Wright State is very young. 11 freshmen and sophomores on the roster per the website. One of the juniors is a transfer from NC State playing his first year for the Raiders. This is probably going to be one of our best shots to get that elusive win in the Nutter Center.
This article from the Dayton Daily News gives some insight in to the struggles WSU has been dealing with
FAIRBORN — They are a young team that’s searching for an identity, a leader...and a win.
Although Wright State lost to Cleveland State, 45-43, on a last-second tip-in, the Raiders got a little closer to all three Thursday night at the Nutter Center.
Cleveland State may be the best team in the league, but WSU went toe to toe with the Vikings — and could have won were it not for two miscues in the final 30 seconds: a midcourt turnover and then a missed box out on D’Aundary Brown’s run-to-the-hoop tip in.
Although the Raiders have now lost four in a row, CSU coach Gary Waters saluted them afterward. He talked about how his team had to work for every possession and said:
“Hear me what I’m saying. They’re gonna be a tough team this year to beat in this place.”
“They’re trying to find themselves with a young team...They just don’t have a lot of guys who have played together. Once they do, they’re gonna be OK.”
In so many words, he also was talking about a leader needing to emerge and you saw glimmers of that happening Thursday with the return of Matt Vest.
After spraining an ankle in the exhibition game against Central State, the 6-foot-5 sophomore guard from Chaminade Julienne High School missed the first six games of the season, then played just four minutes last Saturday against Charlotte. Thursday night he started, played 22 minutes and finished with seven points, three rebounds two assists and a steal against three turnovers.
The stat line, though, wasn’t what was most important. It was the emotion and understanding with which he plays, and it’s something coach Billy Donlon hopes he can infuse into others.
“Nobody in our program has been here longer than two years so they don’t really know what Wright State means,” Donlon said. “They don’t know the history and what’s gone on here. I’m not just talking about since Coach (Brad) Brownell was the coach, I’m talking about long ago. I’m talking about building the program up in the ’70s, the Division II national championship in the early ’80s, becoming Division I and building an 11,000-seat arena in the early ’90s.
“It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to build the program...which obviously Matt’s father was a part of. So it just takes one guy like (Matt) to pass that message on to other guys. That’s the issue of our youthfulness. There’s not enough blood, sweat and tears in that locker room yet for guys to understand.”
Mark Vest, Matt’s dad, played at WSU in the mid-1980s, was one of the program’s greatest scorers and is in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
In private afterward, Matt at first said he wasn’t sure what family history had to do with now, but after thinking about it a while, he was willing to admit: “Deep down I do know this is a winning program. And being around Wright State basketball my whole life maybe makes me want to win a little more. I have a little something extra because I know what this means to everybody.”
Donlon believes that sincerely: “This is about family here. For me, people will quit on themselves faster than they quit on other people in general. If you know something’s up for grabs for someone else you tend to be there more, to play with more grit.
“Matt feels that. He plays with great emotion. He plays for the history of the program. He’s the one who can get the others to understand that and when they do, we’ll be the better for it.
Vest thought the Raiders took a step in that direction Thursday:
“We learned something about ourselves tonight. This game showed that we can win this league. This game came down to two or three stops at the end. We’ve got to be there for each other just a little more.”
Sounds like an identity and a leader may be emerging.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/wright-state-university-raiders/wsu-shows-promise-in-loss-to-csu-1293032.html