Four Questions with Scott Nagy

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Can Scott Nagy’s team find the Wright stuff?

Wright State’s played a brutal schedule (35th toughest in D-I,) and endured some close losses (including a 1-point defeat to Toledo and a nine-point loss at Indiana). Yet when I spoke to coach Scott Nagy after his team’s 81-62 win against Bethel University, he didn’t sound like a coach coming off a 19-point win.

“When things are going right in the game, we haven’t handled that very well,” he said Friday. “I include myself in that. I don’t just blame the players, and say ‘It’s all your fault.’ Emotionally, we need to be able to handle the lows, and not get too low.”

Nagy’s got good reasons to have high expectations. The Raiders (4-5) have an All-League player in Trey Calvin, a former All-League player in forward Tanner Holden (he spent last season at Ohio State) and experience in AJ Braun, Alex Huibregtse and Brandon Noel, all of whom started last season.

What’s Nagy’s outlook before Horizon League play begins? He discussed it in Four Questions.

Q: This is perhaps your strongest offensive team since you’ve been at Wright State, but it’s a strange dichotomy to think the defense might be one of the weakest. You’re shooting well (55.9 eFG%, 27th in D-I), but so are your opponents (56.1 eFG%, 343rd). You’re managing turnovers, but not forcing any. That, I assume is, also a source of frustration right now.

Scott Nagy: It's a two-fold answer. When we recruit, we have a focus of recruiting good offensive players. Generally, if you recruit good offensive players, they haven't spent their time really focused on defense. We don't really do transfers and we don't do junior college. We go get high school kids, we try to keep them in our system and I've always felt that it's much easier to teach a kid to be a good defender than it is to be a good offensive player. By the time you get to this level, if you're not a good offensive player, we're probably not gonna turn you into a great offensive player. But defensively we can help you make strides. Once we get them, that's all I can think about. My sense is that people think I'm this good offensive coach and, and I'm not. We spend almost all our time focused on defense and you wouldn't know it by watching us.

And then the other thing is, guys get ink for offense. They don't get ink for defense. And so trying to convince a good offense player to be a good defender and put his energy in for defense, that is a difficult thing. Our offense hasn't been as good as I would like it to be, either. We're not getting to the free-throw line enough, we're not being physical. But I don't blame the players for that. I blame me for that because I've spent so much time just focused on defense and not our offense. And then when you look at some of the games where we've given up a bunch of lay-ups, sometimes it's because you've had terrible offense and with a bad turnover, that kind of things. And so our offense, even though we're scoring and being efficient and all of that, there's still some things that we could do better that would help us defensively.

Q: Let’s discuss Trey Calvin's development. Not so much as a scorer because that’s obvious (Calvin’s averaging 20+ ppg for the second straight season), but the little things that you learn over four or five seasons. Those are the types of players that are your essential on-court leaders and vocal leaders.

Nagy: When I recruited him, the one thing I knew about him is that his instincts were incredible. When he doesn’t want to be screened, you can’t do it because he has great hands and great anticipation. He just has an unbelievable feel for the game and can do things that are so difficult for other guys. So it blows me away sometimes really. But when he came to us, the one thing about Trey is … how do I wanna put this? … He's a painfully shy guy. He's a very quiet, private person. And I think his development in that area has really expanded.

Nobody puts in more time than him. After the season he had last year, he could’ve gone to a lot of places. But he’s a low-key kid, who I think takes a while to feel comfortable with his situation and the people around him. He’s to the point now where he has things the way he wants them and he’s comfortable. And that helps him play better.

Q: What’s it been like having Tanner back in the fold?

Nagy: He's struggling a little bit just trying to feel how he fits back in. I told him that when he came back that this is not gonna be the same like when you left. Trey is the guy now. I think Tanner's still just trying to figure out how does he fit. I tell him how to fit in is be a great defender and a great rebounder and don't worry about the rest. The rest of it will just happen because you're a good player.

I think his expectation was, ‘I was scoring 20 points a game when I left, I'll score 20 points a game when I come back.’ And I told him that’s not an easy thing to do, so he's just grappling with that right now. He’s a talented guy. He’s been great in practice, and he’ll get there.

Q: How would you describe the pressure that comes with having a good season, but doesn’t end with an NCAA Tournament berth? In the time you’ve been in the Horizon, you’ve had the best team probably 3-4 of those seasons, but just two tourney appearances. That’s not a fair representation of season when it comes down to a single-elimination tournament.

Nagy: It just depends on how you view things, and how you talk to your players about it. My goal every year is to be an at-large team. Some people might say that’s not realistic, but I’m going to set my goals high because I think you accomplish more that way. But I’m also not one of those guys who thinks I have to have my team playing their best at a certain time. I want us to play well all the time.

So if we win the league and don't go to the NCAA tournament, if someone wants to tell me that's not successful, then I'm not interested in listening to it. They don’t know what they’re talking about. We’re not failures if we win the regular season title and don’t win the conference tournament. That’s a way bigger jewel than winning the conference tournament; it’s much harder to do.