Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Coaches will use any slight they can find (real or imagined) to light a Bunsen burner under their teams, but Clint Sargent doesn’t plan to mention the Horizon League preseason poll to his players.
He knows being picked fifth — the program’s lowest HL ranking since 2017-18 — isn’t going matter much in a tight game with four minutes to go.
And based on how much intensity he’s already seeing in practice, the Raiders don’t appear to need a reminder on where they’re projected to finish.
“It’s a very motivated group of kids — all here for what I believe are very healthy reasons. We’re together a ton. And I would credit the energy to their enjoying each other and being motivated to win,” he said.
“We’ve won here before, and not having done that the last couple of years (18-15 and 18-14 records) — with a large majority of us having been a part of it — that’s been enough to show up with a healthy level of maturity and try to make the most of each day.”
Milwaukee and Purdue shared the top spot in a vote of coaches, media and sports information directors.
