LAWRENCEVILLE — Kevin Baggett has never been in a situation like this in his 14 seasons as head coach at Rider.
His team is rooted to the bottom of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference table and just lost its 20th game after a dispiriting 73-47 loss to league-leading Merrimack on Saturday night at Alumni Gymnasium.
“This has been a very frustrating year to say the least,” Baggett said. “We just have too many guys inconsistent. Some games we’re in, some games we’re out. Too many breakdowns defensively, which I’ve never ever coached or have seen. Just nothing consistent. That’s the must frustrating part about this team.”
Just look at this weekend.
After a terrific second-half performance in a victory over Saint Peter’s, the Broncs turned around and lost by 29 at Marist and 26 to Merrimack at home. That’s an average of 27.5 points per game.
Rider (3-20, 2-12) has suffered 20 defeats for the first time since 2015-16, which was Baggett’s fourth season, yet even that year they salvaged an 8-12 conference record.
The worst part, perhaps?
“I think heads are dropping because guys are thinking about themselves as opposed to the team,” Baggett said. “That’s the part that is disappointing because you should be playing for your team and not yourself.”
And there are still six more games remaining until this season mercifully ends.
“Our guys won’t quit. I’m not worried about that,” Baggett said. “I think some guys need to get out of their own heads and get back to playing for the team. This generation they worry about scoring and I worry about there are so many other parts of the game that can be affected by each and every individual on this team.”
Merrimack (16-9, 12-2) acted like a first-place team in a wire-to-wire victory.
It put four players in double figures, shot 56.5% and had 15 assists on 26 made field goals. On defense, the matchup zone put the clamps on Rider by limiting the home side to 30.8% shooting. At halftime, the Broncs’ two best players — Flash Burton and Zion Cruz — had combined for more fouls (4) than points (2) and the Warriors led by 20 after holding Rider to no field goals and just two points over the last 7:28.
“I think we had some open looks that we didn’t make and then we started rushing and taking quick shots,” Baggett said. “Their zone will make you do that at time. You got to be patient. We understand how to play a zone. We spent enough time to it and when we execute it the right way like we did down there and we did the two times last year we were in those games.”
As for a defense that ranks last in the league in 3-point percentage and 11th in overall field goal percentage?
“We’re not doing enough,” Baggett said. “Some of that you can control. That’s some of the breakdowns we’ve had this year and a lack of communication. This team struggles to communicate on the court.”
And that all snowballs.
“It’s a fine line with us,” Baggett said. “We don’t have a lot of depth. Those breakdowns … they get easy baskets and we don’t. Every basket we get is contested and therefore everybody makes it difficult on us and we’ll go down and give up an easy layups because of a lack of communication and breakdown. That’s been very frustrating this year. I’ve never seen that before.”
