By Todd Golden
WICHITA, Kan. — It’s wagon-circling time for the Indiana State men’s basketball team. The Sycamores have little choice.
Left with just eight healthy bodies now that Harry Marshall (foot) and Dwayne Lathan (hand, ankle) both are out for four to six weeks, not only do the players need to buckle down and try to replace the 25.9 points gone from ISU’s lineup, but ISU’s coaches have to create a new plan of attack to account for the bodies it has left behind.
By necessity, the ISU attack could be wildly different from the one McKenna has cultivated over the course of the season.
“The coaching staff been talking about it and we need to change some things around and best utilize the pieces we have left. We lose our floor leader, we lose our best penetrator, we lose our best communicator on defense, our most alert defender and our most experienced point guard,” ISU coach Kevin McKenna said.
One option is clear. Senior guard Rashad Reed will play point guard. Reed has played point guard before, notably, at the beginning of the 2008-09 season when Marshall was academically ineligible. Reed knows the offense, but sometimes takes chances within the scope of it. No matter, it’s a risk the Sycamores are going to have to live with.
Reed is ready for the challenge and is also ready to be the leader on the floor.
“Now everybody has to rally together even more. Everyone needs to step their game up. Everybody’s going to be playing, everyone’s going to be at positions they may not have played. Everyone has to step their game up,” Reed said. “That’s why you play basketball ... when you get your chance, you do everything you have to do to make sure your team survives. It’s time to jump in a hole and dig our way out of it.”
After Reed, Jordan Printy will form the remainder of the backcourt. From there, the options become a bit more varied. Aaron Carter can, and likely will, play at the small forward spot, but so might Carl Richard, who has played power forward throughout most of his two seasons at ISU. If Carter plays the 3-spot, Richard will likely stay at power forward. If Richard is the swingman, then ISU could go big and have Josh Crawford play the 4-spot and Brant Leitnaker play center.
That leaves Koang Doluony and Isiah Martin, both of whom could start in any of these scenarios. In theory, Doluony’s versatility could see him playing anywhere from the 2-spot to the 4-spot. Martin could play either of the post positions.
No matter the rotation, one thing is assured ... all of the eight Sycamores will be getting plenty of minutes. At ISU’s first post-injury practice, McKenna made it clear that misfortune for Marshall and Lathan can equal opportunity for the healthy Sycamores.
“Everyone’s going to be playing a bigger role. They’ve all had their moments when they’ve done it, now they just need to do it more consistently for a longer period of time,” McKenna said.
The Sycamores who won’t be playing know their role is to make sure morale stays up so that ISU can keep itself in good enough stead for a possible MVC Tournament run if Marshall and Lathan are healthy enough to return by then.
“Everything will be all right. Everything happens for a reason, I think. This really might be a good thing, it might be a blessing in disguise, especially for these guys who get to play. It might make us stronger by the time we come back,” Lathan said.
ISU (14-9, 6-6) has the unenviable task of rolling out whatever look it elects to come up with at what is universally perceived to be the most hostile environment in the Missouri Valley Conference ... Wichita State’s Koch Arena. Coming off a 59-56 loss at Northern Iowa on Wednesday that probably mortally damaged WSU’s MVC title hopes, the Shockers (19-5, 8-4) aren’t likely to give any quarter to the wounded Sycamores.
“Why not go play at one of the toughest places in the league to see where you’re at?” McKenna said. “We can’t worry about things we can’t control, we can’t control when we play teams. We’re just going to go out there, get a game plan together and try to execute.”
