“He’s been tested and all that, so we didn’t have to worry about him having COVID. But he didn’t sleep much last night and he was kind of sapped today when he came in. He’s got allergies and since it’s warmed up here, they’ve really kicked his tail.”
Finke said he’s been plagued by allergies his entire life:
“I had them since I was a little kid and I had a real bad case this year when we were down in Florida for a tournament in November. It comes with a change in weather and this time of year they really hit me hard.
“The past two or three nights have been rough. I can’t sleep. With all the congestion, it feels like I sleep about 10 minutes and wake up. I tried sitting up in bed, so I could breathe, but after about 3 a.m. I was awake.”
With no chance of sweet dreams, he was left wheezing his way toward the daunting reality.
He’s known as the Raiders’ defensive specialist and always draws the other team’s toughest offensive challenge. And later Thursday he would be tasked with guarding Oakland University’s 6-foot-7 Jamal Cain, a veteran of 120 games at Marquette before joining the Grizzlies’ this season as a grad transfer and immediately becoming a star.
He was named the Horizon League’s Co-Player of the Year and ended the regular season averaging 20 points and 10.1 rebounds a game, one of only two Division I players in the nation (Kofi Cockburn of Illinois was the other) to average 20 and 10 this season.
How well Finke did with Cain likely would determine the Raiders’ fate in their Horizon League Tournament quarterfinal at the Nutter Center. If they won, they’d advance to the semifinals at Indiana Famers Coliseum in Indianapolis on Monday. If the lost, their season almost surely was over.
“I felt drained all day,” Finke said. “At our shoot around today, I was feeling a little weird. I felt foggy. Once the game started, I just tried to focus.”
Early on he and the Raiders had their hands full. Even though his shots were being contested, Cain rarely missed. He went 6-for-7 in the first half and had 13 points and 13 rebounds at the break.
Oakland led 36-28 at halftime and, four minutes into the second half, it extended the advantage to 14 (46-32.)
At halftime Nagy said he told Finke: “You’ve got to make his catches tougher. He’s getting the ball in tight by the basket and that’s hard for us to stop.”
For Finke, Nagy’s observation became the vax for victory.
“After that (Tim) wouldn’t let him catch the ball anywhere he wanted to,” Nagy said. “Everything went out farther from the basket. He was just being physical with him without fouling.”
Finke explained: “I tried to push him out as far as I could from the basket and deny him the ball. I wanted to make it as difficult as I could.”
And he did.
Cain hit the two free throws with 14:44 left to give Oakland that 14-point lead and then … he never scored again.
In fact, he rarely touched the ball on offense after that and when he did, he missed two shots and turned the ball over two other times. His frustration mounted and he began to foul, picking up four in the second half and fouling out with 5:47 left.
He scored just four points and had two rebounds in the second half.
The defensive stops enabled WSU offense to get on a roll said Grant Basile, the Raiders’ 6-9 post player.
WSU went on a 20-0 run to take the lead and full control of the game.
With the 75-63 comeback win, the 19-13 Raiders face No. 1 seed Cleveland State in a Horizon League semifinal game Monday at 7 p.m. in Indianapolis.
After Thursday’s game, WSU box score stars were Tanner Holden, with a game-high 27 points and Basile, who had 18 points and 11 rebounds.
They were brought to the post-game press conference – as was Nagy later – and they all ended up praising Finke.
“He did a fantastic job,” Basile said. “I don’t know how may Cain ended with, but he worked for every one he got. Tim made his catches hard and had him frustrated.
“He’s the best defender in the league.”
Nagy had high praise, too:
“I keep saying it, he’s our MVP. And I think every player on the team would say it, too. If we could get everybody to Tim’s level, we’d be phenomenal.”
Defensive drive
Finke played high school ball at Champaign Central in Illinois. His dad, Jeff, was the head coach there and had been a two-sport college athlete himself. Recruited to Illinois to play basketball, he became standout tight end for the Illini.
Jeff and wife Laura have three sons, all who have been college basketball players of note. And their daughter Ashley was once a dancer and, as her dad told me, was the best conditioned athlete of the bunch.
Tim’s 6-10 brother Michael scored 1,116 points in college at Illinois and Grand Canyon University and now plays professionally in Greece. His brother Nick played at Army.
Tim drew interest from several big name schools – including Ohio State and Notre Dame – but injuries and a prolonged slump through an AAU season tempered some of the pursuit. He eventually went to Grand Canyon, played in 34 games as a freshman and then decided to transfer.
His family and Nagy had connections.
Scott Nagy played at Champlain Central, too, and Jeff Finke was recruited to Illinois by Scott’s late father, Dick Nagy, a longtime Illini assistant.
Tim came to WSU with a reputation for his defensive play and Nagy liked what he saw:
“He has great anticipation. For someone who wears size 17s – yeah, he has big feet – he can really move them laterally.
“He’s one of the few guys who’s just so hard to screen. He has such a level of urgency about him. Every possession he won’t allow himself to be screened.”
Nagy said that drive has been especially impressive this season since Finke has struggled offensively, including Thursday when he had 3 points:
“He’s one of the very rare guys I’ve coached who, even if he struggles offensively, it never affects his defense. Almost every other guy I’ve coached, if they aren’t going well offensively, it sucks the energy out of their defense. But it never does Tim. It never does.
“That’s why I’ve just got a great amount of respect for him.”
‘He really got us flowing’
At the post-game session, someone suggested Wright State won because its two stars — All Horizon League honorees Holden and Basile – took over the game down the stretch.
Basile, though, thought otherwise:
“Tim was the one who took the game over if you look at some of those (offensive) plays he made in the corner – great passes where he found the open guy – and on defense, how he was our general.
“A couple of plays down there, he was pushing people, getting them in the right matchups and the right spots on defense. On offense, with those extra passes, he really got us flowing.”
After the game, Finke emerged from the dressing room bundled up and feeling drained. He had dark circles under his eyes.
“I feel exhausted, for sure,” he said quietly.
He said he was going home and was going to try to stay hydrated:
“I just hope for a better night tonight.”
Part of it already had been.
In the second half, he had put Jamal Cain to sleep.
Now he just needed to do the same to himself.
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