INDIANAPOLIS —
Every time Indiana State’s men’s basketball wins a game, you think to yourself, OK, now is when these Sycamores live up to their potential.
That vibe began to permeate again last Tuesday after an undermanned ISU team gutted out an overtime victory over Illinois State.
But the Sycamores keep teasing everyone. The kind of gutty effort ISU had against Illinois State has been the exception this season, not the rule.
Potential? That’s for the preseason. Twenty-eight games are in the books. At some point, you are what you are. What is ISU? A team whose heart, effort and concentration are fleeting.
It was proven again on Saturday against Butler. The listless Sycamores went down 75-54 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in a game that really wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
There’s no shame in a loss to Butler. The Bulldogs are a good team.
But it’s the manner in which ISU loses that’s been disheartening all season long. Heart, effort and concentration are attributes all teams — good or bad — should have each and every game. It should be automatic. But for the Sycamores, it’s been a maddening season-long quest to possess that basic trait.
“We knew how tough they are, we knew how well-coached they’d be. We knew how hard those guys would compete. You tell [the ISU players] and tell them. Maybe they just don’t understand,” ISU coach Greg Lansing said.
Bad as it was, in the rogue’s gallery of ugly ISU losses this season, the defeat against Butler doesn’t rate with the likes of poorly-played nightmares at Drake, Southern Illinois and Bradley.
But that’s kind of the point. A team picked third in the Missouri Valley Conference with NCAA Tournament expectations shouldn’t get to a point where a discussion of its bad losses is part of its vernacular. Instead, it defines ISU’s season.
“It’s frustrating this late in the season to be so inconsistent. This is a rivalry game and we didn’t come out and play,” said Odum, who was scoreless one game after he had notched a career-high 34 points.
It’s abundantly clear that on a game-to-game basis, you never know what Sycamores you’re going to get. It’s had a chilling effect on the entire season.
Put yourself in Lansing’s shoes. How can you truly prepare for any opponent when you don’t know what level of effort or concentration you’re going to get up-and-down the roster on a game-to-game basis?
How can the players have faith in one another when the inconsistency of effort and performance are so varied? Aside from Odum, who has played hurt and whose bad games have been the exception more than the norm, whom do you trust on this team … night in, night out?
Crickets are chirping …
How did this happen? None of the Sycamores seem to know. The on-again, off-again nature of this team has created this limbo-like state where the team keeps waiting for itself to snap out of its inconsistency instead of fighting to make it happen.
There seems to be a lack of understanding that there’s no free lunch in college basketball. If the effort isn’t there, you’re going to get exposed. It’s happened to ISU time and again throughout the season and it happened again on Saturday. At some point, you’d think the Sycamores would learn the lesson, but they seem to have an endless well of performances that suggest they haven’t.
This ISU team is at its best when it has a chip on its shoulder. It had it last year when it felt the league overlooked them. It had it at Vanderbilt. It had it twice against Evansville. It had it in close losses to Wichita State. Those were games that ISU went into with utmost respect for their opponents, knowing full-well they’d get blasted if they didn’t play as if they were the underdog.
But ISU gets into trouble the minute it starts to believe it has turned a corner. ISU expected to win at Drake, Southern Illinois and Bradley. I thought it had momentum today coming off the Illinois State victory. Overconfidence is often their own undoing.
“It’s been an Achilles heel. We rise to the occasion sometimes, but when we’re bad, we’re been pretty bad. We let poor play on the offensive end really get us lackadaisical on the defensive end. We can’t beat anybody like that,” Lansing said.
What’s equally maddening is that the players often see their own lack of effort reflected in the better effort put forth by their foes. R.J. Mahurin, who scored a career-high 22 points on Saturday, could see it in Butler on Saturday.
“They’re a great team. I mean, they went after every rebound. You knew when a shot was up, you were getting pounded. It was that kind of thing,” said ISU forward R.J. Mahurin, who scored a career-high 22 points.
OK, so if Butler can bring that kind of effort into the game, why can’t the Sycamores?
“I think we need to do a better job of that,” Mahurin admitted. “I know it’s in there.”
ISU fans think it’s in there too. But will ISU ever prove it for more than a game at a time? Time is short. ISU has two games and the MVC Tournament to salvage something of the potential that was placed on it going into the season.
One would hope that ISU puts forth the heart, effort and concentration to get the job done. But the Sycamores have teased everyone before. Against 28 games of evidence to the contrary, they need to show, once-and-for-all, that they won’t tease everyone again.
Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com. Please follow him on Twitter @TribStarTodd.
College
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Effort, heart, concentration are fleeting for ISU
- College
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Bradley ends 16-game MVC losing streak against ISU
Momentum was the only thing riding on Indiana State’s baseball game against Bradley on Friday. With a five-game winning streak going, ISU wanted to keep the good vibes going into next week’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
ISU couldn’t do it. -
Behind 16 hits and Manaea's pitching, ISU beats Bradley
Indiana State’s baseball team rode a wild ride of emotion on Thursday.
First came the public announcement that Bob Warn Field would host the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Later, Sean Manaea’s availability to pitch ISU’s series opener against Bradley was in doubt. -
Indiana State women add five transfers, including experienced D-I point guard
Indiana State coach Teri Moren believes the addition of five more newcomers to the program — in addition to the five who had already joined the program earlier this calendar year — will provide her coaching staff the athleticism and depth it needs to play a successful, up-tempo brand of basketball next season.
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Metro roundup: Woods softball takes seventh in national tournament
The St. Mary-of-the-Woods softball team finished seventh in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association softball tournament on Tuesday at Firestone Stadium.
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Metro Roundup: Indiana State’s Shakir Bell on Performance Awards watch list
College Football Performance Awards has announced its watch list for the 2013 CFPA FCS Running Back Award, and Indiana State’s Shakir Bell earned a spot on the list.
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ISU baseball team builds on success with 14-2 rout
Indiana State’s baseball victory over Alcorn State on Friday would take on more meaning Saturday if the Sycamores could build momentum and pick up on the good work they did in Friday’s ninth-inning rally.
Mission accomplished.
The Sycamores were aggressive from the opening inning at the plate and starting pitcher Devin Moore gave them eight valuable and effective innings on the mound as ISU defeated Alcorn State 14-2 at Bob Warn Field.
“It was a really good experience for everybody. It felt great to finally come out here and put some things together. It’s also really nice when your offense puts a lot of runs on the board,” Moore said.
Moore’s eight innings of work were as valuable as gold to an ISU team that is short on quality arms due to injury and ineffectiveness. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and one of the two runs he conceded was unearned. -
Johnson, Lyke win MVC titles for ISU
Indiana State’s Felisha Johnson and Maurice Lyke were both crowned Missouri Valley Conference champions on Saturday during the MVC Track and Field Championships at Drake University.
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ISU earns badly-needed win
Alcorn State’s baseball team might be ranked in the bottom 10 in RPI and Indiana State might have never lost to a Southwestern Athletic Conference team. So it wouldn’t appear that a quality win was in the offing when Alcorn State visited Bob Warn Field on Friday.
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Metro roundup: RHIT’s Evans sets Div. III record in high jump
For the third time this season, Rose-Hulman senior Liz Evans topped the NCAA Division III all-time national record in the outdoor high jump Friday night.
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ISU’s Mascari and Hope win MVC track & field titles
Indiana State produced two champions during the opening day of action in the Missouri Valley Conference track and field championships Friday at Drake. Freshman John Mascari, a Terre Haute native, won the men’s 10,000-meter race and Nicole Hope won the women’s pole vault for the second time in three seasons.
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ISU pole vault tradition continues with help from its author
Pole vault is track and field for the adrenaline junkie, Indiana State senior Nicole Hope proclaimed during a recent practice at Marks Field.
To catapult oneself about 14 feet into the air with a large $500 fiberglass pole on a daily basis is a risky endeavor.
“We have to be fearless. You can’t be afraid at all,” said Hope, who has also catapulted herself into the NCAA’s elite in the event, ranking 15th in the NCAA with her leap of 13-feet, 9 1/4. -
Sycamores searching for answers after seventh loss in eight games
These are the bad times for the Indiana State baseball team.
The will is there for the Sycamores to pull out of their worst slump of the season, but the results are not. The suffering continued on Wednesday at Bob Warn Field as Eastern Illinois defeated ISU 5-3. -
METRO ROUNDUP: ISU men's track picked first in MVC Championships, women second
The Indiana State men’s track team has won the last two Missouri Valley Conference outdoor championships, but the women have not stood on the top podium since 1999.
That may change this year, but the Sycamores will face some stiff competition in their quest for the championships. -
North grad Welker helps Whitson earn first NCAA bid as coach
Eastern Kentucky girls golf coach Mike Whitson, an alumnus of his employer, enjoyed his stay in Terre Haute as coach of Indiana State, where he started the women’s golf program.
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METRO ROUNDUP: Rose-Hulman wins HCAC all-sports trophy
Rose-Hulman has won the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference men’s all-sports trophy for the fifth time in the past six year, the league announced Monday.
Rose tallied 66.5 points for its finishes in 11 men’s sports, just ahead of Franklin with 66. Hanover was third with 53 points. -
METRO ROUNDUP: Rose-Hulman tennis falls in HCAC semifinal
Rose-Hulman’s hot streak in men’s tennis came to an end Saturday in the semifinal round of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament at the West Indy Racquet Club.
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Manaea fights off bad hip, wet weather to toss four innings
Mother Nature has been the bane of the Indiana State baseball team’s existence all season. Eight games wiped due to weather are a testament to that. So it was no surprise, though no less disappointing, when she didn’t deal Indiana State pitcher Sean Manaea the greatest hand on Saturday as he tries to recover from a hip injury.
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ISU track enjoys big night at IU's Billy Hayes Invitational
The Indiana State Sycamores either won or finished as the top collegian in 12 events, led by the record-breaking performance of senior Brandon Pounds at the 2013 Billy Hayes Invitational Friday at Indiana University.
Pounds broke his own school record to win the men’s hammer throw. -
Lansing looking for more home games for next fall
Indiana State’s men’s basketball team is looking for a few good games.
Home games that is.
The Sycamores have filled in most of the blanks in their nonconference schedule, but as ever, ISU coach Greg Lansing would like to visit the friendly confines of Hulman Center a bit more often. -
Secret weapon: Kelsey Rosselli finishing Woods career with a bang
At Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, reporting game results to the Tribune-Star after a win or a loss is not always a high priority.
So when one of its athletes enjoys an outstanding season, like senior Kelsey Rosselli is doing for the Pomeroys’ softball team in 2013, media publicity doesn’t always follow.
In fact, her efforts almost seem like a government secret.
Rosselli’s name might sound familiar to longtime Terre Haute softball followers because she was a standout for North High School, from where she graduated in 2009.
Since then, she’s helped The Woods finish runner-up in three straight U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) national tournaments in 2010, 2011 and 2012. -
ISU baseball gets back into rhythm with victory
Baseball is a rhythm game. With contests every day or five times a week in the case of many college programs, you have the chance to build on success or wallow in a slump.
Mother Nature took that rhythm away from Indiana State’s team last week. After a 7-1 loss to Indiana on April 24, ISU was supposed to play a three-game series at Tennessee-Martin, but it was wiped out by rain.
So the rhythm was disturbed, but perhaps that wasn’t a bad thing.
ISU was in a five-game losing streak before its unintended vacation and the Sycamores made a move in the right direction Wednesday with a 7-0 win over DePauw at Bob Warn Field.
“It was a disappointing weekend. We went all the way down to Tennessee and didn’t get to play. We sat around in the hotel room. We came here and it was still raining. It was nice to get out and see some live pitching,” ISU center fielder Landon Curry said. -
Metro roundup: ISU hands out spring awards
The Indiana State University athletic community, along with family, friends and fans, paused Tuesday night to honor the spring sports teams at the Terre Haute Savings Bank Spring Sports Banquet.
Most of the ISU teams are still in competition with the baseball team having 13 games left of its regular-season schedule before beginning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament May 21, the softball team with just three games left of the docket this coming weekend against Southern Illinois and the track and field program with just one more meet before beginning its postseason events.
The ISU women’s golf team is the team that has ended at this time, with the group recording a sixth-place finish at the MVC championships one week ago. -
METRO ROUNDUP: Rose baseball wins another thriller
Rose-Hulman earned its third victory in its last at-bat in the last five days with a 6-5 win over Franklin in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball Tuesday night at Art Nehf Field.
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ISU relay teams enjoy strong day at Drake Relays
It was a day for the relay teams to shine at the 104th Drake Relays Saturday as four of the five Indiana State relay teams that competed ran times that put the team among the top five in school history for their respective events.
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Indiana State baseball series canceled
Heavy rain from Thursday through Saturday has forced Indiana State and Tennessee Martin to cancel their three-game weekend baseball series in northwest Tennessee.
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Metro roundup; Five Wabash Valley players on Terre Haute Rex team
The Terre Haute Rex will look to three-peat as Prospect League Western Division champions with a roster that includes a quartet of Wabash Valley players. Indiana State University standouts Tyler Wampler and Josh Dove will reunite with former Little League and high school rivals Cody Gardner (Wright State), Tim Johnson (Vincennes) and Bryan Nacke (Vincennes) for the summer season.
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Indiana State loses 2 in MVC softball
Indiana State aspired to upset Illinois State to get at least a doubleheader split in Missouri Valley Conference softball Thursday at Price Field as the Sycamores opened an eight-game season-ending homestand.
Paige Schreiner hit a two-run blast over the left-field fence in the fifth inning and junior Shelby Wilson delivered a sizzling RBI triple down the right-field line in the sixth as ISU ended the day playing well against the league’s highest-scoring offense.
The result was still a 5-3 loss to the Redbirds (26-18, 11-6 Missouri Valley Conference) as freshman Halle Humphrey gave up four runs in the first two innings. Humphrey, called upon to pitch the opener as well — she’s the only full-time pitcher remaining on the team — gave up six runs and eight hits as the Sycamores dropped a 6-1 game to start the day. -
Sycamores fall: Slumping ISU drops 8-1 decision to No. 19-ranked IU
The margin in baseball between success and failure is so tight.
Indiana State learned that lesson the hard way against No. 19-ranked Indiana on Wednesday.
For most of the contest, ISU matched IU hit-for-hit, but couldn’t match the Hoosiers run-for-run as IU took maximum advantage of its baserunners to post an 8-1 victory at IU’s new Bart Kaufman Field.
IU — winners of four in a row and owners of a 19-game win streak earlier this season — proved its quality by putting the foot on the gas in the last three innings of the contest. The Hoosiers scored five of their runs in that period.
But up until that point, the game was in either team’s hands, but the Hoosiers took it with better situational hitting. IU’s first baserunners in three separate innings came around to score; two of them did so with two outs on the board. -
Creek latest to leave IU’s basketball program
Just a few weeks ago, one of the big questions surrounding Indiana University basketball was how the Hoosiers would contend with too many players and not enough scholarship spots.
That’s not a problem for coach Tom Crean anymore.
As of now, the Hoosiers are one scholarship under the 13-scholarship limit after Wednesday’s announcement that Maurice Creek was leaving the program.
Creek has another season of college eligibility, but chose to leave Indiana to seek more playing time. He’ll graduate from IU next week and will try to play elsewhere as a graduate student immediately.
“I feel like I would have a better opportunity for more playing time at another school where I can be eligible right away,” Creek said in a press release announcing his departure. -
Metro roundup: ISU baseball’s Alumni Weekend coming in May
The Indiana State baseball team will be hosting its Alumni Weekend on May 16-18, with its annual golf outing taking place May 17 at Idle Creek Golf Course.
The Sycamores will be host to Bradley on May 16-18 before heading to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at Normal, Ill., the following week.
Idle Creek (5353 Eldridge Road) will be hosting the golf outing again, with registration and lunch starting at 11 a.m. before the event tees off at noon. Individuals can register for $100 with a foursome costing $400. Package A includes a foursome and a hole sponsorship for $500 while an individual hole sponsorship costs $150. Lunch, a cart and an Indiana State baseball cap will be included for all the golfers.
Beginning May 1, Indiana State plays 12 of its final 13 regular-season games on Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium, including weekend series against Evansville (May 3-5), Alcorn State (May 10-12) and Bradley (May 16-18).
For more information on Alumni Weekend or the golf outing, contact ISU assistant coach Tyler Herbst at 812-237-4090 or at tyler.herbst@indstate.edu. - More College Headlines
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