Raiders look to improve

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....Seeking better play on the road



MTSU men?s basketball has been flying high.

So why have Blue Raider coaches and players appeared mildly dissatisfied heading tonight?s game at North Texas?

They are seeking perfection ? ?even though we know we?ll never be perfect,? coach Kermit Davis said ? and they understand the pitfalls on the road.

The Blue Raiders (16-4, 8-1) have won nine of their past 10 games and sit atop the Sun Belt Conference standings. Despite a 23-game regular-season home winning streak and a solid 5-3 road mark, MTSU has suffered a few hiccups away from its friendly confines.

?Our road record is a positive. A lot of people are outscored on the road, but we?re not,? Davis said. ?We have the third-most road wins in college basketball. But we have to play through the same challenges that every team has to on the road. It?s hard to win on the road, especially in your league.?

MTSU is coming off a dominant homestand when it routed Arkansas-Little Rock 82-50 and Louisiana-Lafayette 82-60.

The Blue Raiders have outscored opponents by an average of 20.5 points in home games, but their scoring margin on the road drops to 2.3 points. That?s understandable for any team, but the Blue Raiders admit they?re hard to please heading into the regular-season stretch run.

?We have to get better every game. We have struggled sometimes starting the second half, and we can?t do that,? senior guard Raymond Cintron said. ?We need to come out and pound teams and leave no hope (of a comeback). When we play good teams, we let it get close again after we get ahead. We need to keep going and fix that. We have to get a lot better.?

The Blue Raiders practiced humility, even through lopsided wins and notable performances.

After scoring a career-high 28 points and making 10-of-11 shots from the floor in last Saturday?s win over ULL, Kerry Hammonds rolled his eyes at his lone miss.

?I thought that one was going in too. I want to make all of them,? Hammonds said. ?... But we have been good at trying to get better each game. We prepare every week to get better. Looking at film, we look bad sometimes. We need to rebound better. Our offense needs to be better. We can be a lot better team than we?ve been so far.?

 

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UNT guard Williams? knee injury not serious



North Texas finally received some good news on the injury front Monday, when team trainers had a chance to take a closer look at Alzee Williams? right knee.

The junior was diagnosed with a mild sprain of his medial collateral ligament, an injury that is expected to keep him out for up to another week.

Williams went down late in UNT?s loss to Florida International on Thursday and missed the Mean Green?s win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday.

Williams, who is averaging 10.7 points a game, did not participate in a team shoot-around on Monday. UNT scaled back what was expected to be a full-scale practice due to a run of injuries that has left the Mean Green with only seven healthy scholarship players as it prepares for a game against Middle Tennessee on Thursday.

?I don?t expect Alzee to play Thursday,? UNT head coach Tony Benford said. ?He might play on Saturday, but we don?t know yet. He?s moving better, but he?s really, really sore.?

Williams is a key cog for UNT. He?s the Mean Green?s third-leading scorer, not to mention one of its best ball-handlers and defenders.

With starting point guard Chris Jones out for the year with a broken foot, Williams is one of the only players UNT has who can give backup point guard P.J. Hardwick a break. Hardwick played all 45 minutes in UNT?s overtime win over FAU.

?I didn?t get gassed,? Hardwick said. ?Basketball is something I love to do. In college basketball, you get breaks. I was well rested. I was fine.?

UNT moved backup forward Niko Stojiljkovic, who is 6-foot-9, into the starting lineup to play on the perimeter against FAU.

That move is just one of the unusual roster shifts UNT has been forced to make with so many players out.

?I don?t know if P.J. can play 45 minutes again,? Benford said. ?Right now, my backup point guard is Tony Mitchell. That is where we are right now. He is our second-best ball-handler.?

Mitchell, a 6-8 forward and the Sun Belt Conference?s Preseason Player of the Year, brought the ball up the floor after grabbing a rebound at times against the Owls.

Mitchell said after practice that he has been given the OK by Benford to push the ball up the floor himself when he has the chance.

The Mean Green didn?t get a lot of work in with its new look lineup Monday, when the team simply took a bit of a break.

?I am really worried about playing these guys too many minutes,? Benford said. ?That is why we are not practicing today.?