After six games, all of them losses, Chicago State`s players are still trying hard. Maybe too hard, coach Rick Pryor says.
”Maybe they`re overly aggressive,” Pryor said of his Cougars. ”They`re somewhat uptight because they`re trying so hard. I`m trying to encourage them to take the pressure off themselves, the pressure from me. I want them to play hard, but I don`t want them to be under so much pressure from me that they`re not performing well. We`re making mistakes.”
Most of the problems are on defense, and Pryor is anticipating some changes.
”We`ve had some defensive schemes that are causing us to create a lot of fouls,” he said. ”We`ve been overly aggressive with our effort on defense. We`ve sent teams to the free-throw line a lot.
”We`ve got to determine if we should hold back on some of our aggressiveness on defense. We maybe want to pack in and force teams to beat us from outside instead of creating turnovers. We might just want to create containment, force our opponents to take low-percentage shots.”
The Cougars have attempted 106 free throws compared with 187 for opponents.
There have been some bright spots, Pryor says-notably the play of junior college transfer Jason Hodges, the Cougars` leading scorer at 16.8 points a game, Lee Sims (12.7 points, 10 of 22 three-point shots) and veteran Reggie Ward (7.5 points, 4.7 rebounds).
The Cougars have two more road contests-at Toledo Wednesday and at Wisconsin-Green Bay Monday-before they play their first home game Dec. 30 against Western Illinois.
Pryor said he knew this would be the toughest part of the season.
”We`re trying to stay positive and weather this storm we`re going through right now. We`re trying to learn to play together.”
The first victory, Pryor says, will be the toughest to achieve.
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”Certainly after we win the first one, the players are going to gain confidence.”