by Mark Bennett
Tribune-Star

Deceiving: Indiana State junior guard Michael Menser may be smaller than those he plays with, but he has overcome big odds on the basketball court. (Tribune-Star photo illustration/Darron R. Silva)

Such mismatches made Michael Menser's name part of Indiana basketball lore.

Three seasons ago, he tried with all of his diminutive might to give the 618 students of Batesville High School the state's last single-class championship. Menser and the Bulldogs fell short. The small-school Bulldogs lost 61-58 to New Castle, and a big school, Bloomington North, eventually won that 1997 crown.

In his book "Where the Game Matters Most" chronicling that final, one-class title chase, author William Gildea became fascinated with Menser's unabashed willingness to face the Goliaths of Indiana high school basketball. "He played -- and played extraordinarily well -- against comparative giants," Gildea wrote.

By Nov. 11, 1998, Menser had added weight to that 5-foot, 11-inch frame Gildea termed "pale and skinny." On the opening night of the sophomore season of his Indiana State Sycamore career, Menser was now a 160-pound point guard. Fourteen minutes into a game against college basketball giant Indiana in Assembly Hall, Menser and ISU were leading as the stunned Hoosier faithful watched.

On the next possession, as the Hoosiers crossed midcourt, the ball squirted into open court.

"I turned around and saw Jon and everybody rushing toward a loose ball," Menser recalls a year later. Jon Luchetti was Menser's 6-foot, 8-inch teammate. "I looked up and Jon and I collided."

This big vs. little clash didn't turn out well for Menser. His nose was broken as it hit Luchetti's head. The collision left Menser dazed and bleeding on the Assembly Hall court.

The shocking Sycamore lead, that grew to 45-26 in the next few minutes before halftime, eventually disappeared and the big guys beat ISU 76-70. But the setback was larger for Menser. He lost nearly 18 pounds in the wake of surgery to heal the wound. After missing five games, he returned to his starting role. However, it took weeks for that sharp, relentless style to return.

"In college basketball, when you lose that much weight, it's pretty hard to compete physically," Menser said. "It was also mental. In the back of your head you'd think, 'What if I get hit again?' "

Nate Green, who shares the backcourt and laughs away from the court with Menser, thinks the difficulty of Michael's comeback got underestimated.

"People were so quick to jump on Michael's case," Green recalls. "It was the opening game, in front of 20,000 people, we're up by 20 points, and all of a sudden he breaks his nose and is out for [five] games. Having to come back, in a starting role, and taking the reins of the team and leading the way he did is much more than we should have been asking of him. And he did it without any doubts, and came back and did it like it was second nature."

Menser remains grateful that Coach Royce Waltman and his staff stuck by him through some rough outings. "I was always in the mindset that I wanted to do everything I could for the team," Menser said. "But my body just wouldn't let me."

By Jan. 7, Menser's shooting touch returned. He scored 23 points, hitting seven 3-pointers, in a 91-57 romp over Wichita State in Hulman Center.

As the Sycamores finished the season 15-12, Menser's per-game averages climbed to more familiar numbers -- 9.8 points, 3.5 assists, 2.8 rebounds. And in the months since then, regular stints in the ISU weightroom and a high-protein diet raised his weight back to nearly 165 pounds.

Now, on the brink of a highly anticipated ISU season, Menser looks like the Michael of old at age 20.

"I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life," he says. In fact, his breathing actually improved after his operation.

Waltman has noticed his progress.

"He's back and has regained all that weight and more," the coach said. "And I think he's stronger than he's ever been. He's had very good practices, and it seems like his added strength has helped him defensively. And there's no reason not to expect him to have a good year."

Though scoring and dead-eye shooting made Menser a legend in Batesville, he doesn't expect to have to match his 18.1 scoring average or 59-percent field goal shooting marks from his high school days this season. There are several ways he can help ISU win.

His spirit could be crucial.

Born a month after Larry Bird took ISU to its grandest moment ever in the 1979 NCAA Finals, Menser doesn't share the physical stature of his famed Indiana State predecessor. But few Sycamores since the French Lick Hick's departure have played the game with the Bird-like intensity Menser displays. This season, that style will include issuing some on-court commands, another trait Bird used at ISU.

"I see my role as being more of a leader this year. I have to be more vocal than I have been," Menser explains.

Hitting a few more shots wouldn't hurt, either. After making 38 percent of his shots as a freshman, Menser's field-goal accuracy slipped to 34 percent in 1997-98, though his free throw shooting stayed at a team-high 78 percent. "When the open shot presents itself, I've got to knock it down. I've got to be a more consistent shooter."

As a freshman, Menser was ISU's No. 3 scorer at 10.2 points per game behind seniors Jayson Wells and Steve Hart, earning Menser a spot on the MVC's All-Newcomer team. This season, he is surrounded by even more scoring threats -- Green and sophomore guard Kelyn Block, forwards Matt Renn, Djibril Kante, Brian Giesen and Abasi Thompson, and Northwestern transfer Terence Avery at center.

Menser just wants to make sure somebody's scoring, often. That way, he and the Sycamores can have the kind of March he experienced back at Batesville on an even larger scale the NCAA Tournament, of course.

"I just want to do everything possible to make this team's dream a possibility -- to play in the big dance," Menser says. "I just hope we're playing in March instead of thinking about what we're going to do on spring break."

Along the way, there are bound to be more mismatches. ISU will face major-level competition in tournaments at Fairbanks, Alaska, later this month, and back in Assembly Hall in December. And then the Sycamores begin play in the Missouri Valley Conference, a guard-driven league in which seven of the 10 teams return their backcourt starters. By now, Menser knows them all.

But, as he has since his Batesville childhood, Menser sees only an opposite colored jersey in games.

"I really don't look at the size factor. I just go out and compete with the guy I'm guarding," he says. "At the Division I level, you have to compete or you're going to get your tail handed to you."

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