“This is the most offensively efficient team that’s been here in eight years, which is great, but the bad news is, this is by far — I mean it’s not even close — the worst defensive team I’ve ever had,” said Donlon, who has never had a team allow more than 62.1 points in a full season.
“As a coaching staff we have to find ways to help our guys get better at the defensive end of the floor,” he added.
And that effort will need to start tonight at 7 against a Division II Urbana team averaging 83.1 points per game, albeit against a lighter schedule.
“If we don’t guard, they can certainly score 80 on us,” Donlon said. “If you’re going to give up 80, or even 75, your offense has to play well. What scares me the most is we’re 3-1 in games we score 70 or more and 1-3 when we don’t. And I know from experience that if you can’t beat teams when you score below 70 when you get to your league (schedule), you’re going to have a hard time because your offense isn’t going to show up every single night.”
This will be Wright State’s first home game in three weeks. And as was the case when Division II Ohio Dominican visited the Nutter Center on Nov. 16 for its third game in three days, Urbana figures to be a fatigued squad.
The Blue Knights dropped a 109-97 decision at Wheeling Jesuit on Thursday and were scheduled to play the nation’s No. 1-ranked D-II team Saturday, West Liberty.
“Hopefully the guys are excited to be back in front of our fans, but the thing we have to communicate to them is you’re not going to win just because you’re back at home,” Donlon said. “We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to improve.
“The scary thing with defensive issues more than offensive issues is that a certain amount of it is about the DNA of your team,” he added. “So sometimes the defensive things can be a little harder to change because it’s much more about your will.”
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