TERRE HAUTE —
It’s a stretch of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule Allen Iverson would love.
Indiana State’s men’s basketball team travels to Southern Illinois tonight for a rare Friday night game. It is the second of three games ISU — and the rest of the MVC teams — will play in a six-day span.
Included is a Friday-Sunday swing for each league school. All teams will play one home and one road game in those three days.
Games, games and more games. Players love it, but the multitude of contests in such a short span presents a logistical challenge for all league coaches, including ISU coach Greg Lansing.
With time of the essence, the coaches have to fit in a mandatory day off (all NCAA teams must take one day off per week when classes are in session), time for film study, rest for banged-up players, and, yes, practice.
Practice? We’re talking about practice? Not much practice as it turns out.
“You usually like a couple of days to prepare to look at the other team’s stuff, but we don’t have that luxury this week,” Lansing said. “It’s awfully difficult. You really rely on your upper classmen and you really rely on watching film rather than being able to work with stuff on the floor. Guys have to be tremendously focused to get to the next game.”
The MVC schedule is cramped due to several factors. There’s a fierce loyalty and near-unanimous feeling in the MVC regarding the league’s 18-game round-robin conference schedule. But since the league plays its conference tournament early in the conference tournament cycle, finishing a week before NCAA Selection Sunday, those 18 games must be squeezed into a nine-week window.
The league office is also committed to the ESPN BracketBusters series, which takes one late season weekend date out of the mix which might otherwise give the league some flexibility to spread the games out over more days.
For comparison’s sake, the Big Ten Conference plays an 18-game conference schedule over 10 weeks, with no BracketBuster game. Indiana has a six-day break built into its Big Ten schedule in February, though IU filled it with a home game against North Carolina Central on Feb. 22. Illinois has a six-day break in mid-January.
This weekend’s MVC Friday-Sunday swing is in its second season, and it allows the MVC to get a national television date on Sunday. ISU will reap the benefit when it hosts Wichita State on ESPNU — the first time ESPN has broadcast a game from Hulman Center since 2002.
But not every league team sees this benefit on a year-to-year basis. Given the logistical difficulties, has the league considered playing a conference game or two before the holiday season? The MVC has done it sporadically in the past. As recently as 2006, ISU played a conference game at Missouri State before the holidays.
“We’ve talked a lot about it. [MVC commissioner] Doug Elgin gives us a lot of options, he really does. The tough thing is BracketBusters takes a date away where you can’t loosen it up a bit. We’ll see what happens with the BracketBuster,” Lansing said. “Other conferences, even the Valley at one point, played games before Christmas. I wasn’t here, so I’m not sure whether the coaches liked it. To me, it is what it is.”
ISU’s players have to take the same attitude. Of course, they don’t mind playing as many games as they possibly can.
“We’re here to play games and win games, but the coaches do a great job of how hard to practice and how much practice we’re going to have. We got a day off [Wednesday]. They know how to set it up so we don’t get too tired or too rusty,” ISU swingman Dwayne Lathan said.
Southern Illinois (5-11, 2-3) struggled mightily in the nonconference portion of its schedule, including a home loss to Division II Ohio Dominican, but the Salukis have been respectable in league play so far. SIU and ISU (11-5) are two of five MVC teams tangled in a 2-3 knot.
The Salukis are also getting back to what they were known for when they were the league’s elite team — defense. SIU forced Missouri State into 20 turnovers in its 77-65 loss on Tuesday. SIU will try to force sometimes generous ISU to do the same.
“Chris [Lowery, SIU coach] told me at the MVC meetings that he really liked his team. They haven’t had some of the drama and off-court stuff that some of their kids have had in previous years. He likes his team, they like each other and they’re competing,” Lansing said. “They pressure you and they trap ball-screens. It’s what [Lowery] is comfortable with and they’ve bought into it.”
ISU won at SIU Arena last season, but has not won consecutive games in Carbondale since the 1980 and 1981 seasons.
ISU at Southern Illinois
Tipoff — 8 p.m. at SIU Arena, Carbondale, Ill.
Broadcasts — TV: WTWO. Radio: WSDM-FM 92.7. Twitter: @TribStarTodd.
Last time out — ISU defeated Evansville 80-78 and Southern Illinois lost to 77-65 at Missouri State on Tuesday.
Series — SIU leads 76-41. ISU swept SIU last season. It has not won at SIU in consecutive seasons since 1981.
The players
Indiana State Sycamores (11-5, 2-3) — G Jake Odum (6-4, So., 10 ppg, 5.9 apg, 5.3 rpg), G Jordan Printy (6-4, Sr., 8.3), F Dwayne Lathan (6-3, Sr., 12.3, 4.9 rpg), F Carl Richard (6-5, Sr., 10.3, 5 rpg) and C Myles Walker (6-8, Sr., 8.1, 4.4 rpg) are possible starters. F R.J. Mahurin (6-8, So., 7 ppg), G Steve McWhorter (6-2, So., 4.2), C Jake Kitchell (6-10, Fr., 2.7), G Lucas Eitel (6-2, So., 2.3), C Justin Gant (6-8, Fr., 2.2), and F Koang Doluony (6-7, Jr., 0.9) could also see action.
Coach — Greg Lansing (31-19 at ISU, 2nd year).
Southern Illinois Salukis (5-11, 2-3) — F Mamadou Seck (6-7, Sr., 13.4, 8.3 rpg), G Kendal Brown-Surles (5-10, Jr., 10 ppg), F Dantiel Daniels (6-6, Fr., 7.7), G T.J. Lindsay (6-3, Jr., 7.3) and F Treg Setty (6-9, Fr., 4.7) are possible starters. G Jeff Early (6-3, Jr., 7 ppg), G Josh Swan (6-2, Fr., 4.1), G Diamond Taylor (6-4, So., 5.4), G Kourtney Goff (6-0, Jr., 1.5) and F Davante Drinkard (6-8, So., 4.6) could also see action.
Coach — Chris Lowery (142-104 at SIU, 8th year).
Injuries and absences — For ISU, G Jake Odum (foot) is probable.
Next games — ISU plays host to Wichita State and Southern Illinois plays at Creighton on Sunday.
— Todd Golden
College
Grueling stretch of MVC schedule continues at SIU
Sycamores' busy slate means little practice time
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