TERRE HAUTE — What appears to be the most talented freshman class that coach Jim Wiedie has ever brought to Indiana State brings a lot of poise to the table for a team that has no interest in comparing itself to last year’s 27-6 squad.
But there’s no doubt the Sycamores have more talent than last year’s team. And they could end up peaking at the right time, which last year’s team did not.
Six true freshmen and sophomore Annie Bankhead — basically a freshman having played sparingly during the second half of last season — make up a big portion of the roster.
Junior transfer Angela Phillips will be one of the keys to provide the stability that keeps this team from getting too high or too low throughout the season.
She’s also second to Leah Phillips (29.3 minutes per game) in minutes at 29 per game. The junior transfer from the University of Kentucky is the No. 1 point guard on a team full of point guards. Through three games, she’s averaging 13.3 points, 6.0 assists and 3.0 turnovers, while hitting 9 of 11 from the free-throw line.
She’s also one of many 3-point weapons who make this year’s team much more capable of getting open looks at 3s and knocking them down than last year’s squad.
We’ll try not to do any more comparing to last season, but it’s hard to resist.
But Angela Phillips said after Tuesday’s game that if this team can match the intensity on defense, it will reach its potential … which is?
“I think we can win the conference,” she said. Having a year to watch the Missouri Valley’s teams, Angela Phillips said a couple weeks ago that she has a lot of respect for the league.
But none of those teams can match the Sycamores’ offensive firepower. But the shots won’t always fall with the regularity they have through three games of averaging a little more than 100 points per game.
“We just have to figure out we have to put our defense in front of our offense,” sophomore Kara Schilli said after allowing 86 points to Eastern Illinois. “It’s obvious that we’re going to be able to score and that we can score against pretty much any defense. But teams are going to be looking at us like they can score against our defense.”
The way the Sycamores went into Carver-Hawkeye Arena against Iowa and played pretty good defense and made great efforts in rebounding, ISU knows it can do it. It just has to do that against every team, avoiding playing to the level of the competition.
The poise shown throughout the roster in the Iowa game by ISU’s players was promising and makes us cautiously optimistic for a win at Michigan State. A key reminder of the courage of the ISU freshmen was Kelsey Luna’s attempt of a 3-pointer early in the shot clock with just more than three minutes left. Luna got a high-five from Wiedie when she came to the bench for a timeout moments later.
The Sycamores led 81-79 at that point and that shot might have been a dagger in the heart of the Hawkeyes. Instead, the Sycamores went without a score until Laura Rudolphi drove and scored to cut Iowa’s lead to 84-83.
Fearless moments like that make Luna a good bet for the Valley’s Freshman of the Year award. She showed her defensive potential as well Tuesday with four steals.
“She’s got some of the quickest hands I’ve ever seen,” Wiedie said.
If the Sycamores can stay within a few rebounds of Michigan State today and avoid turnovers against a tough 1-2-2 zone defense, outscoring the Spartans should be in the cards.
The Spartans appear vulnerable after a loss at home Wednesday to a veteran Hofstra team which went 19-11 last season, but on the other hand, coach Joanne P. McCallie will have the Spartans ready to rebound from the loss.
Either way, the Sycamores have enough confidence to compete with anyone.
Half the game is 90-percent mental, as Yogi Berra said of baseball, but physically, this ISU team has the tools to beat anyone on its schedule.
“We definitely felt we were just as athletic, if not more athletic [than Iowa],” Schilli said. “Although they were bigger, we were faster and everything. We definitely feel like we matched up player for player very well. Obviously, we did. We lost by five on their court. We’re very confident right now and that’s where we need to stay.”
Craig Pearson can be reached by phone after 4 p.m. at (812) 231-4356 or by e-mail at craig.pearson@tribstar.com.
Given to Fly
November 23, 2006
Given to Fly: Young ISU women's team poised for upset on road
- 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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