Wright State
When: Sunday, February 20, 1:00 p.m.
Where: Calihan Hall
TV: ESPN, plus!
Radio: WLQV 1500 AM & 92.7 FM
Two weeks ago the Titans were hammered by the Norse in what may have been our worst showing of the year, Wyoming notwithstanding. The Titans have remained maddeningly inconsistent since, with a pair of wins over Northern Kentucky keeping alive the hopes for some notable accomplishment this year. The Titans will be defending a 13-game home court winning streak, which happens to be the 13th longest streak in the country. Is 13 an unlucky number? We'll find out.
It's likely that the Titans will still be without Madut Akec, who had a boot on during Friday's upset of NKU. The flip side is that the Titans will have Noah Waterman, who missed the first game while in Covid protocol. Waterman has been slowed by injury and illness all year, but finally seems to be hitting his stride, with 34 points and 11 rebounds, plus 8-16 shooting from behind the arc, in the last two games. The other potentially important shift in Titan personnel since
our preview of the February 4 game is Mouhamed Sylla. Prior to that last game with the Raiders, in which he was a DNP, Sylla had played just 5 minutes all season. Last night he played 15 against Northern Kentucky. Sylla is still so raw and inexperienced that it's hard to see him handling Grant Basile for long, but in addition to being big and strong, last night he showed a game face that I think many feel is too often missing from the Titans. He ripped one rebound away from Adrian Nelson--a pretty good rebounder--with a sort of "no way you get this ball" toughness I like to see. He'll presumably get some chance to try his stuff on Basile, and may give the Titans a new look for at least a few minutes.
Speaking of Basile, the Raider center destroyed the Titans in the last game, making 12 of 15 field goal attempts and finishing with 29 points and 8 rebounds. He's been on a roll all month, averaging 21.7 points and 8.4 rebounds over the last 7 games, while shooting 56.7% overall and 40.7% from three. On Friday he went for 26 against Oakland, including the game winner in the final seconds.
Elsewhere, the major change for Wright State has been the disappearance of freshman forward AJ Braun. His insertion into the starting lineup in early December had marked the beginning of the turnaround in WSU's season, with the Raiders going 11-4 after a 1-5 start. But then he played just 10 (ineffective) minutes in the upset loss to Milwaukee a week ago, did not start against NKU on Monday, and was a complete DNP last night against Oakland. No sign of injury--he just seems to have lost favor since his 11 point, 6 rebound performance against the Titans. Coach Scott Nagy went with a small lineup against NKU, starting freshman guard Keeton Norris, and then gave the start to CJ Wilbourn, the burly 6-7 transfer from Milwaukee, in the Oakland game--though he played just 9 minutes total. Or maybe he'll go with Andrew Welage, who had a good game against Oakland. My guess would be he starts Norris on Sunday, but then again, they lost when Norris started and won when Wilbourn started, so do the math. Either way, expect more minutes from Norris. The disappearance of Braun, whether a coach's decision or due to some ailment, makes a thin Wright State bench even thinner--only 7 men played against Oakland.
Obviously, to beat Wright State the Titans will have to do something different than they did two weeks ago. But this is one of those situations where there is no obvious particular fix. The Titans played really poorly in that game and no amount of coaching or strategy will change the result if the Titans play that way again. But there's no particular reason to think the Titans will play like that again. If we play the same type of scrappy defense we did against NKU, and shoot like we did in the second half of that game, we've got a good shot. Indeed, with Akec, I'd very much like our chances. Without him? I'll leave it to Moose to predict a win, but I'm not about to say our chances our slim.
Defend the Hall! GO TITANS!
Wright State StartersG: #1 Trey Calvin, 6-0 Jr. (14.0 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.1 apg, .353 3PtFG)
G: #2 Tanner Holden, 6-6 Jr. (19.8 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.8 apg, .382 3PtFG)
G: #24 Tim Finke, 6-6 Jr. (8.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 2.6 apg, .328 3PtFG)
F: #00 Grant Basile, 6-9 Jr. (18.1 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 2.0 apg, 1.6 bpg, .271 3PtFG)
F/C: #5 CJ Wilbourn, 6-7 Jr. (2.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg)
BenchG: #4 Keeton Norris, 5-11 Fr. (3.3 ppg, 1.9 apg, .386 3PtFG)
G: #22 Andrew Wellage, 6-6 Soph. (4.4 ppg, 2.0 ppg, .339 3Pt)
C: #12 AJ Braun, 6-9 Fr. (6.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg)