{"id":62158,"date":"2019-03-07T09:08:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T14:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=62158"},"modified":"2024-01-04T15:05:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:05:40","slug":"ddns-archdeacon-wright-state-basketball-teams-lift-morale-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2019\/03\/07\/ddns-archdeacon-wright-state-basketball-teams-lift-morale-on-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News’ Archdeacon: Wright State basketball teams lift morale on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

The Wright State women’s basketball team earned the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League tournament after its first regular season title. (Photo by Jose Juarez)<\/p><\/div>\n

One by one thy came over to pay homage and show appreciation.<\/p>\n

There was an old, white-haired lady, two young black women, a guy in a ball cap drinking a beer, a father and his little daughter, a pair of former Wright State athletes.<\/p>\n

They wanted to let Katrina Merriweather, the WSU women\u2019s basketball coach, know how they felt.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Merriweather \u2014 like her counterpart, Raiders men\u2019s coach Scott Nagy \u2014 had been named the Horizon League Coach of the Year. And just an hour earlier, her 25-6 team had\u00a0roared past Oakland, 83-60<\/a>, in a first-round conference tournament game played here at the Nutter Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now \u2013 as the men\u2019s team was in the process of\u00a0dispatching IUPUI, 71-56<\/a>, in a first-round game, as well \u2014 she stood near a black-clothed backdrop beyond the end of the court and relaxed.<\/p>\n

And as different as all those people were who came up to her, they all left with one thing in common.<\/p>\n

Each was smiling.<\/p>\n

WSU Athletics Director Bob Grant had talked about the importance of that very thing a little earlier:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need positivity around this university right now. We need the university to gain footing and a positive momentum and to heal to a certain degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason athletics is emphasized in all kinds of places. Whether people agree or disagree, it is the front porch of the university. It can bring positive exposure and good stories to a university.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after a very tough year, Wright State University needs all the good stories it can get.<\/p>\n

A 20-day strike by unionized faculty members ended less than a month ago. During that time, there were student sit-ins, some classes were cancelled and there was vitriol on both sides of the picket line.<\/p>\n

That was just the latest blow to a school whose finances have been severely hampered by years of overspending. Meanwhile, donations and enrollment have declined and there was the threat the school would face a state-mandated fiscal watch.<\/p>\n

When the strike ended Feb. 11, student body president Daniel Palmer tweeted:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strike is over, but now comes the hard part. We have a campus morale that now needs lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what happened Tuesday on what has to be one of the best news days in Raiders\u2019 athletic history.<\/p>\n

\"\"The morning began with Merriweather and Nagy being named the top basketball coaches in the league. Nine athletes \u2013 five men\u2019s players and four women \u2013 also got all-league honors.<\/p>\n

From the 20-12 men\u2019s team, 6-foot-9 post player Loudon Love won firs-team honors, guard Bill Wampler was named to the second team and both Parker Ernsthausen and Mark Hughes were on the all-defensive team. Malachi Smith was voted to the all-freshman team.<\/p>\n

For the women, guard Mackenzie Taylor got first-team honors, Symone Simmons was named to the second team, Angel Baker was an all-freshman pick and Emily Vogelpohl was part of the all-defensive team.<\/p>\n

\"\"And truthfully both Cole Gentry for the men and Michal Miller for the women were deserving of recognition, as well.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s team \u2013 for the first time in school history \u2014 won the Horizon League regular season title outright and the men shared the league crown with Northern Kentucky. Both Raiders teams are No 1 seeds in their tournaments, which resume Monday with semifinal play at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night\u2019s games at the Nutter Center drew a crowd of 4,936, most all of whom had to feel good about the state of Raiders basketball these days<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re putting a good image in front of a lot of people who otherwise might see our university in negative light because of the strike and some other things,\u201d said Wampler, who led the Raiders with 18 points. \u201cI think we show some good things are happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Raiders baseball team is on an extended road trip to start the season and its 4-4 record against nationally-ranked teams includes victories over top 20 teams East Carolina, Ole Miss and Oklahoma State.<\/p>\n

Read the entire original story at daytondailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt One by one thy came over to pay homage and show appreciation. There was an old, white-haired lady, two young black women, a guy in a ball cap drinking a beer, a father and his little daughter, a pair … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":50782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[715,730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145537,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62158\/revisions\/145537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}