Laboring though a 2012-13 season that ended with an 8-24 record and a 5-11 mark in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference might not bear many special memories for Coppin State. But the Eagles' three victories in their last four regular-season games have resonated with the players and coaches. "It's really just a mindset," said senior small forward Michael Murray (above). "It will benefit us a lot because we know the mentality is going to be different. [Losing] kind of tore the team apart a little bit. People were down on themselves. But it's something in the past and it's something to build off of." Last year's struggles -- which included losing streaks of seven, five and four games -- were not unexpected after the program had graduated its top five scorers from the previous season. But the downward spiral was still difficult for the players at times, coach Fang Mitchell said. "[A] lot of them weren't used to losing," Mitchell said. "But the fact that they got through it and came to life at the end of the year where they started believing in themselves, it took some of the pain away. But it doesn't take away the pain of just losing. When you lose, you get a lot of attention and finger-pointing at who's at fault. A winning atmosphere is something that is so vital for us to move in a positive direction, and that's one of the things we're looking for this year." The outlook is much more positive heading into this season. Four of the top six scorers return, including Murray (12.4 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game) and senior shooting guard Andre Armstrong (12 ppg and 35.6 percent from beyond the 3-point line). Murray is expected to miss the first two to three weeks while healing a broken right hand, which could impact a Coppin State offense that has led the MEAC in two of the past three seasons. But the team's defense (tied for 11th out of 13 teams in the league last year) and rebounding (13th in rebounding margin) could be the more telltale indicators of the Eagles' fate. "Last year, with our record the way it was, we had all the offensive talent you could think of," Armstrong said. "We had people that could shoot inside and outside. It's just that we didn't buy into the defense well last year, and we see that if we play defense, we can close the gap. We can't talk about the MEAC championship unless we stop people, and once we start to do that, I feel that things will start clicking in our favor." -- Edward Lee (Pat Lovell, USA Today Sports)