TERRE HAUTE — The frustration of not living up to expectations can cause problems within any sports team, from the coach down to the players at the end of the bench.
This weekend’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament could be just what the Indiana State women’s basketball needs to put another interesting twist on the 2007-08 season.
After being picked third in the league and coming off a 19-11 season, the Sycamores lifted the expectations even higher for themselves by getting their first ever win against a ranked opponent on Nov. 14, defeating Vanderbilt 77-72 in overtime. The Hulman Center victory would have been just the kind of win to show off to the NCAA selection committee if the Sycamores would have put together a 23- or 24-win season this year instead of the 14-14 mark they carry into this weekend.
“Everything was set up the way it should be,” Wiedie said. “To lose to some of the teams we’ve lost to, to have the record we have now, it turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment.”
Still, optimism is high after a pair of home wins. Excitement and positive energy were abound after practice earlier this week.
“There’s a lot of energy, and hopefully we’ll come out with three wins,” the source of much of ISU’s on-court energy, Kara Schilli, said Tuesday. “Since you know, we kind of didn’t have the season we wanted to, everyone’s really looking forward to that conference tournament.”
With ISU’s senior duo of Laura Rudolphi and Angela Phillips finishing the season on an absolute tear. Phillips has hit 13 3-pointers in her last four games, and Rudolphi finished her Hulman Center career on a high note with 34 points.
It is the time of year called March Madness and Angela Phillips says the Sycamores are ready to embrace their underdog role this weekend.
“It’s just the time of year it is and being a senior and knowing this is the last shot and laying it all on the line,” she said. “It’s just who wants it more at the tournament.”
Rudolphi said Saturday the Sycamores are hitting their peak at the right time. She reiterated those thoughts Tuesday.
“We’re playing with a sense of urgency, especially us seniors, it’s our last hurrah and everything. There wasn’t much time to get our act together and we did it,” said Rudolphi, who was named to the MVC’s first team on Wednesday.
Wiedie lauded Rudolphi and Angela Phillips for improving as leaders after some rough stretches earlier in the season.
“Those two have kept the team together through some challenging moments, through some internal issues, through our poor play at times. I think they’ve done everything from a captains’ standpoint that I can ask them to do,” Wiedie said.
“Hopefully that will carry over at least three more games.”
ISU busted out to a 19-point lead against Creighton when the Sycamores were the No. 3 seed last season in the first round of the MVC Tournament at Drake. The Bluejays chipped away at that lead, sending the Sycamores home in one of the most incredible second-halve turnaround I’ve ever witnessed.
“I think everybody but [Kelsie] Cooley is back, and I think everybody learned from that loss,” Schilli said. “I can assure you we’ll play from the first minute to the last minute in this game.”
• • •
• MVC in RPIs — The Missouri Valley Conference fell to 15th in conference RPI rankings last season, according to collegerpi.com.
The MVC women are up to ninth in those rankings this season behind Illinois State (51st according to Collegiate Basketball News), Drake (64th), Creighton (72nd) and Evansville (79th).
The MVC’s overall strength of schedule is among the top 5 in the nation as no MVC team’s schedule ranks below 136th in the nation, and the team at 136th is Illinois State, which is the top seed in the tournament.
Indiana State defeated No. 20 Vanderbilt on Nov. 14, and Creighton defeated Kansas State, who is now No. 15, in December.
Coach Jim Flanery, who has played the toughest MVC schedules almost every year this decade, also scheduled games this season at Rutgers, Iowa State, Nebraska and Kansas — all losses.
Flanery’s team is sitting at 19-10, and his Bluejays are just three questionable losses away from winning the league outright and being a serious contender for an at-large bid. Creighton’s bad losses are 79-73 at Missouri State, 52-51 at Bradley and 75-74 in overtime at Southern Illinois.
If they were 22-7 with a 15-3 mark in the MVC and a win at home against Kansas State, they would have to heavily considered for a bid.
As we have said previously, Illinois State has no nonconference quality wins on its resume.
Indiana State is the only other MVC team with the kind of victory to impress the selection commitee.
• Ticket situation — Indiana State fans have bought 386 full-session tickets for this weekend’s tournament as of Tuesday.
The goal for each MVC school was to get to 400. Drake leads the way with more than 800 sold.
Craig Pearson can be reached by e-mail at craig.pearson@tribstar.com or by phone at (812) 231-4357.
Given to Fly
March 12, 2008
Given to Fly: Sycamores embracing underdog role at MVC Tournament
- Given to Fly
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GIVEN TO FLY: Come to expect new standards of excellence
Records are definitely meant to be broken; athletes today are faster and stronger than those in the past in many endeavors in athletics.
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GIVEN TO FLY: ISU women have solid recruiting class
The caliber of athletes that the Indiana State women’s basketball coaching staff is bringing in is on an upswing.
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GIVEN TO FLY: Major leaguers John, Dorsett meet up at tonight’s game
Terre Haute’s only two big leaguers of the last 50 years — Tommy John and Brian Dorsett — will catch up with one another today.
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FOOT NOTES: Valley natives perform well on national stage
Several Wabash Valley natives continue to shine on the national track and field scene.
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'Til It's Over: Sycamores ‘in a good place,’ but searching for more in MVC
Can Teri Moren lift Indiana State, last year’s seventh-place team in the Missouri Valley Conference, to one of the league’s contenders in her first year on campus?
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'Til It's Over: Two sets of identical twins should keep North Central baseball a contender
The last high school baseball team standing in the Wabash Valley was the North Central, the Thunderbirds falling short 4-3 in the Class A Semistate on Saturday just one game shy of Victory Field.
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'Til It's Over: Jarvis, Anderson confident Olney, hard work leads to Division I dream
Olney, Ill., population 8,000-plus and known for its population of white squirrels, might not be the dream destination for high school basketball players in Indiana.
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'Til It's Over: Robinson 7-footer more focused in postseason; 6-foot Jones keeps producing
Robinson 7-footer Meyers Leonard is not going to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA some day, but his odds of reaching the league are pretty solid if his game continues to evolve as it has during high school.
- 'Til It's Over: ‘Stepping stone’ game points Sycamores in right direction Whether the win comes against a top-25 team or a conference pushover, ending a four-game losing streak is always a relief.
- 'Til It's Over: Indianapolis ISU recruit rolling along in senior season As Indiana State recruit Anna Munn approached Christmas with the Decatur Central basketball team, the senior guard didn’t seem to need much of a wishlist.
- 'Til It's Over: Magic’s still there for '79 Sycamores For the former Indiana State players who visited the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in late November, the weekend was a chance to relive memories with teammates and see Larry Bird’s career with the Sycamores celebrated again.
- CRAIG PEARSON: North has strong history in cross country state finals Vigo County is home to just four IHSAA state championships in team sports. Most recently, Terre Haute South won girls titles in basketball (2002) and tennis (2001).
- 'Till It's Over: It’s been rough year but no need to break up Cubs' core Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is only in the first year of a three-year contract, and aren’t back-to-back division championships enough to keep him around despite this year’s season filled with bad luck?
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'Til It's Over: Hansbrough, Hibbert give Pacers glimpse of future
You might have heard of the Indiana Pacers’ 2009 first-round draft pick. He was on the television once in a while during his four-year career at North Carolina.
- 'Til It's Over: Bertoli, Moore put on show in abundance of events “Anthony and Erica” may not have the marketing capability of “Dan and Dave,” but neither of Indiana State’s outstanding multi-event participants had let-down performances this weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.
- ‘Walking wounded’: ISU seniors return to provide spark All three ISU seniors will graduate in May, and all three will be in uniform today as Indiana State battles Bradley in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament quarterfinals.
- Given to Fly: Northview standout runner Thacker coming to ISU Doc Brown told an old-timer in a saloon in “Back to the Future III” that despite having automobiles in the future people run for recreation.
- Given to Fly: Schilli’s Rodman-like performance aids ISU With Indiana State’s women’s basketball team ranking eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference in field-goal percentage (36.5), the Sycamores need as many shot attempts as possible to maintain their standing on top of the league.
- Given to Fly: A classic in every sense of the word What tournament director and co-founder Gary Fears had in mind when creating the tournament came to fruition Tuesday. Marshall, with an enrollment of 438 students, became the smallest school to win the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic in the ninth season of the tourney.
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Given to Fly: ISU women should build confidence off strong outing
Indiana State did not pull off the monumental upset Saturday against No. 23 Kansas State, but the Wildcats are —aside from Connecticut in 2005 — the best team the Sycamores have played in the Jim Wiedie era.
- Given to Fly: ISU women's hoops team slides onto commercial radio Coach Jim Wiedie expects the Indiana State women’s basketball team to have a bit of a retro feel this season, meaning the Sycamores have the potential to get back to creating havoc with their full-court press.
- Given to Fly: ISU vets hope to prove pundits wrong Indiana State’s only two seniors were surprised to see they were picked ahead of just three Missouri Valley Conference women’s basketball teams Tuesday morning.
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Footnotes: In first marathon, former Sycamore comes out a winner
Indiana State graduate Dani Prince made her debut in the event with a victory in the Columbus Marathon on Sunday.
Prince’s goal was a time under 2 hours and 50 minutes, and she ran a 2:48.56. -
Given To Fly: ISU volleyball turning things around
It was an extremely busy weekend for Indiana State athletics this weekend.
- Footnotes: Here’s hoping perfect weather is still around for Nationals in November The weather made for a perfect fall afternoon Saturday at LaVern Gibson Championship Course. For what it’s worth, the Farmer’s Almanac calls for more sunny conditions from Nov. 20-24, with the NCAA Championships falling on the 24th this year.
- Terre Haute natives cherish memories of ‘House that Ruth Built’ Yankee Stadium was packed as usual on Easter Sunday in 1979. George Steinbrenner’s Yankees were one loss away from being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers to start the season. That was no way for the two-time defending World Series champions to perform, so the boss had a conversation with his new veteran left-handed starting pitcher prior to the game.
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Footnotes: Oregon men and women have strangehold on preseason NCAA cross countryrankings
The Oregon men and women were almost both unanimous picks as the No. 1 teams in the nation in the preseason cross country national rankings released recently.
- Given to Fly: Bronze medalist has strong ISU ties One of the remarkable American medalists of this 2008 Olympics thus far also provided one of the most sparkling stories in the brief history of the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course here in Terre Haute.
- Former ISU QB gets back to Amarillo This week, Indiana State signed its most highly-touted football prospect in years, and former quarterback Julian Reese is ripping it up for the Amarillo Dusters of Arena2.
- Indiana State track sending strong group to NCAA regional Three sophomore women and three senior men lead a large Indiana State contingent of track and field athletes into the NCAA Mideast Regional this weekend at Fayetteville, Ark.
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