Wright State basketball: Sargent says, ‘I really like our team,’ after summer workouts
· Yahoo Sports
Except for 9-month-old Booker, Clint Sargent’s kids are at the perfect age to enjoy Wright State basketball.
“My kids are diehards,” the third-year coach said.
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Sargent’s daughter Gracie, 12, and sons CJ, 9, Jordy, 7, and Landry, 4, learn the players’ names and their background stories when they sign. When the players visit the Sargents at home, they’re “quasi-babysitting,” Sargent said.
Those close relationships make it hard on the kids when the players leave the program. Six Raiders entered the transfer portal this year. Most college basketball teams face the same situation every year these days.
“It's brutal,” Sargent said, “but we really are just trying to love these guys and develop them the best we can, whether we get them for a year or two.”
Sargent tries to help his children “understand decision-making in this era” and that “it’s not always personal.”
Coaching has helped Sargent become a better father, he said, and being a parent makes him a better coach. His skills were put to the test this summer during an eight-week practice period. Wright State combined nine newcomers (four freshmen and five transfers) with five returning players.
Sargent did not give the team a week off during the eight-week stretch. They practiced from early June until the last week of July.
“I just kept saying, ‘I think we need to serve and suffer together,’” he said on Thursday, Aug. 6. “In my opinion, that's a great conduit of growth and connection. We spent just a lot of time in those two areas. I was very pleased with our summer. You kind of start off at the surface level before you gradually get into a rhythm, where you're showing up to be there for everybody else. I think we got there toward the end. I'd say our workload was up a good amount, maybe 30, 40% from last summer.”
Sargent liked the character and competitiveness of the group.
“That encourages me and our staff because our days were full in the summer,” he said, “and when we get back to it in the fall, they've set a very good baseline standard for their work tolerance and workload. They love to get in there and compete. That tells me we can get significantly better from now until the start of the year.”
Sargent touched on another of other topics during the interview. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: Have any strengths of this team emerged?
A: I think we will be deep. I do think we are physical. Our ability to pass the ball and connect offensively stood out. We try to prioritize hands and feet at all five positions. We have hungry guys. They don't feel like they've arrived. Maybe they've accomplished certain things here and there, but we have a good mixture of youthfulness that I really love — and maybe some coaches are fearful of but I'm really attracted to it — because their hearts are so ripe. So I think the strength of this team is the humility and the hunger to be coached and to compete. And our ability to be very good defensively is something that has probably stood out the most. That's a combination of their work and the versatility we have on the roster.
Q: How was the team’s health? Did anybody miss the summer practices or maybe miss a big chunk of time?
A: No. We had a few guys out with a couple of bruises, but for two or three weeks, that was it.
Q: Tell me about the two transfers from Serbia. There’s Colorado State transfer Nikola Djapa, a 6-foot-11 senior center, and DePaul transfer Ilija Milijaševic, a 6-2 junior guard.
A: Ilija is, as advertised, a very heady player and a really good shooter with great competitive spirit. Better defensively. He really showed a lot of growth with his hand activity and willingness to compete defensively.
Nikola, just in terms of his physicality and big body, we haven't had that really in our gym since Loudon Love. He’s not afraid to throw his body around.
They’re both coming from really good programs, so they've been taught well and coached well. Above all, they're great people who want to be connected and have a humble spirit. I think both can be leaders in our locker room because of just their personality traits.
Q: Did they know each other before committing?
A: They played some youth ball growing up together. Nikola was committed first in the spring, and then when he found out we were talking to Ilija, that was a game changer for him. For Ilija, knowing Nikola was here, that was a big selling point.
Q: How about the other transfers? What did you see out of CJ O’Hara, a 6-4 guard who transferred from Green Bay?
A: He has a willingness to buy into our culture. It can be tricky for an in-league transfer to transition to a new locker room and a new coach. CJ's buy-in to that was really encouraging. One thing he proved to me is he’s a tough kid who is not afraid to work. You can really coach him.
Q: And Chadlyn Traylor, a 6-3 sophomore guard from the College of Charleston?
A: Chad's had a great summer. He’s a very good decision maker. He had a great assist-to-turnover ratio as a freshman, and he can really move and defend the ball. Those are two areas you need from that lead guard position. We want to be great with how we take care of it and then potentially how we take it from you and how we guard in the first five to 10 seconds of that first possession defensively.
Chad can be great in both those areas. He’s also in that sweet spot of his career. You get these guys after one or two years in college where they've already developed. They understand the speed of the game, some of the physicality of the game, but if you help them unlock that confidence, they can really make a significant jump. Chad shows signs of all that and developing as a leader. He will certainly have the ball in his hands quite a bit.
Q: Sam Johnson is making a jump from Division II Cedarville. What have you seen out of him?
A: Each week, he gets better and better. I think, for Sam, he had to understand what a Division I summer looks like. They did not have summer workouts in Division II. Understanding how to work and then taking confidence from that work, I could see each week him getting more and more confident. He’s an Ohio kid from Columbus. He spent two years at Cedarville. He cares about the area. He has family around. He has an intrinsic motivation to do right by his coaches and his teammates and be great in the locker room. Most importantly, he has confidence that he can do it at this level. I think I saw signs of all that, which was really encouraging.
Q: As for the returning guys, is there anyone you expect to make a big leap?
A: Kellen (Pickett, 6-9 sophomore forward) is making that freshman-to-sophomore jump. We'd anticipate him being better on the offensive glass and being a well-rounded scorer. He's going to make a jump in production.
But I'd say with him and Dominic (Pangonis, 6-7 junior guard) and Andrea (Holden, 6-6 junior wing), it’s their leadership. We had really good peer-to-peer leadership on last year's team, and they got to see it firsthand. Now they are taking so much of that and plugging it into this team. Even though they're different personalities, they understand how important leadership is.
I think all three of those guys will make a significant jump.
Dominic, this is just his second year in the program. You look at Michael Imariagbe last year and the jump he made in his second year in the program.
Similarly, Andrea probably had as good a summer as anybody in the program. He has the ability to rebound the ball and score at the rim. He's shooting it better. He’s becoming an all-around really good player. His skill level is increasing, and his decision-making is getting better.
Q: Tell me about what you’ve seen from the freshmen.
A: I’d start with Noah Lewis (6-7 forward). He's been very good. He had a great summer. He has versatility. He is really good both offensively and defensively and has a great competitive spirit.
Terrence Haynes (6-2 guard) has a great knack for getting the ball. His deflection rate, and offensive rebounding rate were really good this summer. Those two areas are something we're trying to hang our hat on.
Landon Northrup (6-5 guard) and Tahj Martin (6-2 guard) are from the East Coast. You can see strides in both of those two players. They have a winning pedigree. Both won state championships. They add to the overall expectation for the locker room to win and have great days.
Q: Is there a chance you add a player from the 2022 recruiting class who has a fifth year of eligibility?
A: We do have a roster spot available, but I think it's very unlikely. I really like our team.