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Stop by his office, and it’s always easy to talk basketball with coach Steve Hesser. But Wednesday was different.
Sure, his Drury Panthers remained No. 1 in the all-important NCAA Division II Midwest Region rankings — important because the top-ranked team on March 9 likely hosts the regional — but they’ve also been the Cardiac Panthers for weeks.
That is, their reputation now is of walking a high-wire act and coming out clean on the other side. Well, not always clean.
Days ago, they rallied from 18 points down in the final 10 minutes just to score an overtime win against Rockhurst, a conference cellar-dweller. A week ago today, poor shooting doomed them in a road loss at William Jewell.
There have been issues, things that haven’t been right, Hesser said as he leaned back in his office chair.
And look at the calendar. The postseason begins a week from Friday, with tonight being the regular-season finale in Rolla against a Missouri Science and Technology team that appears afraid of no one.
“Play harder,” Hesser said of his latest message to the nationally No. 5-ranked Panthers. “At this time of year, it’s, ‘What can I do for the group?’ It’s that way the whole year, but it intensifies this time of year. Be sincere in your execution.”
Look at the Panthers on paper and there are no obvious flaws. The team is 23-2 overall, 15-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and still talented a year after losing two star guards. But …
“We haven’t played as well. We haven’t made shots. We’ve turned it over. We’ve given up easy buckets,” Hesser added. “In the course of a long year, you’re not going to play perfect every time. We got away with not doing some things we needed to be doing and so we didn’t fix them sincerely, and they got worse.
“And teams are trying. Let’s don’t take the other teams out of the factor.”
It’s been somewhat understandable. The Panthers get everybody’s best shot, and they can’t stretch the floor as well as they did a year ago.
However, the motion offense needs to be crisper, not so cumbersome, Hesser said.
In January and early February, the Panthers found ways to win and played well. But look at the first-half production of the past four games: 23, 27, 21 and 27 points. In the five prior games, they were averaging almost 36 first-half points.
It’ll need to run on all cylinders tonight. While S&T coughs up almost as many points as it scores (89.9 points to 90.1 points on average), the Miners have won three in a row, including a 103-101 upset of then-No. 16 Wisconsin-Parkside.
Fortunately for Drury, sophomore guard and leading scorer Kameron Bundy will play his second consecutive game after a concussion forced him to miss the loss at William Jewell.
To him, all issues on defense and offense are correctable. Defensively, more steals are needed with the talent on this roster, and a need to recognize the best option in the motion offense is a priority, Bundy said.
Issues lately do not necessarily reflect selfishness, said junior guard Drake Patterson, whose tying 3-pointer sent the Rockhurst game into overtime.
“Coach calls it the manual, and sometimes we get away from playing by the manual,” Patterson said. “Our hearts are in the right place, but we get away from that. And when we’re not all on the same page, it hurts us.”
When asked if their play has driven him nuts, Hesser smiled. He appreciates the Panthers being resilient in tough times.
“Inconsistency drives anybody nuts,” Hesser said. “You want it to be more level instead of up and down. But all teams go through this through the course of a season.”
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