The same goes for starting transfers Dom Pangonis and Bryan Etumnu.
But to Wright State coach Clint Sargent, nothing means more this season than how his fares team in the league. And he’s given his players a crash course on what to expect going into the first of 20 HL games at Youngstown State on Wednesday.
“We update our players. We want our guys knowing what the league’s doing, especially this year. We educate our team before the season on every Horizon League head coach, style of play, the history, the tradition of their program, the roster, key returners, key new guys,” Sargent said.
“It’s always a part of our conversation, always asking. ‘Did you see the Northern Kentucky score?’ The regular-season title and the longevity of being very good through the course of a three-month period, it’s very important to us. In order to have that (mindset), you’ve got to have good knowledge.”
Sargent arrived as an assistant with coach Scott Nagy in 2016-17. And the staff didn’t need long to take the Raiders to the top of the league.
They won or shared three straight regular-season crowns from 2018-21.
They won two of the four league tourney titles in program history in 2018 and 2022.
But they finished eighth at 8-12 last season and lost in the quarterfinals for the third straight year.
What Sargent has learned in two years as coach and 10 on staff is that players need to be fully engaged.
Even teams with names unfamiliar to much of the college hoop world are capable of knocking you off. Robert Morris won the regular-season and tourney crown last season in just its fourth year in the league.
“You’ve got to have a heart posture that cares about the league. And in this era, when your roster’s new, they need a catalog of information — they’re just not going to have it overwise. You try to work it in there. At least we do,” he said.
Sargent likes how the staff built a challenging non-league schedule — not so much in playing teams a notch above his, but in getting a heavy dose of MAC schools, which are their competitive equals and play with the same edge.
That stems mostly from players feeling as if they were snubbed by more highly regarded programs.
The Raiders (4-4) beat Ohio U. in a rugged exhibition game and reportedly lost in overtime in a closed scrimmage on the road against conference favorite Akron.
They’ve played two MAC teams so far in games that count, losing at home to Toledo, 81-71, after building a five-point halftime lead. They fell in overtime to Kent State in the Greenbrier Tip-off after letting a five-point lead slip away in the final two minutes of regulation.
They play at home against Miami on Dec. 16 and at Eastern Michigan on Dec. 22.
All but EMU were picked in the top six in the MAC preseason poll.
“They’re very ‘at you.’ Very athletic, very experienced and have winning coaches,” Sargent said of MAC teams. “They have high expectations, and they expect to win — all things we’re trying to dive into.”
Youngstown State (4-4) has finished fourth, second and first in the league in the last three years and was tourney runner-up last spring,
Sargent believes his program can get back to at least that level.
“There’s a standard set here to win, and that’s the expectation — to win championships and be great. That’s what we’re striving to be,” he said.
“I knew this team would have some growing pains. But I think it has that potential. We just need to find it consistently.”
NEXT GAME
Who: Wright State at Youngstown State
When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 1410-AM, 101.5-FM
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