Horizon Notebook: Brownell Leads Wright State Back Into Race

CLEVELAND -  There are some really good coaches in the Horizon League.  Jimmy Collins was really good back when I was on a staff that faced him in the late 90s, and has been to 3 NCAAs and an NIT since.  Homer Drew is a legend at Valpo (and could pass for a man twenty years his junior).  Brad Stevens at Butler appears to be the best young coach in the country.  I’ve watched Gary Waters build Kent and improve Rutgers, and his teams defend awfully hard.  Ray McCallum was super at Ball State, and will rebuild Detroit.  And then there’s Brad Brownell at Wright State.  Having spent the last two years covering the Colonial Athletic Association, I missed Brownell’s time at UNC-Wilmington, but heard the whispers about how terrific a coach he was.  During four seasons at UNCW, Brownell won 83 games and two CAA Conference Tournaments;  now in two years at WSU, Brownell has won 44 games, and upset Butler to capture the 2007 Horizon Tournament.  That’s 3 NCAA tournament appearances in six seasons.  And the job he’s done to reach 7-7 this year at Wright State might be his best ever.

Coming into this season, returning the top two players and three starters from a group that tied Cleveland State for second, including preseason first team all-conference selection Vaughn Duggins, Brownell’s team was picked near the top of the Horizon, and at the top by the only publication not naming CSU (USA Today).  They started slowly, losing by eight to now 13-0 Illinois State, in overtime on the road at Central Michigan (before it was as cold up there as it is now), to Charlie Coles’ rugged Miami team, and in Texas at Sam Houston State.  Then the unthinkable happened, as Duggins broke a finger in practice prior to the December 4 conference opener at Green Bay (Duggins could return next Thursday for the game at Butler).  Duggins-less conference losses at Green Bay and Milwaukee made the season-opening record 0-6.  Then a home win against rebuilding Toledo, a big road win at Arkansas-Little Rock, and as good a loss as one could have at now No. 6 Wake Forest, 66-53.  Four more wins, one against Norfolk State and three at the San Juan Shootout, those three including a thrashing of the Big East’s South Florida.  So with nationally ranked Dayton getting 90% of the local press (Dayton is ranked Nos. 20 and 23 in the polls this week), the Raiders were 6-7 as they resumed conference play Tuesday night hosting Cleveland State.

While Wilmington fans the last two-plus seasons have seen a team reminiscent of Paul Westhead’s at Loyola Marymount, fans in southeast North Carolina mostly remember good Seahawk defense under Brownell.  Wright State fans have seen the same thing these past two years, and it is that part of the game that started coming together in Winston-Salem, holding Wake Forest to 66 in a loss, and in four subsequent wins holding every opponent in the 40s.  Now, Wright State doesn’t play its man-to-man defense the way Cleveland State does;  the Raiders look more like the Indiana teams of the late 70s and 80s, picking up at the three-point line, tucking in, guarding the goal (yes, I know there was no three-point line back in the 70s and early 80s).

Brownell likely having watched Butler’s win at CSU dozens of times, Tuesday night a Duggins-less Wright State team dominated the game against Cleveland State with its half-court defense.  In fact, that defense was so good to start the game, WSU clamped down so hard at the defensive end, that at the 13½ minute mark Cleveland State had scored only 6 points, on J’Nathan Bullock’s two field goals, in 16 CSU shot attempts.  Using that defense to jump out to a thirteen-point lead, WSU was never headed, and the game was not nearly as close as the final score of 71-62.  Now they play Youngstown State at home on Saturday, and then MAY get Duggins back before next week’s Butler/Valpo road trip.

Now 7-7 (1-2 in conference) after starting 0-6, the Wright State “no-names” have also improved of late on offense.  Guard John David Gardner-he played well enough Tuesday night for me to use all three names-was first recruited by Brownell from Homewood, Alabama High School to UNC-Wilmington, played just seven games due to injury in 2005-06, followed his coach to Wright State, sat out 2006-07, and was again sidelined last winter by injuries, playing in just 11 games.  Now a junior and finally healthy, the 6-4 guard is now defending like crazy, scoring 9 points per game, shooting 47% (36% from the arc) and handing out 4 assists compared to just 2 turnovers per game.   6-7 forward Cory Cooperwood is scoring 10 points per game, shooting 50%, and grabbing 5 rebounds.  And 6-5 junior guard Todd Brown is averaging 6 points, not yet shooting a good percentage, and grabbing 4 boards per game.  But it is a total team effort, at both ends of the floor.  And Duggins is almost ready to return.

This writer showed up Tuesday night knowing only that Duggins is out, and that “that kid with three names” earned MVP honors in San Juan but still scores in single figures.  And while none of the current players jumped out as all-conference material, I haven’t seen a team play more soundly, more AS A TEAM, in a long time.  In the first half, the half in which the methodical pace was set and both teams came to believe that Wright State could prevail, the Raiders played a nearly perfect defensive 20 minutes, holding CSU to 22% shooting.  And only a miracle shot-clock beating trey near the end of the half by CSU’s Eric Schiele, which became a four-point play on a bad foul, got CSU into the 20s at the half, trailing 27-22.  And in the second half, with CSU pressing, lunging, reaching and fouling, the Wright State kids put on an offensive clinic, beating overplays with back door cuts, and hitting medium range jumpers, twice leading by 13, and with the game firmly in hand at the last media timeout winning comfortably by 9.

After the game Brownell deflected questions about regaining .500 (at 7-7) after an 0-6 start, responding that “we just play each game.”  When I asked about integrating Duggins with the current group when he’s ready, Coach responded merely that “we’ll see how he practices, and go from there.”  Coach wouldn’t rule out that, in consultation with the young man and his family, he may yet make Duggins a medical redshirt, but I got the idea everyone would like to see the preseason all-conference selection play again this year, and also see just how good this team can be when coach gets his leading scorer integrated with the current “no-name” group.

Based on Coach’s responses, I can’t imagine Duggins playing Saturday at home against Youngstown State (a YSU team that managed a two-point win AT Detroit on New Year’s Day), but I do think we could see him off the bench at Butler next Thursday.  Now, I’m not sure Duggins will be in all-conference form his first night back, but he just might be ready by the time Illinois-Chicago gets to Dayton on January 24.  And then for games at Cleveland State on January 31 and at home against Butler on February 7.  This writer is gonna try to get to both of those games, and Horizon fans in southern and northern Ohio might make a point of catching one or the other.

Horizon News and Notes:

• When this writer saw YSU play Butler tough at home a few weeks back, I suggested that Coach Slocum might be awfully competitive at home in the conference.  Well, what do I know, as the Penguins managed to win their first road conference game yesterday in Detroit.
• In a conference more impressive each week than the week before, Wisconsin-Milwaukee went into Chicago and bested high-flying UIC Tuesday night, 71-66.  The Panthers featured a balanced offensive attack, with Avery Smith, Tone Boyle, Ricky Franklin and Tony Meier scoring 15, 14, 13 and 12, respectively.  Perhaps more impressively, Milwaukee’s backcourt defended Josh Mayo so well that he had to take 17 shots to score 18 points;  and by holding Scott Vandermeer to 9 rebounds (to go with his 16 points), Milwaukee kept the rebounding close, UIC only winning that category 38-33.
• And continuing to play a rough and tumble schedule, now-25th ranked Butler came back from an 11-point first half deficit to defeat Alabama-Birmingham at home Tuesday night, 72-68.  Freshman guard Shelvin Mack from Lexington, some nights outshined by fellow freshman Gordon Hayward, fueled the early second half comeback with 5 treys, and finished tying his high of 22.  Sophomore center Matt Howard chipped in 19 points, and Hayward grabbed 9 rebounds.