TERRE HAUTE — In Larry Bird’s autobiography, “Drive,” the former Sycamore great writes of current Terre Haute North coach Jim Jones, whom Bird credits for teaching him the fundamentals of basketball as he developed his game at Springs Valley High School. Bird mentions how the Celtics lost a couple key postseason games because a guy gave up an offensvie rebound off a free throw.

I’ve never seen Jones at an Indiana State women’s game. That’s probably not a coincidence.

When a team allows 10 offensive boards in a game and 14 second-chance points as ISU did against Missouri State last week and you feel like it did a pretty good job on the boards, that’s not a good sign. The Sycamores have lost several games because of rebounding alone. Last Thursday’s home loss had more to do with allowing the Bears too many open shots.

Bird wrote that you would find yourself on the bench next to Jones if you didn’t rebound. Indiana State coach Jim Wiedie followed that philosophy by benching Laura Rudolphi for the Missouri State game. Reserve Kara Schilli’s minutes will likely continue to decrease if she doesn’t start rebounding.

The rebounding is bound to get better, and the Sycamores are good enough in other areas that they don’t need to be the best rebounding team in the league as tonight’s opponent is.

This Indiana State team can beat you many other ways, starting with its offense that ranks No. 3 in the nation in scoring at 82.2 points-per-game. This year’s team is a better scoring team than last year’s because the Sycamores don’t depend too much on one player. The Sycamores have two post threats, three deadly long-range shooters and a point guard that pushes the tempo as well or better than Melanie Boeglin.

Phillips is not the physical player that Boeglin is. When things break down, Phillips can’t just beat her defender and drive the lane and draw contact. Bankhead is quicker than Boeglin off the dribble, Wiedie says, just not as strong and adept at finishing in traffic.

As deadly as this offense is, the Sycamores can clearly be outscored, though, evidenced by its average of 75.4 points allowed which ranks last in the Missouri Valley Conference and 310th in the nation.

To win despite poor defense and rebounding, the staples of many — check that most — strong programs, is out of the ordinary. Coach Bob Knight, who has never been a proponent of the full-court press, would probably just assume have dinner with former IU student Kent Harvey than watch the Indiana State women’s team play.

Hey Knight, you can’t argue with success.

Coach Jim Wiedie’s full-court pressing style is meant to force turnovers and wear teams down. More often than not, it works. Especially when the Sycamores are at home. Indiana State forces some mistakes, goes on a run and the oppponent is toast.

Sitting 10-7 and 3-3 in the conference, this ISU team is far from a successful season. The Missouri Valley Conference has no great teams as it did last year (Indiana State), but it has several quality teams and many well-coached teams that can figure out a way to beat the Sycamores.

Against better teams like first-place Illinois State, who visits Hulman Center tonight, Indiana State has to pick everything up a notch.

It’s a bigger game than the rest of the conference games. These teams have split the last eight meetings, but the Redbirds have the edge, having won THE big game of those eight. We’re going back to Jaci McCormack’s buzzer beater in the 2005 MVC Tournament championship at Redbird Arena.

In addition to the history, both teams could have the brightest futures in the league.

Coach Robin Pingeton is going to have the Redbirds in position for more potential NCAA Tournament appearances as long as sophomore Kristi Cirone is around. Cirone is the frontrunner for Jackie Stiles Award, given to the MVC’s top player. Pingeton also has a strong freshman class with Kenyatta Shelton, Maggie Krick — both starters until Shelton went down with a foot injury — and Ashleen Bracey making valuable contributions. They’ll lose four seniors, three of which haven’t played many minutes.

While today’s game isn’t the conference championship, it is bigger for the Sycamores than it is for the Redbirds. Indiana State can ill afford to lose a second league home game.

Illinois State is in a similar situation to Indiana State a year ago. The Redbirds are looking to go 7-0 in the conference following two home wins in which they led by more than 40 points.

Beating this team on any basketball court should do wonders for the Sycamores. A loss, whether it’s close or not, means the Sycamores have a lot of improvement to make to be able to secure a solid seed in the postseason tournament.

While last year’s team peaked too soon — probably just after Melanie Boeglin’s 46-point game at Drake — this year’s team is in its first year with Angela Phillips at point guard and in its first year with several freshmen and sophomores as key contributors. The talent is there; it just needs to come together.

Peaking in March is the goal.

Winning tonight is integral in making that happen.



Craig Pearson can be reached by phone after 4 p.m. at (812) 231-4356 or by email at craig.pearson@tribstar.com.