SPORTS DAILY: A good reason to root for the Wright State women Friday

Putting objectivity to the side, I will be openly rooting for Wright State to beat Wisconsin-Green Bay when the two Horizon League women’s basketball titans square off at 5 p.m. Friday at the Nutter Center.

Not because the Raiders are a local team trying for the first conference championship in program history, but because Green Bay coach Kevin Borseth is way more entertaining when he loses.

Borseth, as we've seen, is prone to comical outbursts when whistles go against his team or, heaven forbid, he succumbs to Wright State, which happens about once a decade.

Wright State is 4-58 all-time against Green Bay.

Nope, not a typo. That’s four wins for the Raiders in 62 meetings.

RELATED: Wright State women on cusp of history

But the good thing about such utter futility against one opponent is that the wins are much easier to remember.

The one I recall most vividly occurred Jan. 23, 2003, back when former Beavercreek High School standout Tiffany Webb starred for the Raiders, before she couldn’t take playing for Bridgett Williams anymore and transferred to a Bible college in California.

Webb wore glitter when she played, once scored 49 points in a game and generally stood out to such a degree that one time when she missed a game, a referee turned to the scorer’s table and wondered with no small measure of disappointment, “Where’s the blonde girl?”

Well, that night against Green Bay “the blonde girl” sank five 3-pointers and scored 24 points in leading the Raiders to a stunning 73-70 victory at the Nutter Center before an announced crowd of 326.

Most stunned was Borseth, who could not believe it. As I interviewed him one-on-one in the aftermath, he began pounding a table, and it appeared, if only for an instant, as if his head might pop off.

Apparently he found fault with the officiating. Chances are he just couldn’t believe he lost to Wright State.

“I’m sick and tired of being shoved around,” Borseth fumed to his audience of one. “I’m fueled. They shoved the living crap out of us.”

It took everything I had not to burst out laughing, of course. Sadly, no video of this outburst exists.

As for Webb, Borseth thought he was hallucinating.

“We guarded No. 10 like she was the second coming of Sheryl Swoopes!” he screeched, shocking me out of my usual women’s basketball postgame lethargy.

I want that version of Borseth on display Friday night, and the only way it’s possible is for Wright State to prevail.

So, go Raiders.

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