Coyotes looking for consistency
The Coyotes are limping into Saturday’s match-up with Green Bay after three consecutive losses, and Green Bay is no easy feat. Green Bay is coming into the DakotaDome at 5-3, fresh off a victory over the University of Virginia Saturday.
The Phoenix are ranked No. 12 in the College Insider’s Mid-Major’s Top 25, and head coach Joey James is fully aware of what Green Bay is about.
“The best team we’ll see this year, in my eyes, is Saturday against Green Bay. They’re a very good team. I think they’re a top 50 RPI team,” James said. “They’ve got every piece that you can ask for from point guard, to wings, to big kids. We’re going to have our hands full, but we’re excited to get to play them at home.”
The Coyotes head into Saturday’s game with consecutive losses against Air Force, Wyoming and Kansas State. Junior guard Brandon Bos said the team feels more confident playing at the DakotaDome. The Coyotes will have an advantage against Green Bay Saturday, as the Coyotes have yet to lose at the DakotaDome, posting a 2-0 undefeated record.
“Everybody likes playing at home,” Bos said. “We practice in here every day so it’s just kind of that kind of that familiar environment, and we’ve got the fans here to help us out.”
The Coyotes defense struggled in the early season. After a 0-3 start, the Coyotes’ defense sparked, and the team reeled off three straight. In their first three games, the Coyotes were defeated by an average of nearly 15 points per game. In the Coyotes two losses since, the opponents average margin of victory has been only four points.
“If you look at St. Bonaventure until the Wyoming game, we’ve come a long ways. Our defense is coming along well,” senior Trevor Gruis said. “(We still need to improve on) defense. It’s been good lately, but it can always get better.”
James said while the team’s record (3-6) isn’t exactly where he would like it to be, the team has progressed at the pace he expected.
“We’re moving at the pace we expected. Obviously we’d like to win more games, but we’re still a young group,” James said. “They’re still trying to learn everything that we’re trying to instill in them as far as our defensive and offensive philosophy, but we’re starting to take steps and you can see that.”
The biggest marking point for the Coyotes improvements early on are the teams two games against the University of Wyoming. USD played the Cowboys Nov. 22, losing 70-53, and again Saturday in Rapid City, falling 67-66 in overtime.
Bos said he attributes the difference between the first game against Wyoming and the second to the team putting forth a better effort.
“We just put forth a better effort in that second game. There were times in that first game at Wyoming that we got down on ourselves and felt defeated,” Bos said. “In the second game we never counted ourselves out of it. We believed the entire time we were going to win. It didn’t quite work out that way, but we put forth a better effort.”
The Coyotes continue to work their way through the non-conference schedule over the rest of December and early January before opening their Summit League schedule against Denver Jan. 11.
The Coyotes face a tough remaining non-conference schedule before hosting Denver and James said he likes it that way.
“We’ve got a lot of tough games left,” he said. “A lot of your non-conference schedule is tough so your guys are ready when it comes to conference play. We’ll be ready when it comes that time, but we still have to get better offensively and get more consistency from our players.”
