That’s why it’s not exactly a shock when, even in the midst of a six-game winning streak, he goes unprompted to areas where the Raiders aren’t doing well — like rebounding.
They finished sixth in the nation last season with a plus-9.3 edge per game. This season, they’ve plummeted to minus-0.5.
It’s a facet of the game that figured to be a strength with returning starters Grant Basile, Tanner Holden and Tim Finke all having finished in the top 11 in the Horizon League in rebound average last season.
“Obviously, we lost Loudon (Love). But in my mind, that’s more rebounds for those guys to get,” Nagy said.
“We offensive rebounded well in the last game (snagging 13 in a 72-58 win over IUPUI). They played zone, which helped us. But we’ve not been a good offensive rebounding team this year, and we’re a very average defensive-rebounding team.”
Nagy also is aghast over the Raiders being 290th out of 358 Division-I teams in defensive efficiency, allowing 1.043 points per possession.
They were 16th in the country last season, giving up an average of .912 points each time their opponents had the ball.
“The things we’ve built our program on have really been lacking this year — the playing hard, the whipping people on the glass, being good defensively. It hasn’t been there with this team,” he said.
“Now, we’re better defensively than we were earlier in the year, but that’s not saying much. We were awful-awful earlier in the year. We’ve gotten better, but it’s still not at the level where we can win a league championship.”
The Raiders, though, wouldn’t have improved to 8-7 overall and 5-1 in the conference without at least a few positive traits. And Nagy certainly hopes they can build on the spike they’ve had on offense.
They’ve shot a slick 50.6% from the field during their winning streak after connecting at 43% in the 2-7 start.
They’ve averaged 78.3 points during the upswing, a jump of 6.1 per game.
“Part of it is that Trey is shooting a lot better, and his percentage has gone way up,” Nagy said of junior point guard Trey Calvin, who is hitting 44.8% from the field after shooting 34.9 in 2020-21.
“And we throw it inside. Most people don’t. We try to score at the basket. Most people are trying to shoot 3′s, and we’re trying to do the opposite.”
The Raiders also are on a school-record pace for free-throw shooting at 77.1%, just ahead of the all-time high of 76.4, which was set in 2016-17.
“It’s a product of having your best free-throw shooters shoot most of your free throws. And Tanner gets there a lot,” Nagy said.
Holden went into the week with 114 attempts, the second-most in the nation and 27 more than the next-highest total in the league.
He’s connecting at 79.8%, third-best in the conference. And he’s unleashed an all-around game that makes him a player of the year candidate.
He’s averaging 20 points and six rebounds while also leading the Raiders in assists (43) and steals (19).
“One of the reasons he leads us in assists is that teams load up on him, and he’s a good passer,” Nagy said. “Off the bounce, he draws a lot of attention, and then he finds people. Teams are still trying to figure out how to stop him.”
But true to form, Nagy couldn’t let a glowing critique of his best player go by without issuing a challenge.
“He’s playing well offensively. Defensively, he’s like the rest of them. There’s a lot that needs to be improved,” he said.
TODAY’S GAME
Wright State at Robert Morris, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 980
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