Wright St. rebounds from its poor start
Mar 13, 2007 22:47:56 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Mar 13, 2007 22:47:56 GMT -5
www.post-gazette.com/pg/07072/769004-175.stm
Wright St. rebounds from its poor start
Since starting the season slowly, Pitt's first-round opponent has been one of the hottest teams in college basketball
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
By Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Wright State did not look like an NCAA tournament team in November and December. Not by a long shot.
Even first-year coach Brad Brownell had to be thinking his inaugural season was going to be chalked up as a learning experience after the first few weeks of the season. The Raiders lost to low-level Division I teams Coastal Carolina and Chicago State in the second and third game of the season. And by the time the Raiders were finished getting trounced, 71-45, by LSU at the Hispanic College Fund Classic in Baton Rouge Dec. 27, they were 5-6 and were struggling to find their groove.
"It was hard," said Brownell, who came to Wright State from UNC Wilmington. "We started with six of our first seven games on the road. Anytime you take over a new team you're going to learn players' roles, learn substitution patterns. You would rather do that at home. We were struggling at times, but we came back and beat Samford and Mississippi Valley State in that tournament. And I left there feeling pretty good. I thought we were starting to make some progress."
Since that LSU game, Wright State has lost just three times and heads into the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country. No. 3 seed Pitt (27-7) will play No. 14 seed Wright State (23-9) in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night at HSBC Arena in Buffalo.
Wright State is making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1993. That was the only other time the Raiders had made it to the Big Dance in 20 years as a Division I program.
For most of the recent past, Wright State has been a losing or .500 team treading water in the Horizon League. Brownell said overcoming the losing mentality was the toughest thing he had to do as a coach.
"They hadn't won here in such a long time," Brownell said. "That was the hardest thing to change. Throughout the season, when we were playing well, everyone was like, 'You're one step from the banana peel.' Everyone was waiting for us to fail."
But that never happened thanks to Horizon League player of the year DaShaun Wood and two talented freshmen who came in and injected some scoring into Brownell's rotation.
Wood averages 19.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Youngstown State coach Jerry Slocum yesterday called Wood "as good a player there is in all of college basketball." Slocum ought to know. He was the only coach to beat Wright State in the past seven weeks.
"He is very quick and he can shoot the ball very well," said Slocum, who formerly coached at Gannon. "They have a couple of good freshmen, and as they got better the team got better. But none of this happens without DaShaun Wood."
"He's a very competitive young man," Brownell said. "He's great off the dribble, has good speed. We worked hard with him to improve his shooting. He can now step out and make 3s. He's a guy who can play quickly and still make good decisions with the ball."
Wood has received some support from freshmen Vaughn Duggins and Todd Brown. Duggins is second on the team in scoring with 8.9 points per game and Brown is fourth in scoring with 8.6 points per game. Senior forward Drew Burleson averages 8.8 points per game and 6-8 junior center Jordan Pleiman averages 7.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
When the freshmen started to feel more comfortable and meshed with their teammates, the Raiders began to jell as a team. After losing to Butler, 73-42, in early January, the Raiders went on a 14-2 tear that included two victories against Butler, the final one in the Horizon League title game last week. Butler made the tournament as an at-large team and is a No. 5 seed.
"Butler hammered us, but that loss didn't shake us at all," Brownell said. "We were playing our sixth game in 11 days, and we just had to get back on track. We came back and beat Loyola [Chicago] and Wisconsin-Green Bay. That was the turning point in our season. That's when our kids started to believe we could be a championship team in our league."
The only bad game Wright State played in the last two months was at Youngstown State, when the Penguins won handily, 72-57. But that was the only hiccup in an otherwise scorching stretch run that saw the Raiders win 11 of their final 12 games.
"That was a big game for them, and I think they were a little tight," said Slocum, Youngstown State's coach. "But they're as hot as any team in the country the way they're playing. I think they'll have trouble with Pitt's size, but they don't beat themselves. It will be a very competitive game."
Brownell said he has only met Pitt coach Jamie Dixon one time, but he admires his coaching abilities and philosophies. He said his team plays a very similar style to Pitt, a no-frills, simplistic approach to the game.
"I think there are some similarities there," Brownell said. "We both follow the philosophy of simplicity and execution. We don't have a lot of plays, but we run them well. When I watch Pitt, they're very efficient. They're not a gambling, crazy, wild team. We have similar philosophies."
Wright St. rebounds from its poor start
Since starting the season slowly, Pitt's first-round opponent has been one of the hottest teams in college basketball
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
By Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wright State did not look like an NCAA tournament team in November and December. Not by a long shot.
Even first-year coach Brad Brownell had to be thinking his inaugural season was going to be chalked up as a learning experience after the first few weeks of the season. The Raiders lost to low-level Division I teams Coastal Carolina and Chicago State in the second and third game of the season. And by the time the Raiders were finished getting trounced, 71-45, by LSU at the Hispanic College Fund Classic in Baton Rouge Dec. 27, they were 5-6 and were struggling to find their groove.
"It was hard," said Brownell, who came to Wright State from UNC Wilmington. "We started with six of our first seven games on the road. Anytime you take over a new team you're going to learn players' roles, learn substitution patterns. You would rather do that at home. We were struggling at times, but we came back and beat Samford and Mississippi Valley State in that tournament. And I left there feeling pretty good. I thought we were starting to make some progress."
Since that LSU game, Wright State has lost just three times and heads into the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country. No. 3 seed Pitt (27-7) will play No. 14 seed Wright State (23-9) in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night at HSBC Arena in Buffalo.
Wright State is making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1993. That was the only other time the Raiders had made it to the Big Dance in 20 years as a Division I program.
For most of the recent past, Wright State has been a losing or .500 team treading water in the Horizon League. Brownell said overcoming the losing mentality was the toughest thing he had to do as a coach.
"They hadn't won here in such a long time," Brownell said. "That was the hardest thing to change. Throughout the season, when we were playing well, everyone was like, 'You're one step from the banana peel.' Everyone was waiting for us to fail."
But that never happened thanks to Horizon League player of the year DaShaun Wood and two talented freshmen who came in and injected some scoring into Brownell's rotation.
Wood averages 19.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Youngstown State coach Jerry Slocum yesterday called Wood "as good a player there is in all of college basketball." Slocum ought to know. He was the only coach to beat Wright State in the past seven weeks.
"He is very quick and he can shoot the ball very well," said Slocum, who formerly coached at Gannon. "They have a couple of good freshmen, and as they got better the team got better. But none of this happens without DaShaun Wood."
"He's a very competitive young man," Brownell said. "He's great off the dribble, has good speed. We worked hard with him to improve his shooting. He can now step out and make 3s. He's a guy who can play quickly and still make good decisions with the ball."
Wood has received some support from freshmen Vaughn Duggins and Todd Brown. Duggins is second on the team in scoring with 8.9 points per game and Brown is fourth in scoring with 8.6 points per game. Senior forward Drew Burleson averages 8.8 points per game and 6-8 junior center Jordan Pleiman averages 7.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
When the freshmen started to feel more comfortable and meshed with their teammates, the Raiders began to jell as a team. After losing to Butler, 73-42, in early January, the Raiders went on a 14-2 tear that included two victories against Butler, the final one in the Horizon League title game last week. Butler made the tournament as an at-large team and is a No. 5 seed.
"Butler hammered us, but that loss didn't shake us at all," Brownell said. "We were playing our sixth game in 11 days, and we just had to get back on track. We came back and beat Loyola [Chicago] and Wisconsin-Green Bay. That was the turning point in our season. That's when our kids started to believe we could be a championship team in our league."
The only bad game Wright State played in the last two months was at Youngstown State, when the Penguins won handily, 72-57. But that was the only hiccup in an otherwise scorching stretch run that saw the Raiders win 11 of their final 12 games.
"That was a big game for them, and I think they were a little tight," said Slocum, Youngstown State's coach. "But they're as hot as any team in the country the way they're playing. I think they'll have trouble with Pitt's size, but they don't beat themselves. It will be a very competitive game."
Brownell said he has only met Pitt coach Jamie Dixon one time, but he admires his coaching abilities and philosophies. He said his team plays a very similar style to Pitt, a no-frills, simplistic approach to the game.
"I think there are some similarities there," Brownell said. "We both follow the philosophy of simplicity and execution. We don't have a lot of plays, but we run them well. When I watch Pitt, they're very efficient. They're not a gambling, crazy, wild team. We have similar philosophies."