Interview with Wright State University President David Hopkins

By Mike Reynolds

WSU President David Hopkins

RRB: How does WSU Athletics contribute to the greater institution?

DH: Well, I always like to start out and say that I had a student-athlete experience in college. First and foremost, I think athletics should be what we call the collegiate model; the one we are trying to protect now – the integrity of the model. This model really puts the student-athlete first. Being part of an athletic team is part of growing, not only personal development but leadership development. It should always be about the individual student athletes and what they are gaining.

I do think that it can be a great spirit enhancer for a campus. You can see that at Wright State and see that across the NCAA where there is a great deal of pride that you can have in your alma mater and your institution when you see your teams participating at a level of excellence against others. I think there is a spirit that grows from athletics on a campus that I think is very positive. I think the other thing that athletics can do is give us a visibility that you can’t get with everything. Many times we have found in working with prospective donors is that they became hooked into Wright State through a connection to athletics but then they become individuals who care about, say science. So they are much more than athletic donors, they become connected to the university because of their passion for the competition. And so I think the visibility, and there are multiple ways that we get visibility at this institution: our theater program, our music program, is great. We think that anything that puts Wright State name out nationally or internationally is a positive because our athletics teams are made up of men and women who do a great job of representing this university. I think a lot of people take that for granted; these are high quality young people who are working so hard. You see it every time they represent us. I am so proud of them.

RRB: The time that student-athletes put in on a daily basis is incredible.

DH: Having been a former student-athlete in two sports, I never took a day off. I went from preseason basketball, basketball season, right into preseason baseball and then baseball season. So for me it was a daily thing and yet, how these young people manage their time … their performance in the academic arena is superb. We consistently have our athletes doing better than the general student body. Each year we recognize the students with a GPA of at least 3.0; that line gets bigger and bigger each year and that also makes us proud. This is the model at Wright State … these are true student-athletes. I can’t say that about all the NCAA teams today. I’m truly proud that we have a Division I student-athlete program here that’s really focused on the student-athlete but can play at a level of excellence that I think is surprising to people

RRB: How much are you involved with the athletics department?

DH: Well first of all, what I’ve learned from my mentors through the years, President Goldenberg that I worked with here and President John Moore from Indiana State and lots of other colleagues, is the understanding that this is something that Presidents have to pay attention to because athletics are so much in the public domain. There’s so much in the news and something can wrong very quickly and things do happen all over the country. I am really proud of how our coaches manage their teams and how they are work with these young people. But anything can happen so I find myself very hands-on. Our athletics program reports to Dan Abrahamowicz, our vice-president of student affairs. Bob Grant has been a fantastic athletic director in terms of driving the core values that we care about and maintaining a value-driven athletic program. Dan reports through the Provost to me but I make time to meet with the athletics director on a regular basis so that I’m not hearing it second and third hand. I have distinct questions that I ask about things and I want to know first-hand. So while the reporting line doesn’t show he reports to me, I really try to stay hands-on because it’s so easy for intercollegiate athletics to morph into something that we are not proud of … that’s not the case here but it’s happening all over the country where Presidents have lost control of the collegiate model of athletics and we are not going to do that here.

RRB: What are your impressions of our two basketball coaches?

DH: They are both very passionate about what they do and all you have to do is watch them coach. I have been proud of both of them in that, again, to me, it’s about striving for excellence in everything that we do at this university, no matter what program, what department, we are going to be the very best we can be. And that’s the way they both approach it. The other thing I’m proud about both of them is that they build teams. They help people grow as people but they build a concept of team and the “it’s amazing what you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit” kind of teams and I love that about athletics. It was something that was ingrained in me many years ago and it’s something that I try to create here on this campus is this environment where if you think like a basketball team sometimes, where everybody has got their role to play … sometimes somebody has to step up but it doesn’t matter who – one time it’s one individual that steps up and another time it’s another person. I think both coaches epitomize this in their coaching. They are passionate but they are passionate about the student-athlete … I keep saying that but it just the type of coaches we hire. If you hear Billy Donlon and Mike Bradbury go out and talk to Rotary Clubs, you’ll hear them talk about the greatness of Wright State academically. You hear that all the time from these coaches because they believe it. That’s the heart and soul of what we do here and they won’t let that fall apart and that’s why I’m really pleased with them and, all of our coaches are like that. We hire them and have certain expectations and we hold them accountable for the success of their student-athletes. It’s the most important thing they do.

We are not trying to be something we can’t be. We know we are, we know who we serve and we are going to be darn good at it. And I think that’s the way the coaches feel about their teams. They are not going to cut corners or take shortcuts to achieve excellence – they are going to do it through hard work and setting high expectations. That’s the nature of Wright State University; that’s who we are. A lot of times people talk about us being a blue-collar institution; when someone says that, well I’m kind of proud of that comment because we serve a lot of students who come from blue-collar families. So, I like that I our coaches; they epitomize that whole approach to sport and athletics.

RRB: Wright State, Ohio, the country and the world for that matter are going through a difficult economic crisis. How will this impact WSU Athletics and collegiate athletics in general?

DH: Well, I think we’ve lived within our means here. You can look at all the national statistics. Now we don’t have football; we cannot afford to have football. It’s not something we intend to invest in although I’m really glad we have a club football program. We think that those young men can have a lot of fun and learning experiences. Like all of the university, we all have to tighten our belts and we have asked the athletic department to tighten its belt the last four years. It’s been one of those times in the economy. We’ve have to live within our means and then tighten the belt even more. Athletics is not immune to this. They have the same expectations and in some ways greater, to make sure they maintain their budget. We make tough decisions every day. We have to make them and athletics is going to be part of those tough decisions and already have been. I’ve been proud of the way they’ve handled it and will continue to because it’s not like this economy is going to come roaring back. The state certainly does not have the funds so we are going to be in this mode for a number of years.

RRB: You’ve already talked about this but any other remarks on WSU Athletics?

DH: I think we have made a commitment to field the sports that we can afford. I think we’ve made a commitment to field sports where we think we can compete in our league. We don’t ever want to be in sports where we don’t think we have a chance to win our conference championship. We owe our young men and women, through good coaches, good facilities, and the support system they need to be able to compete for a conference championship. Now I’m not talking about NCAA, we love to think that someday but right now our goal is to make sure that we field teams that are competitive in our league. And we do that consistency. I think, obviously, as the future goes on we have to look if there’s opportunities to add sports within a more budgetary limited climate; we’d certainly do that but at this point in time we are pretty happy with where we are. I am really pleased with the way we’ve done things in our athletic program with people and players.

RRB: You alluded to this briefly earlier, but increasing attendance at basketball games. We have a very competitive team and we have a large alumni base in the region. It’s the million dollar question but how what can be done to get more people into the Nutter Center.

DH: I think you have to get the context first. First of all, we are number two in the Horizon League in attendance and we have been number one. Secondly, we are in the top one hundred in attendance in the entire nation out three hundred and thirty-some teams. It’s one of those things where if you have a little bitty gym and you didn’t have this beautiful Nutter Center and you had five thousand people, it would be jam packed. We also are often compared to neighbors, University of Dayton who have been around for a long time and have developed a wonderful history and program; they get 12 or 13 thousand a night. It becomes a comparison which is truly unreasonable; we’ve been in Division I since 1987. We are doing pretty well. Now, I’m not satisfied because I think we should be getting much more support for these young men and women. When you are beating Butler, the runner-up for the National Championship and you have the quality to compete there, our schedule is getting better every year – well, I want to see bigger crowds and more students there. I want to see these young people recognized for what they do so well.

The other thing that I am proud of is that we are creating a very family friendly atmosphere at our games. You are seeing a lot more younger families coming. I like to say we are growing Raiders. So, I think we are doing pretty well averaging 5 or 6 thousand; it’s a matter of time, we’ll build that following. Give us 20 more years. When we go to semesters things will change. On the quarter system, we play, this year, like five home games when our students are gone on break. And we only play about 15 home games the whole year. So you can see, since we are not on semesters, we’ve always had that challenge. Now we can do better but I think that when we go to semesters next year it will change the involvement of the students and it changes the whole pace of the calendar for us. It will change the whole dynamic of getting students involved. I’ve been very pleased; we have had some great student turnouts. We’ve had a thousand and two thousand students turn out but not consistently.

So, I think we have to keep things in perspective for where we are in Division I basketball and how we compare nationally and in our conference. We are making pretty good progress.

You have to win and we now we winning and once you have a consistent winner, people will look at you. And, look at the schedule, we have UC coming to town, we have OU coming to town, we have Charlotte. We have Ohio State, Florida – now those are not at home but by just competing with these teams then you are seeing a high quality product on the court.

I’ve been working hard on this; I’m not finished with this about idea … Ohio State coming to Wright State to play someday. President Gee and I have had some conversations and I’m happy we are on their schedule – that’s the beginning, but I’ve been saying how important it is for the whole region to have the Buckeyes come here. So we are not done working on that.

RRB: The inevitable question … the Gem City Jam. Will the game ever be played?

DH: No. I think it’s very clear that there is no interest from UD in playing that game. And that’s fine. We’ve approached them a number of times. We’ve offered up the idea of playing it for charity and they have been clear that they have no interest in playing. I do think that is a shame for the community; I’ve said that consistently and publicly. I think it’s short-sighted for what athletics is all about and building a community spirit. But, I am not in their shoes; I’m looking at it from the Wright State perspective. They certainly have a different perspective but to me it’s difficult to understand when, in other communities, where there are two Division I team in a town they play. Why our community doesn’t demand it – it’s strange.

RRB: You are now on the Division I Board of Directors. Tell us more about the board and the duties and responsibilities.

DH: The first meeting was in August in Indianapolis. The Division I board has 18 Presidents that serve and I, of course, represent the Horizon League. Not all leagues are represented; there is a rotation of the leagues on the board. I have a four year term. Essentially we approve and oversee all the policies and procedures for Division I athletics – all sports. So, I learned a great deal at this meeting. I was really proud to be part of this. Fifty presidents were invited to a two-day retreat and then 18 of us stayed for the board meeting on the third day. What happened was, well … Presidents are really fed up to be perfectly honest.

In that room we had Presidents from all the big conferences SEC, ACC, Big Ten. We all sat in the room and said in unison, we are fed up with the perceptions of college athletics. We are going to regain control of college athletics. In a way that reminds people that it’s a collegiate model. We are never going to undo the commercialized model of football; it’s going to be there and we are not to try to undo it but have to get our hands around the fact that these are student-athletes. We all agreed we are not paying the athletes but we do think that there must be a way to spend more money on supporting student-athletes. We are going to maintain the collegiate model; we are not turning this into a professional model. It has been at some select institutions.

There are 331 Division I institutions and 22 actually made money. This is public data. We have a financial sustainability problem in higher education athletics. So we have to get control of that; we have to find efficiencies, we have to quit trying to keep up with the Jones’s. There’s only a small segment of the institutions doing that. Everybody thinks the institutions are making all this money and truth is it’s only 22 schools out of 331.
We’re talking in great detail about how to change the 464 page rulebook that is totally out of control. We talked a lot at the retreat about financial sustainability; making sure we are spending money on student welfare and taking care of students in all ways, most importantly in their academic success. On the rulebook, out of the retreat come two working groups that President Emmert (NCAA President) is going to put together. We’ve asked him to come back to the board in October for some of these matters and by April next year with a review of the rulebook. We need to look at the book and the most important values and principles – having rules around those but streamlining this rulebook; it’s just totally out of control. People don’t understand it; nobody understands the expectations or penalties. So the Presidents really came out strong that we are going to follow through this. I think there is a real sense of urgency that if we don’t do something now, we’ve lost control of the collegiate model. It’s important to remind people though that there are 34 sports that they play national championships in and most of the perceptions of college athletics are from around two sports, basketball and football. So be it. We run those other programs in ways that really honor the collegiate model. Basketball has its issues and football has its issues but we are going to change a lot of things this year.

One thing we already changed was how the academic progress rate (APR). It’s going to go from 900 – today if a team has an APR under 900 there is a penalty structure (lose scholarships, etc). We are changing the penalty structure to have five levels. In the third level if you drop below 930, your team will not be eligible to have postseason play, including bowl games. We’ve asked for a plan to be delivered in October at our next board meeting on how we transition this to “930.” It’s going to change the way coaches see things. We are trying to make this very clear that the Presidents are going to bring the hammer down. We want these penalties to be much clearer. We want them to understand that if you are going to break a rule, these core principal rules, then here’s the consequence. I was really proud to be part of this. I think we are all of the same mind.

Over the next year we are looking to change the freshman eligibility requirements – for you to be able to play your freshman year right now your GPA must be 2.0 – there’s a sliding scale with your SAT – we are going to move that GPA to 2.5. What we are finding with the data is that a lot of these young men and women were not prepared to succeed in college coming in at those low levels and it’s just overwhelming them to be in a Division I sport and try to succeed in class at the same time.

We are looking to change the transfer eligibility rules. All these will be ratcheting up the higher expectations of the academics. I am going to do my best, as one of the 18 Presidents in charge of this, to really follow through on this matter. It was a little over 100 years ago that when Teddy Roosevelt brought the Presidents together because football was totally out of control and the NCAA was formed to get control of football. We have to have integrity in the collegiate model or we might as well forget it. So we are going to work very hard to improve the integrity of the collegiate model for 99% of the student-athletes who participate. It was an interesting conversation but one that we needed to have. That may be the first retreat the presidents have had in a long, long time.

I want to protect the student-athlete collegiate model. It is one that is very sacred to me personally because I had that experience. We spoke about the one and done in basketball; partly that problem is the NBA because they have rules different from Major League baseball or the NFL. We have too many young men that come in and enroll in classes for the fall semester at some of these schools; they stay eligible, barely, sign up in the spring semester that they don’t even attend because basketball season is over in March. They don’t have any intention to get a college degree. Then what happens in the future is this impacts the APR for their team. If you leave a university in good standing then it’s not held against your APR because people leave to go get jobs all the time. But, when they don’t leave in good standing, it will affect the APR; we are working with the NBA to try to get them to change the rules to say you’ve got to go to two years of college or be 19 years old before you can go into the NBA.

There are some things that can’t change completely without the support of the NBA. The one and done only applies to a few student-athletes but so many think they are going to do that and then that sets them into a downward spiral in what really should be a great opportunity to get a college education for quality of life beyond the days of professional sports.

RRB: On to the Horizon League, you are still on the board of the Horizon League. Tell us what is involved with this board and you activities.

DH: Well, now that I’ve had a meeting with the Division I board, I realize the Horizon League Board is a smaller version of that. We bring the 10 Presidents of the Horizon League together with Commissioner Jon LeCrone twice a year. We have some committees like the audit committee, the finance committee that meet by phone, but the entire board comes together to make sure that we are financially stable as a conference, how championships are run and that we are really focus on our values of the student-athletes. Again, I’m really proud of the Horizon League. We have great competitive programs; Butler has demonstrated that. The schools are focused on getting the athletes to graduate on time and with the right support systems. Another example of an action from this board is about a year ago we made some changes where not all teams go to the championship series now. We were sending everybody and it was really not cost-effective. Those are the kinds of things we do.

RRB: Please talk more about the league in general. It would be considered strong and stable, true?

DH: Yes, very strong. I think the addition of Valparaiso was very important to get us to a ten team league. They brought value to our league. I think we are very comfortable where we are with ten members but again, that’s part of our duty as Presidents of the league to look at things like, do we add teams in the future or do we not. The conference is very stable right now. Financially, we are in the best shape we’ve been in for a very long time. The Butler wins have brought some funds to our conference that the league didn’t have before and helped out the member institutions.

One of the things that is really frustrating to all of us in the Horizon League, a proud and competitive mid-major conference, is to see 11 teams from the one big conference going to the basketball tournament. When you have Butler going to the tournament and no one else from the Horizon … I think the NCAA is really concerned about how the wealth is being distributed. It’s like a lot of things in life, the rich get richer. There’s no reason to have that inequity in some of the distribution of basketball money. We’ve got to look at the ways that money is distributed and so the Horizon League is very interested in that of course.

RRB: So league expansion is not “off-the-table” but not a high priority issue at all.

DH: Not with Valpo now in the league. I think at this moment we don’t see any teams looking to leave. I think we are very comfortable where we are. Valpo is the one we worked hard on to get done and so we’re comfortable. But it doesn’t mean never. It’s a nice way to compete with 10 teams.

RRB: Does the league have a strategic plan or long term goals?

DH: I would not say we have built a typical strategic plan but I think we have what we call core values or principles that guide us. I think we’ve been the type of league that’s been able to adapt to the changing environment in terms of the NCAA. We have to respond to a lot of things and hopefully we change some of those things. I think we just try to work every day with these core values that are fundamental to the league. We are always trying to improve the student-athlete experience. We talk about that a lot. We are looking at ways to support research at each of our institutions that looks at the quality of the student experience and athletics. It could be around the psychology of coaching for example. We want to have a competitive high-quality conference but we want to make sure that we add new knowledge that can help our institutions learn to be more effective with student-athletes. That’s something that differentiates us from a lot of conferences. We talk about that a lot. Jon LeCrone has been a magnificent commissioner. He has been commissioner 18 or 19 years and I think he has created something really special. Our league is very unique compared to a lot of leagues in that we really worry about the student-athlete all the time.

RRB: College athletics in general … costs are escalating … coaching salaries keep growing. Any other comments?

DH: Not sustainable. We cannot sustain that model. Very few institutions can as I mentioned earlier. Maybe 22 are “in the black” and the rest lose money. The problem is there is a level of the BCS schools, then there’s this other level and those are the schools that are really losing their shirts. They are trying to emulate something they can’t. Everybody has to start to understand that fact. We are certainly not trying to emulate those models. We are going to be what we are and continue to be more effective and efficient. We are going to have to cut costs and that’s the way it is because we are doing that all over campus. The State of Ohio is doing it all over and we are a state institution.

The other thing I heard at the NCAA meeting was well, there’s this talk about how we should put caps on coaches’ salaries and all that. We should have the discipline at each institution to do what we can afford and that’s what we’ve tried to do here within a competitive market. The NCAA has talked about caps before but the anti-trust laws come in so the NCAA cannot cap salaries. There have been legal tests to that matter. I think if they could, they would, but it’s market driven and as long as some of these intuitions are going crazy with it, others will try to keep up. I can tell you that not the mode of the Horizon League. We are going to try to stay competitive within the domain where we compete.

RRB: There have long been discussions about paying student-athletes a stipend in addition to the tuition and such.

DH: We think that is a slippery slope. I think the idea of a stipend is something that will be explored. Right now the conversation at the NCAA meeting was about providing the full “cost of attendance.” Right now, we don’t in Division I. I don’t understand all those details but there are other costs that are calculated into being a normal student that the scholarships do not cover. Some people are saying if a conference wants to do it, pay the cost of attendance, then fine. The Horizon League probably couldn’t afford to do that. It may change the competitive equity but the reality is that there is not competitive equity as it is now. We want to compete within the domain of our conference. As long as the conferences are doing similar things it will be under control. I do think we need to revisit the issue of four year scholarships. A long time ago they used to be; WSU honors them as four year awards but that’s not the typical case. There is a tendency for some coaches to run players off. I think we’ll be visiting this at the NCAA meetings soon.

RRB: Any final comments or remarks you’d like to make as we wrap this up this afternoon?

DH: I appreciate RaiderRoundball and I tell people that I like to get on there and catch up with what’s going on. I ‘m a guest and don’t get on there and say things but it’s very informative. It’s important for me to see what people are saying; it’s important for me to get a context and see what others are saying. I read some things and say to myself, well, they don’t get the whole picture, but, how could they? I appreciate that RaiderRoundball exists.

RRB: Thank you for your time Dr. Hopkins.

McCaffrey, Cooper and Hibberd Round Out Team and Departmental Awards

McCaffrey, Cooper and Hibberd Round Out Team and Departmental Awards

The final major departmental awards have now been awarded as men’s and women’s tennis coach Sean McCaffrey and baseball coach Rob Cooper were named the co-winners of the Terry Hall Coach of the Year Award while junior first baseman Jake Hibberd of the baseball team was named the Don Mohr Male Athlete of the Year. The other recipients were honored at last month’s Rowdies.

The men’s tennis team finished the year with a 17-10 mark, two wins better than last year when the program was honored with the nation’s best turnaround. WSU finished third in the Horizon League Championships by coming from behind to defeat UIC 4-3 in the deciding match. The women’s squad, meanwhile, finished 14-10, a vast improvement from two years ago when the Raiders posted a 3-18 mark. WSU went 9-13 last year.

Baseball became the only WSU team this year to advance to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Horizon League Tournament in late May. WSU finished the season at 36-19 and also won the Horizon League regular-season title for the second straight year. The 2011 Horizon League Coach of the Year, Cooper has an overall record of 224-179 in six seasons, which has led to three NCAA Tournament appearances.

It is the third Terry Hall Coach of the Year honor for Cooper (2005-06, 2009-10) and first for McCaffrey.

Hibberd, a native of Miamisburg, Ohio, was a key component of the baseball success. Named team MVP and the Horizon League Player of the Year, he won the league’s Triple Crown as he hit .407 with nine home runs and 56 RBI. Hibberd was recently named a Louisville Slugger Third Team All-American and was also selected as a Capital One Second Team Academic All-American by CoSIDA earlier this spring

2010-11 MVP and Raider Awards

2010-11 Departmental Awards

Emerald Jazz Dance Team Makes History!

The Wright State Emerald Jazz Dance team represented the University and Athletic Department by competing in the 2011 NDA College Dance Team National Championship. The team scored an average 9.418 out of 10 to capture a 4th place national ranking in the Division 1 Open Division after two days of competition. The “Open” division is defined by performing a dance genre of your choice. The team chose jazz and performed to medley of songs from the artist Journey. The event was held this past weekend in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The dance team point total was the highest average score performed by a WSU dance team since the team began competing in the early 90’s! The event yielded 17 cheer divisions and 11 dance divisions with a record 250 teams consisting of over 7000 athletes.

We salute the Emerald Jazz for their talent, hard work and dedication! Congratulations Sarah Miller, Jenny Foster, Alex Haley, Jillian Witters, Mandy Riggins, Amy Sarno, Kendra Kerner, Vanessa Keen, Erin Shouse, Mariah West and Ashley Napier.

Top Five National Rankings
1) Sam Houston State University
2) Weber State University
3) Stephen F. Austin University
4) Wright State University
5) Villanova University

Check out their award winning performance by clicking on this link.

Men Pull Away for 60-50 Win Over Green Bay in Horizon League First Round

By WSU Athletics

Dayton, OH – Wright State led by just two with 3:04 to play, but outscored Green Bay 10-2 the rest of the way as the #6 seeded Raiders defeated the #7 seed Phoenix 60-50 in first round action of the Horizon League Tournament Tuesday night at Wright State’s Nutter Center.

WSU led 8-1 after Armond Battle hit a three at the 11:50 mark of the first half and extended the margin to 14-3 on a N’Gai Evans three-point play with 9:30 remaining. Green Bay, though, rallied back to tie the game at 23 on an Alec Brown basket with 1:45 to play and the Phoenix went into the halftime break up 24-23 on a Rahmon Fletcher foul shot with three seconds left.

Neither team shot well in the opening 20 minutes as Wright State hit for 32 percent and Green Bay 29 percent, but the Phoenix made nine of 11 from the foul line compared to just one for one for the Raiders.

A Brown layup put Green Bay up 36-31 six minutes into the second half until the Raiders went on a 7-2 run to tie the game at 38. After Vaughn Duggins tied it again at 40 with a layup, WSU scored six straight, four coming from Cooper Land, to take the lead for good.

Back-to-back Brown jumpers drew the Phoenix to within two at 50-48 with 3:04 remaining, but the Raiders put the game out of reach by scoring the next seven points, four of those by Battle.

Green Bay finished with a slightly higher field goal percentage than Wright State (37-36 percent), but the Raiders countered by going 20 of 24 at the foul line in the second half compared to only one of three for the Phoenix.

Duggins led all scorers with 22 points and added seven rebounds while Battle had a season-high 13 off the bench. Land chipped in 10 and Evans 10.

Brown paced Green Bay (14-18) with 15 points while Jarvis Williams had 10. Steve Baker had eight points and eight boards off the bench and Daniel Turner collected 12 rebounds.

Wright State (19-13) now faces #3 seed Cleveland State, a 73-61 winner over UIC, in the second round Friday at 6:00 at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee.

Box Score

Green Bay Box Score

Audio

Coach Donlon’s post-game remarks

Comments from Duggins, Evans, and Land

Post-game Video

Coach Donlon

Vaughn, N’Gai and Cooper

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

Turnovers, Poor Plays Cost Women a Win

By Kevin C. Smith

Looking like the women’s team from recent past years, the Lady Raiders (15-9/8-5 HL) went down to defeat as Cleveland State (15-10/8-6 HL) overcame a deficit to win 74-66. Saturday, the women will host Youngstown State starting at 1:30.

This was a battle between the Horizon Leagues third and fourth place teams. WSU had previously beaten CSU in Cleveland, so a home win could be expected. That was not to be. The Lady Raiders played as they have done in the past and got beat. Twenty three turnovers gave CSU 24 points and the game.

The Lady Raiders seemed to want to only pass the ball to the key, as was done in the past, but that play was not working. The team is known for its three-point shooting, but in this game could only hit 5-16 for 31.3%. That is below their average attempts of 24 per game and completing 7.4 each outing. No, this game was mostly under the boards and it hurt.

WSU shot 38.7% (24-62) in this game, compared to 44.4% (24-54) for Cleveland State, including ten CSU three point shots. The Raiders also out rebounded CSU 47-24. Many of those shots and rebounds were put backs and missed layups due to CSUs defense in close. In many cases players on the outside where open and waiting for the ball.

Wright State had a 15 point lead at one time in the first half. It looked like they would sweep CSU. However we watched as that lead disappeared. In fact in the last eight minutes and 44 seconds, the Lady Raiders scored only three points and those were from the charity stripe.

LaShawna Thomas again lead the Raiders with 19 points and seven rebounds. Ta-myra Davis picked up a double-double with 16 points and ten boards. She also had one of the two Raider steals in the game.

On Saturday the women will host last place Youngstown State (4-21/2-12 HL) after the men’s game. Start time is projected as 1:30. Wright State remains in third place in the HL. However they need to win to remain there. Third and fourth seeds in the tournament will host a tournament quarterfinal game on March 9th. Wright State has a good chance of being third, but they need to protect the ball.

Raiders Drop 74-72 Heartbreaker to Cleveland State

By WSU Athletics

N’Gai Evans banked in a three with 1:28 left to put Wright State up one, but Cleveland State answered with a triple of its own and held on from there as the Vikings handed the Raiders a 74-72 heartbreaking setback Wednesday night at Wright State’s Nutter Center.

Neither team had more than a four-point lead until a 7-0 WSU run, five coming from Cole Darling, made it 20-14 with 8:51 remaining in the first half. CSU, however, answered right back with a 10-0 burst over the next 2:31, seven by Norris Cole, to regain the advantage.

An AJ Pacher triple at the 2:54 mark put the Raiders back in front 29-27 and the margin was one until a Cole jumper in the final seconds gave Cleveland State a 34-33 edge at the break.

Both teams shot the ball well in the opening 20 minutes as the Vikings were at 54 percent, including four of eight from three-point range, compared to 52 percent for Wright State, who was three of six from behind the arc and eight of nine at the foul line.

CSU extended its lead to six on two different occasions in the first 10 minutes of the second half, only to see WSU tie it at 54 on a Matt Vest three with 7:13 to play. Jeremy Montgomery, though, responded with a three of his own and a Cole triple from the top of the key made it 65-58 at the 4:22 mark.

Back came the Raiders, though, as after a Vaughn Duggins three-point play, Evans had a layup and banked in a three from the right wing to put Wright State in front 66-65 with 1:28 to go.

That turned out to be the final lead of the night for WSU, however, as Trevon Harmon connected on a three from the left wing and Cole hit two foul shots at the 19.1-second mark to make it 70-66.

After the two teams exchanged scores, another Evans layup followed by two Montgomery foul shots, Evans made a three with six seconds left to cut the deficit to 72-71. Montgomery, though, hit two more at the line with 4.2 seconds left and after Duggins hit the first of two at 3.9, his intentional miss was rebounded by Cole, who ran the clock out.

Both teams continued their solid shooting in the second half as Cleveland State shot 57 percent to finish at 55 percent overall while Wright State hit for 50 percent to end up at 51 percent for the game.

The Vikings held a slight 24-23 rebounding edge and outscored the Raiders 30-24 in the paint and 8-2 in fast-break points.

Duggins and Evans each had 21 points to pace Wright State, with Evans scoring 18 of those in the second half. Darling had a season-high 13 points.

All five Cleveland State (23-5, 12-4 Horizon) starters scored in double figures, led by Aaron Pogue’s 18, 13 coming after halftime, while Harmon and Cole each had 16, Montgomery 14 and Tim Kamczyc 10. Cole recorded a double-double as he added 10 assists.

Wright State (17-12, 10-7 Horizon) will host Hofstra as part of the Sears BracketBusters Saturday at 11 am. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.

Box Score (PDF)

Post-game Audio

Wright State’s Darling, Duggins, and Evans

CSU’s Waters Cole Pogue

CSU Coach Waters

Wright State Coach Donlon

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

 CSU Coach and Players






Wright State Coach Billy Donlon






Wright State’s Cole Darling and Vaughn Duggins

Men Hold Off Youngstown State 74-70

By WSU Athletics

In a game that featured 15 ties and 16 lead changes, it was Wright State that prevailed in the end as the Raiders outscored Youngstown State 7-2 the final 1:18 to pull out a 74-70 win over the Penguins Monday night at Wright State’s Nutter Center.

Neither team had more than a four-point lead during the first half as there were nine ties and six lead changes. After YSU’s DuShawn Brooks tied it at 38 with a jumper at the 1:33 mark, Vaughn Duggins gave the Raiders a two-point halftime edge on a basket with 31 seconds left.

Both teams shot the ball well in the opening 20 minutes as Youngstown State was 15 of 24 for 63 percent, including six of 12 from three-point range, while Wright State was 17 of 33 for 52 percent. WSU, though, forced the Penguins into 11 turnovers while committing just three, resulting in a 15-5 differential in points off of turnovers and 8-0 in fast-break points.

The Penguins scored the first seven points of the second half to go up 45-40, only to see the Raiders responded with a 9-2 burst to regain the lead at 49-47 on a Duggins jumper with 13:12 to go, Both teams then held four-point advantages before WSU went back in front 67-66 on a N’Gai Evans three at the 3:03 mark.

Kendrick Perry put the Penguins back ahead on two foul shots with 2:32 remaining before Cole Darling gave Wright State the lead for good on a pair at the line with 1:18 left. A steal and fast-break basket by Evans extended the margin to three, but Perry connected on a jumper just left of the lane to make it 71-70 at the 36.8-second mark.

Evans, however, hit a pair of foul shots with 17.2 seconds left and, after a missed three attempt by Youngstown State on its next possession, Matt Vest made one of two at the stripe with 8.6 seconds to go to seal the victory.

Both teams cooled somewhat in the second half as WSU shot 39 percent to finish at 46 percent overall while YSU hit for 42 percent to end up at 52 percent for the game. The Penguins were also 11 of 26 from behind the arc compared to six of 17 for the Raiders.

Wright State, though, hit 16 of 20 foul shots compared to nine of 12 for Youngstown State and the Raiders led in points in the paint (38-20), points off of turnovers (23-7), second-chance points (7-2) and fast-break points (10-0).

Duggins led WSU with 24 points while Evans had 17, 14 coming in the second half, along with eight rebounds. Darling added 11 points and Vest had 10 points and eight boards.

Vytas Sulskis hit his first nine shots, including six threes, to lead all scorers with 26 points for Youngstown State (8-16, 2-12 Horizon) while Perry chipped in 16, 14 in the second half.

Wright State (17-9, 10-4 Horizon) hits the road this weekend for Indiana, starting with a 7:00 matchup at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Thursday, February 10, against the Butler Bulldogs. The game can be seen live on ESPNU.

Box Score

Audio

Post-game Comments from Wright State Coach Billy Donlon

Post-game Comments from Wright State’s Players

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

 
Coach Donlon

Matt, Vaughn, and N’Gai

Duggins Tabbed as Preseason Second Team All-Horizon League

Senior guard Vaughn Duggins has been selected to the Horizon League’s Preseason Second Team after being named to the Second Team following the 2009-10 season.

Duggins, a native of Pendleton, Indiana, led the Raiders to their fourth straight 20-win season last winter as he topped the team in scoring at 14.2 points per game while grabbing 3.1 rebounds and dishing 85 assists. He was also honored as a First Team All-League selection following his sophomore campaign and named to the League’s All-Newcomer Team as a freshman when WSU advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2007. Duggins was redshirted in 2009 with a broken finger.

Duggins joined the school’s 1,000 point club last season and currently has 1,184 career points with 150 threes made in 97 games as a Raider. He is joined this season by three other seniors–guards N’Gai Evans and Troy Tabler and forward Cooper Land.

The following are the preseason All-League teams and poll:

Player of the Year

Shelvin Mack, Butler

First Team

Shelvin Mack, G Butler
Norris Cole, G Cleveland State
Matt Howard, F Butler
Rahmon Fletcher, G Green Bay
Brandon Wood, G Valparaiso

Second Team

Vaughn Duggins, G Wright State
Eli Holman, F Detroit
Cory Johnson, G Valparaiso
Chase Simon, G Detroit
Robo Kreps, G UIC

Preseason Poll

Rank Team (First Place Votes) Points
1. Butler (48) 480
2. Detroit 381
3. Cleveland State 376
4. Valparaiso 312
5. Milwaukee 259
6. Wright State 256
7. Green Bay 242
8. Loyola 146
9. UIC 121
10. Youngstown State 67

Women’s Basketball Pulls Out 71-66 Exhibition Win Over Georgetown (KY)

by WSU Sports information
Wright State was down by five with eight minutes to go and trailed 64-63 with 1:52 left, but the Raiders rallied from there, outscoring Georgetown (KY) 8-2 the rest of the way to pull out a 71-66 exhibition win over the Tigers in women’s basketball action at the Nutter Center Monday night.

10 unanswered points, including a pair of three-pointers by Maria Bennett, erased an early 4-0 deficit, but back came Georgetown with nine straight of their own before another Bennett triple tied it at 13 with 9:09 to play in the first half.

An 11-0 run late in the period, a run that featured threes from Bennett and Courtney Boyd, helped the Raiders take a 29-24 halftime lead.

Ta-myra Davis made it 34-26 with a basket at the 17:59 mark of the second half, only to see the Tigers go in front 38-34 with 12 straight over a 5:42 span. Georgetown maintained the advantage from there and was up 50-42 on two Devon Golden free throws with 9:55 to play.

Layups from Boyd and Thomas, however, cut the margin in half and WSU eventually tied it at 53 on a fast-break layup by Kayla Lamotte at the 6:55 mark. After four more ties and two lead changes, two Kourtney Tyra foul shots and one from Gina Beining with 1:52 remaining put the Tigers up 64-63.

After Thomas and Tyra exchanged baskets to again put Georgetown up one, a Thomas jumper in the paint with a minute to go gave the Raiders the lead for good at 67-66. An offensive foul call against the Tigers gave Wright State the ball back and Thomas connected on a basket with 11 second left to make it a three-point game.

Georgetown had one last chance to tie, but Tyra missed a three from the left wing and Davis made two foul shots with 0.3 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

Georgetown outshot WSU for the night 44 percent to 35 percent, but the Raiders attempted 19 more shots thanks in part to a 22-12 turnover differential. Wright State was also nine of 38 from three-point range compared to two of 12 for the Tigers.

Thomas led all scorers with 26 points for the Raiders, 19 of those coming in the second half while Bennett added 18 points, 12 coming before halftime. Boyd, in her WSU debut, had 10 while Ta-myra Davis just missed a double-double with nine points and 14 rebounds.

Tyra paced Georgetown with 17 points, all but one coming in the second half, while Mikkah Rogers had 11 and Lizza Jonas chipped in nine points and nine boards off the bench.

Wright State wraps up the exhibition portion of its schedule on Monday, November 8, as the Raiders host Kentucky State in a 7:00 contest.

Raiders Invite Fans to the Free Raiders Represent Game

DAYTON –In what has become a tradition, the home opener against Northwood Wednesday, November 17 will once again be the Raiders Represent game — admission will be free to everyone who wears Wright State apparel to the game.