TERRE HAUTE —
Even though the Indiana State men’s basketball team has played better of late, having won three of its last four games, there’s only one team with a worse record in the Missouri Valley Conference standings than the Sycamores.
That would be Bradley (6-19 overall, 1-12 MVC), which is ISU’s opponent today in Carver Arena at Peoria, Ill. Tipoff will be at 8 p.m. EST.
Coach Greg Lansing’s Sycamores (14-10 overall) are tied for eighth in the MVC with Southern Illinois at 5-8, but they’re only one game behind Evansville, Drake and Northern Iowa, all tied for fifth, and two games behind Illinois State and Missouri State, both tied for third.
So Lansing knows looking past coach Geno Ford’s Braves, who have lost six in a row and 15 of their last 16 (including a 77-66 decision to the Sycamores on Dec. 31 in Hulman Center), would be a huge mistake.
“It’s a big game for us and obviously we have a lot of respect for what Geno’s doing,” Lansing said during the MVC’s weekly teleconference Tuesday. “Just watching these guys … he really has them playing hard. He’s working like crazy and they’re hungry for a win. A hungry team like that is always dangerous.
“They have an all-conference-caliber player in [6-foot-6 senior forward] Taylor Brown, so they’re going to be awfully tough.”
Ford, who also spoke during the teleconference, and Lansing agreed the Dec. 31 contest was too close for ISU to take the Braves for granted in a rematch.
“It was a good game,” Ford recalled. “We were playing a little better than we are right now and they were struggling a little bit, so it was a fairly competitive game.”
“We had a good game with them here,” Lansing noted, “and we’re going to have to play better.”
Regarding the Sycamores’ recent minirun, thrown somewhat off track by a 71-66 loss Saturday night at Wichita State, Ford said he can tell a difference in the way they have played.
“I think they’ve really rebounded well,” Ford assessed. “Early in the year, they probably didn’t start out quite as hot as maybe they had hoped. But they’ve really rallied the troops after they got through the league the first time and have been playing very good basketball.
“I watched them at Wichita and they’re just a much different team [than earlier in the season]… We’re going to have a very hard time. We’ll have our hands full. [Jake] Odum’s as good as any guard in the league. He certainly does a good job of making other guys better.”
Asked about the condition of Odum’s ailing foot, Lansing said it hasn’t gotten any better.
“He’s a pain in the butt [for the coaching staff],” the ISU coach added with a chuckle. “He doesn’t want to sit out a rep in practice. He doesn’t want to miss anything.”
Despite Odum being less than 100 percent healthy, the Sycamores rattled off wins over Northern Iowa, Evansville and Drake before losing at Wichita State, so there is reason for optimism.
“It starts in practice,” Lansing explained. “I just didn’t do a good enough job in the first half of the season of getting them to believe me in how good everybody [else in the conference] was. I think everybody improved a lot… Our practices have gotten much better lately.
“We’re competing harder every day. We’re still not shooting the basketball near as well as we’re capable of, but the defense has gotten a lot better.”
“They don’t force shots,” Ford said of the Sycamores. “They get good ones and really work the clock.”
As for his own slumping squad, Ford insisted the attitude remains positive.
“We’ve actually had pretty good practices,” he pointed out. “Guys are working. They haven’t quit. They haven’t tanked it. We just have to find a way to be better on game night.”
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MVC’s worst a tantalizing option for ISU
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Blanked by Blach: ISU drops MVC tournament opener
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ISU claims Missouri Valley Conference baseball title
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Major Clay takes fourth straight MVC high jump title
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The competition was conducted at Cessna Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University. -
Edgewood takes Western Indiana Conference golf crown
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North grad wins 10,000 at Big Ten Championships
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ISU's Ort getting hot at right time for Sycamores
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Terre Haute native getting national attention as freshman for Kentucky
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Top seed, home field doesn’t guarantee Rose success
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Metro roundup: ISU’s Lucas honored by Missouri Valley again
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Sycamores top Shockers in 10 innings in MVC series opener
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ISU starting pitchers in rhythm heading into Wichita State series
“Gettting into rhythm” is such an oft-used cliché in sports that it’s hard to hear the term and fight the urge to not let it enter one ear and escape another.
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ISU goes to well too many times
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ISU baseball living on the edge
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PREP ROUNDUP: North Central baseball improves to 10-2
North Central lost a 7-1 game to Vincennes Rivet, and then Nolan Kinnett pitched the Thunderbirds to victory, adding a double and three RBIs against Riverton Parke in a pair of high school baseball games on Saturday.
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METRO ROUNDUP: Jenkins, Goatee win inaugural Rush the Punter 5K
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Providing perspective: ISU’s vets have 2009 as window into 2012
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Missouri State wins MVC golf championship as expected
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Uphill Battle: ISU 23 strokes back of MVC leader No. Iowa
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Enter Cummings, exit McWhorter
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TH golf community steps up for ISU
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ISU blue after football scrimmage
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As the 12-minute running clock ticked down — one of the concessions made by the football staff to speed the scrimmage up and get players off the field unscathed — it appeared ISU would make it through its spring game more-or-less unscathed.
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Hosting Missouri Valley Conference meet, ISU golf heading in right direction under Towne
It’s been a loooooong time in the making.
When the Indiana State women’s golf program was resurrected in 2005, it had already been on a 28-year hiatus. Since then, the Sycamores have enjoyed modest success, but have not hosted a golf match or invitational.
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