Pregame Glance: Wright State

Opponent Interview:

Today we spent ten minutes with Raider Roundball‘s Mike Klingshirn to get you more familiar with the Wright State Raiders. Enjoy the interview and much thanks to Mike for his time this morning.

A Discussion With RaiderRoundBall.com’s Mike Klingshirn by The Buckeye Battle Cry

The basketball season will officially get under way on Friday as the Ohio State Buckeyes open up the year against in-state foe Wright State. The Raiders of the Horizon League are coming off a season where first year head coach Billy Donlon lead his squad to 19 wins and a sixth place finish in conference.

This season, Donlon faces an uphill battle. Gone is the talent brought in from current Clemson head coach Brad Brownell. Four starters from last year’s team have graduated from the program. Included in that group is Vaughn Duggins, who scored 18 points per game last season, and is already being considered one of the best players in the programs history.  More than 70% of last year’s production has to be made up for in all major assets, including nearly 80% of their scoring and 60% of the minutes spent on the court.

So the question becomes, who steps into the roles needed to compete.

Solo returning starter Johann Mpondo is a very solid rebounder for and has shown some range. The question though is can the forward make his way to the next level. His 17 minutes a game last year saw their ups and downs and he is not an offensive target. So Donlon will have to find a way to create scoring through a bunch of newcomers. Wright State welcomes nine new players to their roster, including North Carolina State transfer Julius Mays.  He should be a big part of the offense on Friday. His all-around skills are arguably the best on the team, and he has solid vision on the court. He scored a team leading 12 points in the teams exhibition loss to Central State. Mayes will be the man running the plays for the Raiders throughout the evening. He was a decent contributor with the Wolfpack before transferring and should be the player that Wright State can count on throughout the season.

Returning forward A.J. Pacher will also see his role increased with the team this year. The big man has yet to become a post presence and often is found out on the wing shooting the long ball. He will be asked to increase his inside ability on both sides of the court. He got three starts last season for injured starters.  He will be depended on to fill a veteran role with a mixture of youngsters that made their debut a year ago. Last season, the Raiders had ten players who averaged 10 minutes or more.

Among those players is Cole Darling, who is easily Wright State’s best perimeter shooter. In short playing time last season he shot 47 percent from beyond the arc. He started nine games, and head coach Bill Donlon said late this off-season that he was the most improved heading into the season.  With size to his frame, Darling could be pretty dangerous.

Despite consistently being competitive in the Horizon League throughout the years, this season will be a pretty tough one for the program. Only one player returns that averaged more than 4 points a game from last season. Everyone that did return is asked to fill a new role for the 2011-12 campaign. The horses are in the stable, but they just haven’t grown to be full grown basketball players.

With that being said, It’s hard to declare who will get the most playing time on Friday. Coach Donlon will throw out the five best from practice earlier this week.  Hoping that they can find some type of chemistry and character.

Last Game Analysis:

The Raiders opened up with a 56-50 home loss on Sunday in exhibition play to Division II Central State. The Maruders got out to a hot start and wouldn’t look back. After starting out on a 14-2 run, the Raiders started to calm down a bit in the second half, but couldn’t repair starting out the game with 13 turnovers and shooting 6-23 from the field.

A lot of that had to do with being manhandled on the glass by a total of 48-22. Another part of it is the perimeter game, which is a huge part of Wright State’s offense. They shot just 2-17 from three point land, which isn’t going to get it done against the Buckeye defense. The display was that of a program still looking for it’s feet on the court and establishing some type of team rhythm, which is expected when you put a new team on the court.

Amrond Battle and Julius Mays both scored 12 a piece to pace the Raiders. Johann Mpondo had 9 of the 22 rebounds.

When you miss 14 shots in the second half, and you’re able to get 10 of them back, as Central State did in the second half, it’s hard to cut a deficit. Coach Donlon talked about the game after and made it clear it’s a long season. Overall the initial defense of the Raiders was solid, and they were on the ball contesting shots. Those didn’t matter though because they weren’t able to get the basketball back on the rebound.  The truth of the matter is there is a lot to learn for Wright State, but like coach Donlon said after the game — the beauty of sports is you don’t get a second chance. There was a lot learned on Sunday, and we’ll see some of those adjustments tomorrow.

“Some people will write us off and that’s fine,” said Donlon. “I have confidence in the guys in the locker room and the coaching staff. The ship will get back in the right direction in a hurry.”