TOWSON, Md. - If you saw Sunday's Ravens game against Indianapolis, you saw a Colts team that closely resembled one of those holiday greeting cards that are flooding local homes these days, in that their effort, at times, looked mailed in.

Like the Colts, the Towson men's basketball team is winless in 2011, but that's where the similarities end.

And Coach Pat Skerry wouldn't have it any other way.

“We're all pretty pleased with our effort,” said Skerry. “But, I would expect that. If guys don't give effort, we might be stuck with that (in the) short term. We won't be stuck with that long term. They're supposed to give effort.”

And so the Tigers have, through nine losses. As proof, consider that during Saturday's 62-58 home setback to UMBC, Towson grabbed more offensive (25) than defensive rebounds (16).

In addition, the Towson defense played well Saturday, holding the Retrievers to a 36 percent shooting performance, the lowest any Tiger opponent has shot this season.

As any basketball observer worth his/her salt will acknowledge, defense and rebounding are entirely functions of will and desire. So, the fact that the Tigers are so active on the glass and getting up into the shirts of their opponents provide proof that whatever the end result may be, they aren't giving up.

“Our effort stuff is good as far as who we're guarding,” said Skerry. “Obviously, we're rebounding the ball on offense. We're decent on defense, but we need to be better. That needs to be a staple and I think, by and large … we're getting better in those areas.”

Indeed, a lot of the Tigers' woes can be laid not at the altar of ineffective effort, but at the feet of tough opposition. Five of their losses have come against teams that were either ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 or were receiving votes in the poll.

Of course, the idea in scheduling teams like Kansas, Michigan and Oregon State -- all schools from BCS conferences -- is to toughen the Tigers' collective hide for Colonial Athletic Association play with a hope that a win or two or more might have emerged along the way.

“Let's call it like it is,” said Skerry. “We play a grueling early schedule in the hopes that it will pay off later on.”

That the plan, so far, hasn't worked doesn't mean that it isn't valid. It may yield fruit perhaps as early as Wednesday's road game against always tough Coppin State.

If so, Skerry says, the Tigers will have to continue to play well on the glass and on defense as well as improving their shot selection. Almost a third of the 63 field goal attempts Towson took in Saturday's loss were from three-point range, an area that is not a team strength.

Instead, Skerry said, the Tigers will work harder at improving their shot selection as well as beefing up their prowess against the kinds of zone defenses they're likely to see.

Luckily, Skerry was an assistant at Pittsburgh which consistently has beaten Syracuse, which plays the nation's best 2-3 zone, and knows how to devise an effective attack for a zone.

One other area the Tigers need improvement in is on the free throw line. Winning games is tough enough, but they become next to impossible when you hit only eight of 25 foul shots as Towson did Saturday night.

Getting wins takes patience, which, like rebounding, defense and free throw shooting, takes effort. Skerry knows that it won't be long before all that effort pays off in some Towson wins.