FAIRBORN — Wright State wanted to do something for the community, and Central State wanted to raise its local profile.
What better way to do that, both sides thought, than by playing an exhibition basketball game hosted by WSU on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m.
“We were thinking about a lot of different local schools,” said WSU coach Brad Brownell, whose team played St. Edwards of Austin, Texas, in an exhibition game last season.
St. Edwards featured the brother of WSU sophomore, now junior, Cooper Land.
This game is different.
“We thought this would be a good game for the community,” said Brownell, who cannot schedule another D-I school as an exhibition game, according to NCAA regulations. Instead, he looked at scheduling either Cedarville, Wilberforce or CSU.
CSU coach Doug Lewis Jr. liked the community angle and looks forward to a good tune-up for the Marauders.
“I think we can knock out two birds with one stone,” said Lewis, whose team was 19-8 last season (NCAA Division II) and returns its three leading scorers, including Robert Harris of Trotwood. “In these tough economic times, it’s good for the community to have two schools 15 minutes apart play, and we’re getting better and better as a team and can test ourselves.”
When they were both D-II schools, they played 22 times, WSU winning 15. WSU, 20-13 last season, is returning most of its scoring.
Instead of two NCAA-allowed exhibition games, the Raiders, as has been their custom under Brownell, instead will hold a closed scrimmage against another D-I school. Wright State has been playing Eastern Kentucky, and will again this year, at Eastern.
CSU has a second exhibition scheduled, at Toledo on Nov. 17.
WSU begins its regular-season schedule at Seattle in a tournament featuring four 20-win teams, including host Washington, Portland State and Belmont.