At his wife’s prompting, Nagy is going to be cutting back, too.
When he took the sideline at the Nutter Center on Wednesday night for his first game here, Nagy wore a considerable beard. He looked far different than the guy Wright State hired out of South Dakota State in early April to replace Billy Donlon, who had run the program for six years.
“That beard is kind of left over from where we came from,” Nagy’s wife Jamie said. “At South Dakota State their homecoming is called Hobo Days. All the men who want to participate go the month of October — up to homecoming — without shaving.
“Scott’s been in that habit. He’s been doing it every year. But you’re supposed to shave it Nov. 1. He’s wanted to keep it … but … I like it when he first grows it, but I like it when he shaves it all off, too.”
The actual homecoming at SDSU — Hobo Day — is preceded by several days of hobo-like activities: Everything from the bonfire-like BumFire to the Hobolympics and the Hobo Day Parade.
As for the no-shave contest, men grow beards and women don’t shave their legs.
“Not me,” Jaime chimed in. “I don’t do any of the no-shave stuff.”
Anyway, the hobo judges each year are Weary Will and Dirty Lil and beards are graded on everything from their stylishness to their fullness.
If you were looking for fill-in judges Wednesday night, the WSU players fidgeted when asked what they thought of their coach’s “new look.”
“I’ll let Mike answer that,” junior Mark Alstork said with a nod to Mike La Tulip.
The fifth-year senior laughed nervously and shrugged: “Hey, he’s the head coach. Whatever facial hair he wants, he can go for it. But I have noticed it lately.”
Pressed again, Alstork — who was unafraid on offense, shooting 19 times and scoring 18 points — squirmed in his seat: “Aaaah…no comment.”
Nagy smiled when asked about chin whiskers: “My wife has asked me — several times — to shave it already. I know it’s no-shave November, but I’m pretty sure it will come off before the real season starts.”
If Nagy had a different look Wednesday night, so did the Raiders.
They hoisted more shots than in years past, especially in the first half. Fortunately for them they went in and gave them a 56-33 lead at the intermission.
“The way we play offense in the first half was a little bit of fool’s gold,” Nagy said. “We took a lot of bad shots and they went in.
“So then you start thinking any shot you take is going in and you saw in the second half what happens when they don’t go in. We ended up shooting 24 percent.
“But I’d rather have players aggressive offensively and then turn them down versus trying to turn them up.”
The Raiders did rebound better on the offensive glass and they played stringent defense, which was a trademark of the Donlon teams.
The 88 points they scored not only were more than they scored any time last season, but in the last six seasons save for a 2012 game against VMI when Wright State won, 92-59.
Of course this was against a Division II opponent, but Cedarville does have 10 players back from last season and has added some new players, too.
And that had Nagy nervous.
Even though he coached South Dakota State for 21 seasons , compiled a 410-240 mark, had them in the NCAA Division II tournament eight times in nine years and three times since they became a Division I school in 2007, he said he fretted beforehand.
“I felt like I was coaching my first game ever and that was a long time ago against Coe College at South Dakota State,” he said. “Everything here is different: Where the coaches are before a game. Our locker room situation, everything. Plus I haven’t coached a game in seven months. It takes a while to remember how I think in a game, the way I talk to players and the way they respond.”
Just like players, he said he’s different when the lights come on.
He also admitted he’s a glass-half-empty guy before the tip.
“Every team we play, regardless of what anybody else thinks about them, I see them as a threat,” he said. “And I can’t figure out how we’re going to beat them. They all look like they have better players than us. They all look better than we look.”
Sitting across the Nutter Center court with a good view of her husband and his “new look,” Jamie Nagy could say the same.
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