As the wins have piled up for the Indiana State men’s basketball team on its five-game streak, the Sycamores have earned their way back into meaningful games.
None more so than tonight’s game at Wichita State.
The Sycamores still have a long-shot chance of avoiding the Thursday play-in round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. ISU (9-19, 6-10) is currently tied with Southern Illinois in eighth place, but is just a game behind a three-way tie for fifth … a trio that includes Wichita State.
ISU must win its final two games and it needs help to avoid the play-in round for the first time since 2001, but the idea that the Sycamores could avoid Thursday was unthinkable two weeks ago when ISU was 2-10 in the conference before its winning streak began.
“If we want to keep ourselves out of a Thursday game, five is great, but we need six real bad,” said ISU forward Jay Tunnell, referring to the Sycamores’ winning streak.
ISU coach Kevin McKenna doesn’t want the Sycamores to have Friday on their minds just yet. Wichita State is too imposing to think about anything else.
“I think [the players] are excited about the opportunity to climb the ladder, they know what’s in front of them,” McKenna said. “But we haven’t talked about [tournament scenarios] at all. We’re in one-game-at-a-time mode and Wichita State presents plenty of problems with their rebounding,” McKenna said.
The Shockers (14-14, 7-9) can identify with ISU’s sudden revival. For the first third of the season, the Shockers were the team keeping ISU out of the Valley basement. The Shockers started 0-6 in conference play with a team that has a lot in common with ISU as far as experience is concerned. Since a Jan. 17 victory over Creighton, Wichita State is 7-3 in Valley games and has not lost at Koch Arena during that stretch.
Going back 50 years, no conference team that started 0-6 has finished better than ninth. The Shockers could finish as high as fifth.
Among Wichita State’s victories was a 64-58 win over ISU at Hulman Center on Feb. 4. It was the last loss the Sycamores suffered. ISU was outrebounded 39-25 and committed 18 turnovers to hurt its cause. Wichita State’s long and strong Ramon Clemente had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“We’re a different team from then to now. I looked at the film of that game and we’re playing with better patience and with a better understanding on defense,” McKenna said.
In its BracketBusters victory over Cleveland State on Saturday, every Wichita State starter reached double-figure scoring. In ISU’s case, Tunnell, Harry Marshall, Rashad Reed and Jordan Printy have each scored 10 or more in four consecutive games.
• Tunnell goes home for the final time – One player who would like to win at Koch Arena is Topeka, Kan., native Tunnell. Lightly recruited by Wichita State when Mark Turgeon was in charge of the Shocker program, ISU has come close to winning at Koch during Tunnell’s career, but have never broken through.
“It would be huge to get that win. Anytime any one of us goes close to home, you want to beat that team that you feel should’ve shown more interest in you. Anytime we go back and play Wichita, I feel like I play better there and with the atmosphere, it’s not hard to get yourself going for a game,” Tunnell said. “I’m going to go in and want to play well, but I’m going to do the same things I’ve been doing, let the game come to me, and hopefully come out of there with a win.”
Indiana State University
Win at Wichita State today could help Sycamores’ seed in MVC tournament
- Indiana State University
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Bubble intact: ISU headed to NCAA baseball tournament
Forty-eight teams had been chosen for the NCAA Baseball Tournament Selection Show and things were getting antsy in the Indiana State clubhouse on Monday.
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ISU chosen for NCAA baseball tournament
The Indiana State baseball team got its wish on Monday as it was chosen as an at-large team to play in the NCAA baseball tournament.
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Indiana State’s baseball fate to be decided today
At high noon today, the train arrives for the Indiana State baseball team.
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ISU hurdler Swift becomes 5th Sycamore to make NCAAs
Indiana State sophomore Greggmar Swift became the second member of the men’s team and the fifth Sycamore overall to qualify for the 2012 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Finals at Drake University, placing second in the second heat of the 110 meter hurdle quarterfinals Saturday at the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
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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. -
Sycamores KO’d
Indiana State’s baseball team picked a very bad time to have its worst stretch of the 2012 season.
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ISU KO’d by Evansville
Indiana State’s baseball team picked a very bad time to have its worst stretch of the 2012 season.
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Graduate college in four years? ISU ‘guarantees’ it
Indiana State University has announced a four-year graduation guarantee for students enrolling this fall and beyond.
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Blanked by Blach: ISU drops MVC tournament opener
Things went wrong for Indiana State’s baseball team in its Missouri Valley Conference Tournament opener against Creighton, but one statistic glowed white-hot.
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MVP of the MVC: Lucas first Sycamore to earn Player of Year honors
Indiana State’s baseball team got the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season hardware last week and it’s hoping to grab more gold this week in its quest to win the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament.
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Sycamores try to catch Missouri Valley Conference tourney vibe
A Missouri Valley Conference championship season has bloomed for the Indiana State baseball team in 2012. The Sycamores have been dominant through most of the season.
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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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ISU surrenders series to MSU
Indiana State’s baseball team won the war this weekend against Missouri State — the Sycamores are the Missouri Valley Conference champions.
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ISU game plan isn’t executed: Sycamores fall 7-5 to Bears
The cement for Indiana State’s regular season Missouri Valley Conference championship has hardened.
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Manaea to start MVC tourney opener for ISU
Indiana State coach Rick Heller has participated in 13 Missouri Valley Conference tournaments at ISU and at Northern Iowa, his previous stop.
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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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ISU baseball in familiar territory with MVC title on line
First place is there is for the taking for Indiana State's baseball team this weekend … so is redemption.
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One out away from win, ISU falls to Boilermakers
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Maynard to serve as interim president of ISU Foundation
The Indiana State University Foundation Board of Directors today announced the appointment of Jack Maynard to serve as the foundation's interim president. Maynard will remain provost and vice president of academic affairs for the university during his interim role with the foundation.
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Indiana State’s Rupe gets test today at No. 13 Purdue
Indiana State’s late-scheduled baseball game at No. 13 Purdue today has many benefits, not the least of which is that ISU’s NCAA Tournament chances increase merely by playing the game as the Sycamores’ strength of schedule gets a shot in the arm.
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Sycamores get brooms out: ISU needs 1 more win to claim MVC
Indiana State’s baseball team had won every Missouri Valley Conference series it had played this season, but one nagging thought was on the Sycamores’ minds as they suited up Sunday to play Southern Illinois.
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ISU rallies for 2nd straight MVC title
A strong Sunday performance lifted Indiana State’s men to a second straight Missouri Valley Conference track championship Sunday at Wichita State.
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Win over SIU puts Sycamores in first place
As Indiana State’s baseball team tried to climb to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference mountain on Saturday against Southern Illinois, it stood to reason that the air would get more rarefied as they neared the summit.
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ISU gives Bacus run support, win
Starting pitchers tread on shaky ground when the topic of run support comes up. To broach the topic if they’re not getting it can be a dicey proposition in the clubhouse.
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ISU adds showdown with Purdue
Butler’s overbooked baseball schedule is doing wonders for Indiana State’s baseball slate … and possibly … for ISU’s at-large chances for the NCAA baseball tournament.
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Metro roundup: ISU’s Lucas honored by Missouri Valley again
For the fifth time in the last nine weeks, Indiana State junior catcher Jeremy Lucas has been named the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Week.
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Bad day at the office: Factors within & beyond Sycamores’ control conspire in loss
Indiana State’s baseball team hasn’t chalked up many bad days during a 36-12 campaign, but Sunday’s 8-2 loss to Wichita State in the series finale between the two teams would be an exception.
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Three Sycamores get wins at IU
Three Sycamores posted wins in the Billy Hayes Invitational hosted by Indiana University Friday in the Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex.
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Rapid response lifts Sycamores over Shockers
At some point last week, the Indiana State right fielder previously known as Robby Ort decided to shorten his chosen name and identify himself as Rob Ort.
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Pickoff move a weapon for Manaea
If all Indiana State starting pitcher Sean Manaea did right for the Sycamores was to retire batters at the plate, no one would have any complaints.
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