EUGENE, ORE. —
He didn’t say a word, but it was as clear as Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman sat in the PK Park dugout and watched the Sycamores take batting practice prior to their NCAA Regional at Oregon last Thursday, he beamed with pride.
The baseball Sycamores were one of two spring ISU sports to win Missouri Valley Conference championships, with men’s track and field being the other. ISU finished fifth in the MVC’s all-sports points, its highest placing in many years.
The Sycamores’ baseball at-large bid was their first at-large in any sport since 2000. Their national profile appearance in Eugene comes one year after men’s basketball had its time in the national spotlight with the MVC’s automatic bid in 2011. Football, once a joke, is now respectable.
These are heady times for the ISU athletic department, but Prettyman doesn’t want to get complacent.
“My goal is to be at a press conference after winning a national championship. I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t think we could win national championships at Indiana State. As soon as that discontinues to be my goal, that’s when it’s time for me to change,” Prettyman said.
Prettyman was talking specifically about baseball when asked the question, but it could apply to any sport at ISU. To be sure, it’s an ambitious goal, and its one that’s likely shared by most Division I programs in theory.
The rub is how to get there.
“I think we have the passion and the personnel. I’m not sure we have the budgets, but I think we do have those other factors that will allow us to be successful,” Prettyman said.
I’m not sure we have the budgets. Some version of that has been the oft-heard mantra at ISU for generations. It will continue to be, so long as collegiate athletic programs spend like drunken sailors.
There are factors helping ISU’s budgets. With enrollment significantly up the last two years, it has created more revenue for the university as whole, including athletics.
Prettyman also reports directly to ISU President Daniel Bradley, which cuts out bureaucracy that had existed in the past and fosters a same-page mentality between the two.
But there are challenges too. The ISU Foundation has played an increasing role in helping ISU’s bottom line from an athletics standpoint, but the Foundation is in administrative flux. Gene Crume and Nate Green (Sycamore Athletic Foundation) are both gone. The Foundation is committed to ISU athletics, but until it has permanent new leadership, the way it goes about its business is in question for the time being.
ISU also has to square the circle between funding for programs via salaries and recruiting budgets versus facilities expenditures.
Bob Warn Field still needs improvements, as evidenced by failed bids to host the MVC baseball tournament in 2012 and 2013.
Memorial Stadium has had significant improvements done to the periphery of the facility, but the crumbling physical plant of the stadium itself and its long-term viability are very questionable.
Though in excellent shape for its age, Hulman Center still needs to be remodeled for modernization and revenue-streaming purposes.
“We’ve come so far [budgetarily], but we have a long way to go. The support from the president and vice-presidents in regards to the budget has been great, but it’s not something that’s going to be solved in one fell swoop,” Prettyman said.
Perhaps the biggest factor in ISU’s budgetary favor is Prettyman himself. Under Prettyman’s stewardship, nearly every ISU athletic program is better than it was when he arrived in 2005.
ISU has an athletic director that has proven that he can get results regardless of budgetary hurdles. It would seem that investing in ISU athletics under Prettyman would be money well-spent.
• MVC should see light on DBU – In the credit where credit is due department, the MVC owes Dallas Baptist’s baseball team a big thank you.
Without DBU on the schedule, it’s unlikely the league would have been the fifth-best in the nation RPI-wise. DBU’s RPI was in the 20s and ISU benefited more than most. Winning its series against DBU in April might have been the tipping point that helped the Sycamores to be chosen for the NCAA Tournament.
DBU showed interest in joining the league in the late 2000s. The league and the Patriots agreed to a two-year probationary period where DBU was added to the MVC essentially as a shadow school.
DBU played most league opponents – Illinois State was a notable exception – home-and-home during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. DBU played some teams in a one-year agreement. ISU played in Dallas in 2011 and hosted the Patriots this season.
During the probationary period, however, the winds of college realignment pushed DBU towards membership with other Texas schools in the Western Athletic Conference. It appeared the MVC’s flirtation with DBU would amount to a short-lived affair rather than a long-term relationship.
But since then, the WAC has imploded. The Texas schools that made the WAC attractive to DBU have all gone elsewhere thanks to their established or burgeoning football programs. The football-less Patriots need a home and the MVC should make a run at them again.
Why is DBU attractive? Put simply, it’s been one of the better college baseball teams in the last five years. The Patriots played in a Super Regional in 2011 and were on the cusp again as of this writing as they were to play TCU in a regional championship game on Monday night.
To solidify the quality of baseball in the MVC, it would seem that DBU’s addition would be a no-brainer. But in the Byzantine political world of the MVC with its coaches, administrators and presidents often at cross-purposes, nothing is that simple.
Despite DBU’s track record and its benefit to the MVC in 2012, there is still resistance to their membership. I’ve talked to a lot of league sources about the topic and the amount of stories put out there as to who’s for or against what boggles the mind. It’s often portrayed as an East (against DBU) vs. West (for DBU) school divide, but it’s not that simple.
Few want to talk specifics on the record, but the reasons cited for not including DBU are many.
Some cite financial burden of travel, some have to do with competitive balance (with a few coaches allegedly concerned that the bar will be raised in the league, thus jeopardizing their jobs), some have to do with geography, some cite the short period of DBU success, some involve agendas that have nothing to do with athletics at all – such as DBU’s religious affiliation.
There are allegedly schools that have professed support of DBU membership publicly via coach and administrator, but have opposed membership at the presidential level.
It’s messy, and for the good of the league, it’s time to cut through the bull and see what’s mutually beneficial for every league member.
If DBU is still interested, the proof is in the pudding as to how it benefited the MVC in 2012. DBU’s participation in the league schedule raised everyone’s ship with its tide. At-large bids for the MVC didn’t become a possibility in 2012, they became reality.
ISU coach Rick Heller and Prettyman both saw the benefit and both told me they’re in favor of DBU’s addition. Heller has been an advocate from the beginning.
It’s time for the league’s schools to stop worrying about their own fiefdoms for a moment and realize that they and the league overall is better with DBU in it.
Go get ‘em.
Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com. Please follow him on Twitter @TribStarTodd.
Indiana State University
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU progresses under Prettyman
Sycamore AD’s goals don’t exclude national championships
- Indiana State University
-
-
ISU baseball hoping Manaea can get its MVC Tournament moving in right direction
Indiana State’s baseball team has been waiting all season for its stars to align.
But this is the 2013 Sycamores, after all, and after a season in which seemingly little has gone right, it appears its stars will remain crossed at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. -
ISU sending largest group yet to postseason
On the heels of their thrilling double victory at the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships both the Indiana State men and women moved up in the national rankings which were released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
-
ISU's athletic treasure trove
Think of every championship that Indiana State has won in each of its sports, past and present. Think of every tournament — postseason or regular season — which the Sycamores have claimed as their own.
-
Ort sets ISU RBI record in 16-7 win
Robby Ort celebrated his Indiana State baseball Senior Day on Saturday by becoming the Sycamores’ all-time leader in RBIs as ISU ended its regular season with a 16-7 win over Bradley at Bob Warn Field.
-
Bradley ends 16-game MVC losing streak against ISU
Momentum was the only thing riding on Indiana State’s baseball game against Bradley on Friday. With a five-game winning streak going, ISU wanted to keep the good vibes going into next week’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
ISU couldn’t do it. -
Indiana State to host 2014 MVC baseball tourney
Build it… and they will come. The Missouri Valley Conference and Indiana State University made that famous line from the movie “Fields Of Dreams” reality Thursday.
-
Behind 16 hits and Manaea's pitching, ISU beats Bradley
Indiana State’s baseball team rode a wild ride of emotion on Thursday.
First came the public announcement that Bob Warn Field would host the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Later, Sean Manaea’s availability to pitch ISU’s series opener against Bradley was in doubt. -
TODD GOLDEN: Don't give up on ISU baseball just yet
If you had to pick one word that would describe the 2013 Indiana State baseball season, it would have to be frustration.
-
ISU baseball team builds on success with 14-2 rout
Indiana State’s baseball victory over Alcorn State on Friday would take on more meaning Saturday if the Sycamores could build momentum and pick up on the good work they did in Friday’s ninth-inning rally.
Mission accomplished.
The Sycamores were aggressive from the opening inning at the plate and starting pitcher Devin Moore gave them eight valuable and effective innings on the mound as ISU defeated Alcorn State 14-2 at Bob Warn Field.
“It was a really good experience for everybody. It felt great to finally come out here and put some things together. It’s also really nice when your offense puts a lot of runs on the board,” Moore said.
Moore’s eight innings of work were as valuable as gold to an ISU team that is short on quality arms due to injury and ineffectiveness. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and one of the two runs he conceded was unearned. -
ISU earns badly-needed win
Alcorn State’s baseball team might be ranked in the bottom 10 in RPI and Indiana State might have never lost to a Southwestern Athletic Conference team. So it wouldn’t appear that a quality win was in the offing when Alcorn State visited Bob Warn Field on Friday.
-
ISU’s Mascari and Hope win MVC track & field titles
Indiana State produced two champions during the opening day of action in the Missouri Valley Conference track and field championships Friday at Drake. Freshman John Mascari, a Terre Haute native, won the men’s 10,000-meter race and Nicole Hope won the women’s pole vault for the second time in three seasons.
-
ISU pole vault tradition continues with help from its author
Pole vault is track and field for the adrenaline junkie, Indiana State senior Nicole Hope proclaimed during a recent practice at Marks Field.
To catapult oneself about 14 feet into the air with a large $500 fiberglass pole on a daily basis is a risky endeavor.
“We have to be fearless. You can’t be afraid at all,” said Hope, who has also catapulted herself into the NCAA’s elite in the event, ranking 15th in the NCAA with her leap of 13-feet, 9 1/4. -
Lansing looking for more home games for next fall
Indiana State’s men’s basketball team is looking for a few good games.
Home games that is.
The Sycamores have filled in most of the blanks in their nonconference schedule, but as ever, ISU coach Greg Lansing would like to visit the friendly confines of Hulman Center a bit more often. -
ISU baseball gets back into rhythm with victory
Baseball is a rhythm game. With contests every day or five times a week in the case of many college programs, you have the chance to build on success or wallow in a slump.
Mother Nature took that rhythm away from Indiana State’s team last week. After a 7-1 loss to Indiana on April 24, ISU was supposed to play a three-game series at Tennessee-Martin, but it was wiped out by rain.
So the rhythm was disturbed, but perhaps that wasn’t a bad thing.
ISU was in a five-game losing streak before its unintended vacation and the Sycamores made a move in the right direction Wednesday with a 7-0 win over DePauw at Bob Warn Field.
“It was a disappointing weekend. We went all the way down to Tennessee and didn’t get to play. We sat around in the hotel room. We came here and it was still raining. It was nice to get out and see some live pitching,” ISU center fielder Landon Curry said. -
Metro roundup: ISU hands out spring awards
The Indiana State University athletic community, along with family, friends and fans, paused Tuesday night to honor the spring sports teams at the Terre Haute Savings Bank Spring Sports Banquet.
Most of the ISU teams are still in competition with the baseball team having 13 games left of its regular-season schedule before beginning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament May 21, the softball team with just three games left of the docket this coming weekend against Southern Illinois and the track and field program with just one more meet before beginning its postseason events.
The ISU women’s golf team is the team that has ended at this time, with the group recording a sixth-place finish at the MVC championships one week ago. -
Indiana State loses 2 in MVC softball
Indiana State aspired to upset Illinois State to get at least a doubleheader split in Missouri Valley Conference softball Thursday at Price Field as the Sycamores opened an eight-game season-ending homestand.
Paige Schreiner hit a two-run blast over the left-field fence in the fifth inning and junior Shelby Wilson delivered a sizzling RBI triple down the right-field line in the sixth as ISU ended the day playing well against the league’s highest-scoring offense.
The result was still a 5-3 loss to the Redbirds (26-18, 11-6 Missouri Valley Conference) as freshman Halle Humphrey gave up four runs in the first two innings. Humphrey, called upon to pitch the opener as well — she’s the only full-time pitcher remaining on the team — gave up six runs and eight hits as the Sycamores dropped a 6-1 game to start the day. -
ISU, MVFC brace for change at FCS football level
It seemed so far-fetched.
Internet rumors circulated that Indiana State had been approached by the Sun Belt Conference to bring the Sycamores’ football team into the Sun Belt’s fold.
The Sun Belt is part of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Bowl football. Big boy football … and all it entails.
-
ISU football in good spirits after healthy Spring Game
Was Saturday afternoon’s weather an omen for Indiana State football as the Sycamores wrapped up spring practice with the annual Blue-White Game at Memorial Stadium? After several practices conducted in less-than-perfect conditions, they’d like to think so.
-
Loyola ready to take big step
Loyola University and the Missouri Valley Conference took their first steps together Friday and the MVC is hoping the Ramblers don’t have to take too many baby steps before they become a competitive part of the conference.
-
Sanford wraps up first spring with ISU
The final day of Indiana State football’s first Mike Sanford experience is upon the Sycamores.
-
Lansing excited about Etherington's signing with Sycamores
The spring signing period for men’s basketball is usually a time to use available scholarships to load up on junior college additions and transfers.
To find a diamond-in-the-rough at the high school level who can give you four years? That’s harder to come by. -
Creighton sweep puts ISU in thick of things
In a difficult early-season Missouri Valley Conference schedule, Indiana State took its lumps. Unenviable back-to-back trips to contenders Missouri State and Wichita State had ISU reeling with five straight MVC losses eight days ago.
-
Second City in the Valley: Loyola joins the MVC
For the first time in its history, the Missouri Valley Conference will have a home in the Second City.
The Chicago Tribune confirmed Saturday via a Loyola University source that the Ramblers will replace Creighton as the MVC’s 10th team. Loyola — a member of the Horizon League — will join the MVC effective July 1.
Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman — who was part of the MVC search committee that scouted potential replacements for Creighton — confirmed Sunday that the Ramblers were in the MVC loop. -
Sycamore baseball holds off Creighton rally
By his own estimation, Indiana State baseball coach Rick Heller has been involved in close to 2,000 baseball games. If anyone has seen it all on the field, he’d be as good a candidate as any.
-
Devin Moore pitches gem in 6-1 victory over Creighton
A hip injury suffered by Indiana State ace starting pitcher Sean Manaea shuffled the Sycamores’ starting rotation for the second weekend running as it opened a Missouri Valley Conference home series against Creighton on Friday.
-
Sanford gets 2nd look at Sycamores
In the immediate aftermath of a practice, game, or in Friday’s case for Indiana State, a scrimmage, most football coaches defer to the film to paint a true picture of what was and wasn’t done. ISU coach Mike Sanford is no different. With the flurry of activity on both sides of the ball, it’s hard to get a true evaluation of anything watching it live.
-
ISU center FN Lutz glad to be back in the middle of things
For someone who missed an entire season due to a knee injury, Indiana State center FN Lutz has certainly kept himself visible since then.
-
METRO ROUNDUP: ISU's Brandon Pounds the top collegian in Sea Ray relays
Indiana State senior Brandon Pounds was the top collegian in the men’s hammer throw and fellow senior Felisha Johnson opened up the Sycamores’ three-day competition at the University of Tennessee’s Sea Ray relays with a second-place finish in the women’s hammer throw.
-
Stealing records: ISU softball’s offense gaining momentum
The Indiana State softball offense is no juggernaut, but the fog may be clearing on a program that has had a long history of struggles with few signs of consistent winning.
Explosive, dedicated athletes like Morgan Allee and Megan Stone are two reasons to believe this group of Sycamores can spark a turnaround.
The Sycamores are scoring an average of 3.1 runs per game while also ranking in the middle of the Missouri Valley Conference pack in hits and batting average. But the Sycamores are on pace to break the school record for on-base percentage as they lead the MVC in walks, hit-by-pitches, sacrifice bunts and stolen bases.
Allee, with 17 regular-season games to go, broke the school record for stolen bases in a season Tuesday against IUPUI and is among the 10 best in the NCAA. Her total of 30 makes up almost half of ISU’s 74.
“I’m so big [that] they think I won’t go. It works out well,” the stocky shortstop said. -
ISU’s QB battle
Quarterback battles come in all shapes and sizes, but one could forgive Indiana State’s Mike Perish, Robert Tonyan Jr. and Trent Lancaster if they feel a bit more beleaguered than your average signal-caller.
Not only is the trio fighting for the right to be named ISU’s starter by the Sycamores’ football opener Aug. 29 at Indiana University, but all three also are trying to learn a new offense, they’re acclimating themselves to new coach Mike Sanford’s different way of running things, and they’re trying to maintain harmony amongst each other, so whoever the ultimate winner is can effectively lead the team without angst.
All of it is playing out during ISU’s spring practice, and so far, none of the quarterback candidates have separated themselves from the pack. - More Indiana State University Headlines
-
Looking for Love? Take the Prague Metro
Moore, Okla. City of Reunions, Tears After Storm
AP Photograher: 'It Was a Miracle' They Got Out
Raw: Tearful Reunion After Okla. Tornado
Raw: Crews Search for Survivors of Okla. Tornado
Oklahoma: Images of Devastation, Reunion
First Person: Baby Falcons on a New York Bridge
Arias Tells Jury What She'd Do if She Gets Life
Tim Cook Defends Apple's Tax Accounting
Crews Race to Find Survivors of Okla. Twister
Reunited Dad, Son: 'We Just Praise God'
OKC Hospital Describes Treating Tornado Wounded
Raw: Aerial View of Moore Tornado Damage
Gov. Fallin: Okla. Facing Horrific Disaster
Raw: Massive Funnel Clouds in Oklahoma
Raw: Widespread Destruction in Moore, Okla.
Raw: Aerials Show Path of Oklahoma Destruction
Former IRS Chief: Can't Say How List Happened
Obama Pledges Urgent Aid for Tornado Victims
Families Begin Returning to Their Homes in Moore
Kate Middleton's Dress Flies Up
VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal
The Hangover Baby All Grown Up
Olivia Munn Flaunts Her Bikini Bod
Britney Spears Under Fire Once Again For Being A Bad Mom
The all-new Xbox One
RAW: Massive tornado strikes Oklahoma
Nidal Hasan paid $278K while awaiting trial
VIDEO: Teacher reunites mother and son after tornado levels elementary school in Oklahoma City
Okla. tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble
Jennifer Lawrence Gets Naked and Painted Blue as X-Men's Mystique
Pickler's Dance Moves Cause A Stir
Obama to tornado survivors: The country stands beside you
Reporter Cries Over Devastation
Sneak Peek: 'Modern Family' Says Good Bye
Trailer: 'The Last Stand' Available on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Download
IWitness Look at Moore, OK Tornado
RAW: Moore, OK tornado touches down near school
Robert Pattinson Moves Out
