St. Louis —
The minute it became apparent Indiana State had punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 60-56 victory over Missouri State on Sunday, I reflected on all of the moments in the previous seven years of covering the Sycamores that led to this.
Admittedly, most of the game didn’t leave much of a chance to reflect. It left plenty of opportunity to get stressed out. On a scale of 1 to 10, the last four minutes of that game rated a 100 in tension.
For ISU coach Greg Lansing, his immediate thought once the win was secured was for his team.
“Really, all my thoughts were basically I wanted it so bad for these guys. They deserve it. Like I said, there’s never been a more deserving group of guys, and that they get to enjoy this means the world to me,” Lansing said.
Once I saw the Sycamores celebrating on the floor, I also knew there were others who should share in this moment as much as the Sycamores themselves did. There are a lot of Sycamores, past and present, to spare a thought for.
Spare a thought for former ISU head coach and current Oregon assistant coach Kevin McKenna. Since his departure last June, McKenna has sort of been a forgotten man, but he shouldn’t be. McKenna laid the groundwork and was obviously responsible for either recruiting or keeping every single Sycamore on the current roster.
McKenna also set the tone to redshirt incoming freshmen. ISU has depth and experienced youth because of that philosophical decision.
To me, McKenna’s greatest legacy to the ISU program was his decision to redshirt Jordan Printy, Koang Doluony, Jake Odum, R.J. Mahurin, Logan Eitel and Lucas Eitel.
Somewhere in Eugene, Ore., I hope McKenna enjoyed this as much as the Sycamores did in St. Louis.
Spare a thought for former ISU head coach Royce Waltman. The last ISU coach to take the Sycamores to the NCAA Tournament brought Greg Lansing to his staff in 2006. Waltman played a role in the recruitment of Aaron Carter and Printy, and is sort of the spiritual guide for Lansing as he’s gone through his first season.
Spare a thought for all of the former assistant coaches who played a role in Sunday’s victory. Matt Mardis, whose place Lansing took in 2006, recruited Carter. Stan Gouard and Dick Bender were also assistant coaches that either were on staff when current players were recruited or who coached them directly.
Spare a thought for Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman. He hired McKenna and he hired Lansing. He could have gone another direction when McKenna left, but stayed the course. In the end, it turned out to be the right path.
Spare a thought for ISU athletic trainer Brad Yeargin and the rest of the ISU training staff. Yeargin’s been with the Sycamores for two years. ISU has had plenty of injuries to overcome, including several over the course of the MVC Tournament weekend, but in the end, all of the Sycamores were healthy and they contributed.
Spare a thought for retired Terre Haute South boys basketball coach Mike Saylor. Yes, Mike Saylor. When Odum originally agreed to come to ISU as a walk-on, Saylor — believing Odum deserved a Division I scholarship — helped keep the pressure on and pleaded with ISU that Odum was deserving of being more than just a walk-on.
Had Saylor not done that, and had ISU not acquiesced, it’s possible Odum might have played elsewhere when he began to attract more attention during his senior season with the Braves.
Spare a thought for former Iowa coach Todd Lickliter. Without his cooperation, it would have been much tougher for Jake Kelly to play for the Sycamores.
Spare a thought for all of those names you never know in the background who made this possible, from former team managers to graduate assistants to support staff. They share in this, too, and along those lines, it was great for me to see ISU Sports Information Director Ace Hunt get one of those MVC championship medals. He deserved it.
The list goes on and on, and I’m certain I’ve unintentionally left too many people out who also deserve mention.
The players and coaches celebrate, but there’s a lot of cooks who worked in the Sycamores’ MVC championship kitchen. I have no doubt that they feasted on pride during their Sunday celebration.
Todd Golden is sports
editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at todd.golden@tribstar.com or at (812) 231-4272. Read his blog at blogs.tribstar.com/down
inthevalley.
From the Press Box
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Tribune-Star sports editor Todd Golden.
Discussion
Many Sycamores, past and present, to remember
- From the Press Box
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU baseball has pluses, minuses for tourney bid
Last Thursday, when Indiana State’s baseball jumped around in a celebratory dogpile after clinching the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship at Bob Warn Field, no one thought that a little over a week later, the dreaded NCAA Tournament bubble would fly over Terre Haute. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Subtle switch has fostered MVC baseball parity
When Indiana State was crowned as the regular season baseball champion of the Missouri Valley Conference last Thursday, it marked the fifth different regular season champion the league has had since 2005.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU has done enough to be in NCAAs
When you get older, you’re supposed to get wiser. I don’t know if I qualify, but I’m trying.
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TODD GOLDEN: ISU eyes prize one game at a time
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TODD GOLDEN: Grass is green enough for Indiana State in Missouri Valley
Take a look around the Missouri Valley Conference landscape and it would be easy to assume that a significant portion of the league membership is searching for perceived greener pastures.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamores are Odum’s team now
Soooo … who wants to talk about the 2012 Indiana State men’s basketball season?
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU will face uphill climb in MVC in 2013
The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals are always scintillating. No more so than Saturday when Illinois State upset 15th-ranked Wichita State 65-64 and when No. 25 Creighton took care of business with a 99-71 victory over Evansville.
Arch Madness indeed. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Effort, heart, concentration are fleeting for ISU
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.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Peyton’s place belongs to Eli
The good people of Indianapolis justifiably puffed out their chests throughout Super Bowl week as the city received deserved rave reviews for the job it did as hosts of Super Bowl XLVI.
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Sometimes you worry whether someone is stopping to smell the roses when they smell rosiest.
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If you’re into Youtube — and who isn’t these days? — there’s a vintage television profile of then-Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick posted on the popular site.
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The Missouri Valley Conference is hush-hush on how it puts together its matchups for the annual conference schedule.
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There’s something to be said for being your own worst critic, especially when it comes to sports.
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Trying to advance the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity is probably an effort wasted on a losing team less than 10 minutes removed from a disappointing defeat where victory had been oh so close to fruition.
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TODD GOLDEN: The great playoff race is on for Indiana State football
The great race is on.
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TODD GOLDEN: Fans owe ISU seniors 10,000
I have covered Indiana State football since the 2004 season.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Indiana State has used up its playoff mulligan
It’s been a glass half-full kind of season for the Indiana State football team, so it was easy — and exciting — to get caught up in looking ahead to scenarios that placed ISU in the FCS playoffs, even if ISU didn’t win out.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Not a coulda, shoulda for Sycamores
Indiana State's football team is getting tired of being graded on the curve of its own past futility.
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TODD GOLDEN: Supernatural Shakir was a sight to behold
I’ve often heard it said when a player has a big statistical day that he’s racking up “video game numbers.”
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TODD GOLDEN: Sycamore defense absorbs lesson
A win is a win, they say. And for Indiana State, none of the Sycamores are going to take back or put an asterisk next to their 48-34 victory over Butler on Saturday.
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TODD GOLDEN: And now on to the normal part of the schedule
The Steve Miller Band would’ve appreciated Indiana State’s trip to Penn State.
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TODD GOLDEN: Sabermetrics has changed love of baseball
I turned 40 this summer. No problem.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: No debate about quality of Vigo baseball
It’s standard practice for losing high school coaches — especially coaches who led teams on a deep postseason run — to heap praise on their seniors one last time. It’s even more so when one of those seniors was the rock of a given team for a four-year period.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Season dies down, but ISU’s plate not empty
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Winning spring more important than winning the spring game
Indiana State football coach Trent Miles has been involved in collegiate coaching since 1987. He knows better than anyone that there’s no one-size-fits-all way to approach the annual spring football game.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Friday wait was worth it for Indiana State
Many have seen the famous Salvador Dali painting, “Persistence of Memory.” The most memorable images in the surreal painting are unquestionably the pocket watches that are drooped over a ledge, a tree branch, etc.
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Many Sycamores, past and present, to remember
The minute it became apparent Indiana State had punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 60-56 victory over Missouri State on Sunday, I reflected on all of the moments in the previous seven years of covering the Sycamores that led to this.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamore AD Ron Prettyman explains Cal Poly interest
Editor’s note: Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman interviewed and participated in a public open forum for the same position at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo last week.
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