Bruins scoreless for about 7:30 in the first half and led 43-27.

That lead expanded to 52-27 early in the second half when Belmont staged a comeback that cut WSU’s margin to just 11.

A 3-point Tabler basket stopped the bleeding and WSU was out of danger, although Belmont cut it to 9 in the final minute.

After the game, the Raiders were to take a redeye flight home, arriving in Cincinnati about 7 a.m. Monday, then bussing home to Fairborn, where they face exam week.

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Maturity makes a difference

By Marc Katz | Saturday, November 14, 2009, 10:44 PM

SEATTLE — Talent usually wins out, but maturity means alot as well.

Take Wright State, for instance, with four seniors and five juniors. Maturity can make a difference in how a team handles itself when it trails by 18 points or when it leads by the same margin.

In two days, WSU found itself on both sides of that deficit.

Friday, trailing Washington by 18 less than four minutes into the second half, WSU cut the final score to 74-69. It was a loss, but the Raiders never looked like they thought they were out of the game.

Saturday, it was the other way around. WSU was up by 18 at almost the same juncture in the game, beating Portland State. And Portland State came back to the Raiders, cutting the margin to just four points before the Raiders won, 75-70.

To some, there was a big difference in the teams. Washington is ranked No. 14 and Portland State is unranked, but the Vikings have attended the NCAA tournament in each of the last two seasons and has two starters back from last season’s 23-10 record.

Wright State might be more experienced than that.

“Hopefully, we have a mature team, an older team,” WSU coach Brad Brownell said. “We have to do it one more time against a good Belmont team (Sunday night).”

Senior Cory Cooperwood, who was in foul trouble for most of Friday’s game, was able to play more on Saturday and responded with a team-high 19 points.

“Coach was more eager to see how we were going to bounce back,” Cooperwood said. “I think we showed how well we could bounce back. We wish we would have won Friday, but yesterday’s over. It’s a long season.”

Cooperwood put faith in his coach.

“I knew we needed some stops,” Cooperwood said of the end-game vs. Portland State. “I knew coach Brownell was going to give us the right instructions.”

Maturity, and talent, won out.

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Raiders even record at 1-1

By Marc Katz | Saturday, November 14, 2009, 09:14 PM

SEATTLE — It became much closer than they would have liked at the end, but Wright State held off Portland State 75-70 tonight in the Raiders’ second game of the Athletes in Action Classic at Bank of America Arena.

Cory Cooperwood scored 19 points, Troy Tabler 16 and Todd Brown and N’Gai Evans 11 each as WSU went to 1-1 on the season.

In a near image of Friday night’s game, one team moved way ahead, then had to hold off the opposition in the final minutes.

Only Friday, it was host Washington holding an 18-point lead early in the second half before WSU closed to within six, eventually losing 74-69.

Today, Wright State made five straight 3-point shots to take an early 15-3 lead and didn’t seem to be in any trouble as the Raiders increased their lead to 50-32 in the first six minutes of the second half.

Uh, oh, that was an 18-point lead. And it quickly evaporated, or at least most of it, as the Vikings closed to 56-51 with just under seven minutes to play.

When Portland State’s Dominic Waters hit a 3-point shot with 31 seconds left, the Vikings trailed only 70-65. Nine seconds later, Melvin Jones hit a 3-point shot to close the score to 72-68, but that was it.

Sunday night, the Raiders finish the tournament with a game against Belmont, which faced Washington in tonight’s final game.

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No excuses; Raiders just got beat

By Marc Katz | Saturday, November 14, 2009, 12:43 AM

FAIRBORN — In his world, Wright State basketball coach Brad Brownell thinks excuses don’t exist.

He doesn’t want to hear that he has a player hurt and another injured. He doesn’t want to hear the officiating didn’t go quite his way. He doesn’t want to hear he was playing on the other team’s court, 2,000 miles from home.

Oh, he’ll mention those factors casually from time to time, but when he loses a game, it’s always about how his team could have played better, not that somebody else had the advantage.

So it was Friday night when the Raiders visited Bank of America Arena, home of former coach Marv Harshman’s Court.

They lost, 74-69 to No. 14 Washington, with senior Todd Brown scoring 21 points and junior N’Gai Evans adding 17. It was not enough to overcome Isaiah Thomas, who poured in 30, and wiggled his way to the foul line enough to make 14 of 18 free throws.

“No, I’m not happy about how we played,” said WSU coach Brad Brownell, who told his team so at halftime when it trailed by 12. “We missed some open shots. Our defense wasn’t very good.”

The second half was better, so Brownell relented a little.

“We playd a very good team reasonably well,” he said.

He refused to say anything about not having suspended junior Vaughn Duggins or injured senior John David Gardner in the lineup. He refused to say maybe top rebounder Cory Cooperwood did not deserve two fouls in the first two minutes, necessitating his being taken out of the game for most of the half.

He refused to say most of the crowd of 8,239 was for Washington.

“That disrespects your players who played and the team you played,” Brownell said. “We certainly felt we had a chance to come in here and win a game.”

That’s the way Brown and Evans felt.

“We came out a little sluggish,” Brown said. “The shots weren’t falling for us. Any time you see somebody who’s good or (people think are) better than you, you want to win. I wanted to win real bad.

“You’ve got to play every game, whether it’s Central State (in an exhibition game) or Washington. We were trying our best.”

Evans, who a year and a half ago was being contemplated for a redshirt season but was pressed into service because of injuries to others, said he never gave up.

“We were just playing the game to win,” Evans said. “We don’t give up. It started when the ball was tipped up.”

Brownell is concerned with the two other games his team has to play in this tournament, tonight’s game with Portland State, and Sunday’s with Belmont. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m., Dayton time.

“Sometimes you’re down because you lost to a ranked team, then you have to play somebody else the next day,” Brownell said.

Well, it happened to the Raiders once before. They lost in a three-game tournament to No. 17 LSU in 2006-07, Brownell’s first season. The next two nights, they beat Samford and Mississinawa Valley State.

That was a long time ago, Brownell said, who used that tournament as a springboard to his first 20-win season and hasn’t missed the mark since.

It might also have set a trend.

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