Tom Archdeacon: Alstork won’t let Raiders lose

As he assessed Mark Alstork’s Jekyll and Hyde night, Scott Nagy, in a nod to diplomacy, said:

He cares “deeply” about everything out there.

The Wright State coach stressed the qualifier, but what he didn’t say was that sometimes the junior guard cares too deeply.

There’s a thin line between deep care and obsession and at times Tuesday night against Miami, Alstork veered over both sides of the line.

Thankfully for the Raiders — in part because of a brief seat on the bench courtesy of Nagy to recompose — Alstork got on the right side of his emotions and took over the game in the final minutes. He helped the Raiders escape with an 89-87 victory after the RedHawks had surged back from a 21-point deficit at halftime.

Alstork ended the game with 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. He scored 16 points in the final 6:14 and accounted for the Raiders’ final 11 points

When he transferred from Ball State three seasons ago, Alstork was the first to admit he arrived here with “a chip” on his shoulder. Former WSU coach Billy Donlon said it was more like a boulder, although he said he referred to it “in a good way.”

Like Nagy, Donlon said Alstork cared deeply about his basketball.

When he came here, Alstork, who had starred as a prep player at Thurgood Marshall High School, said he wanted to prove himself. He felt he had hadn’t gotten a chance to truly show himself in his one season at Ball State, although he did start 15 of 30 games.

After sitting a year to adhere to NCAA transfer rules, he began to come into his own last season for the Raiders and coming into this year was their most experienced player.

When the Horizon League preseason teams were announced he was a second-team selection. He said nothing about it, but if you know him, you know it smoldered inside him. That’s were deep caring and obsession have their inner battles.

“I don’t want to get into what the media says, but I’m not considered a top five player in the league,” he said after Tuesday’s game. “I’ll never lose that chip on my shoulder, not ‘til I’m not being slept on no more and I get recognized for my play.”

Down the stretch, he did it all. He had a pair of blocked shots inside, he hit 3-pointers, drove through the Miami defense for layups and was stellar at the line making 15 of his first 17 attempts — until he had a late lapse when he missed his final three attempts in the last 10.4 seconds.

Although he was upset about that — and his eight turnovers — afterward, he said “I have to own it….It’s all about ownership. The whole game.”

Until he went on his run , Alstork was struggling with a 2 for 10 shooting night and was 1 for 7 from three-point range.,

With just over nine minutes left in the game, Nagy brought him to the bench and had him sit for about 2 ½ minutes.

“I sat him down just to help him get calmed down,” Nagy said. “The first 10 minutes of the second half he let too many things gets to him.”

Nagy said: “Sometimes I talk gently to him, sometimes I don’t. That’s no different than I treat anybody.”

This time he said he said nothing to his 6-foot-5 guard.

“Once he came back in he played very well. He made all the big plays for us late.”

Alstork said he tries to channel Kobe Bryant’s mantra about “focusing on the next play no matter what just happened.”

It worked, Nagy admitted:

“Most guys would love to get his line: 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. And yet he’d be the first to tell you he didn’t play very good.”

“He’ll get it all figured out.”

It’ll happen, Nagy said, because he cares so deeply.

About the Author