Inside the tunnel at Southern Utah’s Centrum Arena, just few steps away from his team’s locker room, Randy Rahe held his ground.

In the minutes following Weber State’s 70-60 loss to SUU, Rahe quietly gave all sorts of credit to the Thunderbirds, who came into the Saturday’s game with a 4-11 record. His Wildcats looked good in the first half but didn’t have nearly enough grit to match the T-Birds down the stretch. 

But even when given the opportunity to call his guys out – to criticize their lack of mental toughness – Rahe held off and instead gave a nod to SUU.

“We got beat tonight,” he said, the top button of his dress shirt undone and his tie loosened as it often is. “We got outplayed, it was very evident. I’m gonna give Southern Utah a whole bunch of credit. I thought they played outstanding. I thought they were really good tonight.”

Rahe properly admitted his Wildcats simply couldn’t match the T-Birds’ intensity, which is always an issue when playing on the road in the Big Sky Conference, or any other conference for that matter.

No matter the sport, winning ballgames away from home is a challenge, even for the best teams. But in basketball, where fans come in from the winter cold and warm up by berating the guys wearing the other uniforms, it’s particularly difficult.

It’s uneasy.

It’s uncomfortable.

It’s foreign.

It’s not an excuse, however.

The bottom line, really, is this: Rahe’s Wildcats are missing something. They’re missing the experience that comes from playing lots and lots of games together. They’re missing the experience that comes from playing – and winning – in visiting arenas, like SUU’s.

They’re missing the mental edge that comes with familiarity in a conference like the Big Sky.

It’s one thing to be inexperienced at home, where familiar faces and cheering voices in the crowd can give players a sense of peace … of comfort. It’s quite another to do it on the road, in hostile gyms where obnoxious fans won’t give you a moment’s peace.

Now more than a decade ago, Weber State ran the table in the Big Sky, going wire to wire without a loss. They did so because they were a veteran team, loaded with talented players who knew exactly what to expect when playing in foreign gyms.

“When you have teams that have been to these different venues, they’ve been through the conference season,” Rahe said. “When you’re a veteran and you go through it and you’re a big part of that team, you already know what to expect. We’ve got guys now, a lot of them haven’t been to these venues, haven’t been in conference play.”

As always, Rahe was quick to credit his opponents, especially when talking to the media. There’s little doubt he had different words for his players in the privacy of their locker room. I’m guessing he let them know, in no uncertain terms, that their effort needs to be better. They came into the game on the heels of a great victory last Thursday at Northern Arizona, but against the T-Birds, they’re simply couldn’t find the right gear in the second half.

“Our margin for error is not very big,” Rahe said of his team. “We’ve got to have everybody playing. We just do, especially on the road.”

The temptation here is to say the Wildcats should have won because they’ve got better talent. There’s no doubt their effort wasn’t good enough, not by any stretch.

But it’s hard to fault them for not having enough experience.

Weber State has talent, lots of it.

The ‘Cats have good coaching and great preparation.

When they get the experience they need, they’ll have a razor-sharp edge. They’ll be feisty and aggressive and they won’t lose games like they did on Saturday.

Jim Burton is the Standard-Examiner’s sports columnist. He can be reached at 801-625-4265 or at jburton@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter @StandardExJimbo