Questions linger for Raiders

[wsu97]

RAIDER CONNECTION

Questions linger for Raiders after final buzzer sounds
By Marc Katz

Dayton Daily News

FAIRBORN | No, it was not the season they wanted, or expected.

In what must be considered a down year for the Horizon League, the Wright State Raiders finished 8-8 with an overall record of 13-15 and a first-round loss to the University of Illinois-Chicago in the league tournament.

That's the way it happened in a league that had no outstanding teams, no team that finished with 20 victories during the regular season and will send only one team to the NCAA tournament.

Hoping to get a bid to the NIT is only wistful thinking, unless the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee loses in the HL tournament. The NIT, bought out by the NCAA, is taking conference champions that don't win an automatic NCAA bid by winning a conference tournament.

That's the only way the Horizon League gets two teams into the postseason.

Just four seasons ago, three Horizon League teams finished with 20 or more victories and a fourth team was 18-12. Maybe the HL just played a tougher nonconference schedule this season, but I don't think so. Milwaukee headed to this weekend's league tournament with a 19-8 record and nonconference losses to Wisconsin and Memphis, but also Missouri State and Tennessee Tech.

Butler goes in at 18-11 with losses to Ohio State, Michigan and Indiana, but also with losses to Indiana State and Kent State. The next best Horizon League record belongs to 17-10 Loyola, whose nonconference victories included beating Luther and Lake Forest, two Division III teams.

At least Wright State was competitive. At least the team members appeared to play hard. In the end, they just weren't good enough, and it didn't help having to bus back and forth to Chicago for games three days apart.

Who's to blame? Well, there are always the players, who didn't get it done. There are also the coaches, who are responsible for the way the players perform. Whose fault is it if the players aren't good enough, if they don't perform?

Did co-captains DaShaun Wood and Drew Burleson just not play well enough, or were they not coached well enough by Paul Biancardi and his staff? You can spend a lot of time arguing that one.

If you're looking for bright spots, look toward 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Jordan Pleiman, who averaged more than 10 points and nearly seven rebounds a game. He's a guy who has big potential if he gets stronger.

After Pleiman, there was improvement, but not championship calibre forward steps. Big man Walter Chancellor came on strong at the end, and William Graham was a nice addition to the starting lineup as a mover and shaker, if not a scorer.

In two previous seasons, the Raiders overachieved with a limited roster and almost no experience. This year's roster was split nearly in two, half with big experience, half with none.

Only senior Jaron Taylor graduates from this team, leaving a strong core of experienced players. It's tough to project an experienced team with a mediocre record will come back to play for a championship the next season, but the Raiders should be capable of doing that.

Butler was 13-15 last season, brought nearly everyone back and finished 18-11 and 11-5 in the league, losing the championship when Detroit scored with 1.3 seconds to go in the final game of the season to beat the Bulldogs 73-71.

Anything's possible. But this year is history. — Marc Katz

www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0303raiderconnection.html?cxntnid=rc-030306

[Class of '83]

I'd like to ask other Raider fans what they think WSU needs to do to get the basketball team to the next level?

[Mouth]

Nothing will improve until Cusack is gone. There is a pervasive culture of mediocrity in WSU Athletics.

[raider fan]

Statmaster,

Their are several reason one could point to as to why we can't seem to get to the next level but to me it boils down to one main theme/problem. This same problem was ES downfall as well.

I am speaking about player departures! Think about it, our starting lineup this year should have been:

Dashuan - pt
Zakee - 2 guard ( 12.9 ppg as a soph. )
Alex Koch - small forward ( 7.9 ppg as a freshman).
Drew Burleson - power forward
Jordan Anthony - Center

We lost 21 ppg and replaced it with 6 ppg in Will & Jaron. Those extra 15 ppg would be HUGE!!!!!!!!!!

It doesn't matter who the coach is if they can NOT retain and keep the players they recruit they will never be more then average.

[wsu97]

We need multiple three point shooters. Look at Coach Biancardi's first 2 years at WSU and you will see a big difference in our offense based on our lack a of a consistent three point threat this year. Even though WSU only went 7 deep his first season, WSU won 10 HL games and was very competitive. We had 3 guys that could shoot the three; Doliboa, Koch, and Boyd. Last year, we had Boyd. This year, we had Scott, but his playing time fluctuated. WSU has struggled against good 3 point shooting teams because we didn't have that instant offense this year.

If WSU is going to make any improvement next year, we need Scott to step up as a consistent scoring option for us and we need our recruits to make an impact. Both Penick and Brown are good three point shooters.

[Raider Country]

We need to run an offense. It seems like all we care about is bringing the ball up the court and running down the shot clock. If we would have played to win rather than play to control the clock this year, we could have won another 5-6 games.

[Big D]

Coaching:
I don't know if Coach B is willing to change his philosophy, but we need to better utilize our talent. We had depth this year and struggled on offense. That would seem like a perfect chance to try to press teams. If you have decent athletes willing to play tough full court defense, you can create turnovers and easy baskets. UWM has had tremendous success with their full court press in the past. I would like to see us press more next year. I would also like to see us go deeper into our bench. I think guys like Craft, Munroe, and Spencer could have contributed more this year if they were given more minutes.

Players:
--We need to become a much better FT shooting team, particularly Jordan and Walt.
--We need to get much stronger physically.
--We need to work on basketball fundamentals: dribbling, passing, setting picks, boxing out.
--We need to work on hitting open shots. I would love it if we had 3-4 great 3 point shooter like Butler. I can live with our players learning to take and make high percentage shots. Jordan stunk from the FT line, but he was money around the basket because he took high % shots. Graham should be able to blow right by anyone in this league trying to defend him and pull up for a short 5-10 foot jump shot. He can learn to make that shot this summer.

We'll know alot more about the state of Raider basketball next week when the NCAA releases it's findings on Coach B.

[Raider Country]

WSU WRAPUP

February fall meant no March madness
But DaShaun Wood remains bright spot for Raiders
By Marc Katz

Dayton Daily News

FAIRBORN | A season of streaks came to a screeching halt in the sparsely-populated UIC Pavilion last week, a day before the Wright State basketball team had a chance to taste any of March Madness.

When the Raiders lost, 77-64, to UIC in a first-round Horizon League tournament game, it not only was WSU's third loss of the season to the Flames, but a third straight loss to end the season.

It was also the third time during the season WSU lost three or more in a row. Twice, they lost four straight.

On the plus side, they also had a four-game winning streak and two three-game winning streaks.

All of this played out under a canopy of an NCAA investigation of Ohio State's program when Jim O'Brien was head coach and Paul Biancardi was his assistant. Biancardi, in his third year as WSU coach, would not speak about the investigation during the season except in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

As for the highs and lows:

• Plus-plus-plus: Finished .500 or better for the third straight season in league play for the first time since 1992-94.

• Best player: DaShaun Wood. Led the team with a 17.9 scoring average and with 131 assists and 51 steals, good enough to land him on the first-team all-Horizon League and first-team all-defense. During one six-game stretch near the end of the season, he averaged 26.3 points.

• Most consistent: Drew Burleson. The other starting junior co-captain (with Wood). Scored in double figures in all but three games.

• Most improved: Jordan Pleiman. Scored in double figures only three times in first 10 games, then was nearly as consistent as Burleson, finishing with a 10.5 average. Also led the team in rebounding.

• Best defense: While Biancardi was pleased with his team's defense (second to Butler), only Detroit had a poorer scoring average.

• Problem areas: "We had a weakness shooting the ball," Biancardi said. "We had costly turnovers at times and we didn't take enough free throws."

• Returning: Senior Jaron Taylor is the only player leaving the team for sure. A couple of others who had reduced playing time might consider leaving. Overall, the Raiders are expected to have an experienced team next season.

www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0307wsunotes.html

[cincyraider]

Hate to say it but this season was a big disapointment for me. Before the season started I believed that the Raiders had the personel to win the conference this year. I guess my expectations were just too high. I am still not sure if this was a case of a good team that underachieved, or just an average team that occasionally over achieved, like against UWM, Butler and BGSU. Right now I am guessing it was the latter.

Dont know if that was the coach's fault. There are some things that this team did well, like playing decent half court defense. Seems to me our downfall was that our best three players- Jordan, Dashaun and Drew, were just not dominant enough on a consisitant basis, and the other starters (and guys who played alot) may have played tough defense but were not really scorers.

Certainly as a fan who observes from afar it is easy to second guess. For instance, I dk why the coaches did not just bite the bullet and play the guys with the most potential to become dominant players- guys like Spencer, Craft and Scott for instance. I understand the whole "you have to earn playing time by working hard in practice" thing. That rule is generally a given for just about all organized sports. I guess I am just wondering if at our level, where talent is a premium comodity, and players are quick to transfer, etc. that it would make more sense to put your best five out on the court and invest your time building chemistry and motivating them to improve. At 13 - 15/ 7th seat in tourney, I doubt that we would have been worse off in the end.

Looking to next year we will probably be a tad better. Maybe with Drew and Dashaun being seniors, and a season of experience for the supporting cast (if everyone returns) we will be alot better.