By Mark Bennett
In eight days, the Indiana State Sycamores
open play in the Missouri Valley Conference, the league they'd
ruled the past two college basketball seasons.
The Sycamores (0-4) have two more chances
to prepare for their encore -- today's 2:05 p.m. game against
IUPUI in Hulman Center, and another home game at 7:05 p.m. Monday
against Murray State. Then ISU goes on a two-game conference
road swing to Drake on Dec. 9 and Creighton on Dec. 16.
Right now, Coach Royce Waltman's pre-MVC agenda
consists of one word winning.
"We need to win some games and get some
confidence," Waltman said Friday. "We're physically
strong enough to compete in the conference, if we're not so demoralized
from not winning."
They almost met that objective Wednesday night
at Eastern Illinois, but lost 52-50 to a last-second basket.
Senior forward Djibril Kante was poised to shoot the potential
game-winning layup with eight seconds left to play the score
tied 50-50. Instead, EIU's Henry Domercant blocked Kante's shot,
rebounded it, hit teammate Craig Lewis with a pass, who then
found Panther center Jesse Mackinson open for a layup at the
buzzer.
The game ended with a furor as Waltman unsuccessfully
tried to get officials to review the final play on WTWO television
monitors, as NCAA rules require for televised games that finish
with a decisive, buzzer-beating shot. Replays later showed Mackinson's
shot did beat the buzzer, but also that three-tenths of a second
should have remained to be played.
The loss followed three earlier routs -- 70-54
at Illinois-Chicago, 71-54 to Valparaiso and 69-49 at Butler.
The common denominator in all four Sycamore
defeats is low scoring. In their last two games, ISU reserves
have outscored the starters. At Eastern Illinois, center Terence
Avery came off the bench for the first time this season and delivered
a career-high 29 points and 12 rebounds.
Scoring could be a problem against IUPUI.
While the Sycamores average 51.8 points per game, the Jaguars
score just under 90 a game. IUPUI also is shooting 50 percent
from the field. "We've been shooting the ball better than
we have the last couple years," said Jaguars Coach Ron Hunter.
Five IUPUI players carry double-figure scoring
averages. ISU has one, Avery at 15 points per game. The Jaguars
like to penetrate a defense and score off offensive rebounds,
similar to Illinois-Chicago.
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| Tribune-Star/Joseph
C. Garza |
| In trouble: ISU forward Djibril
Kante (center) tries to score against the Eastern Illinois defense
Wednesday during the Sycamores' loss to the Panthers in Lantz
Gymnasium at Charleston, Ill. |
"They score in all ways that athletic
teams score," Waltman said.
By contrast, only two Sycamores are hitting
more than 40 percent of their shots -- Avery at 63 percent and
freshman forward Jake Sams at 41 percent. As a team, ISU has
made 36.8 percent of its shot. No Missouri Valley team has a
lower percentage so far this season.
"That's a dire concern," Waltman
said. "We work on a lot of things. We discuss a lot of things
in practice. But deep down at the core of [the season's rocky
start] is our inability to shoot well."
The graduation of two 1,000-point scorers
from last season's MVC Tournament championship team -- Matt Renn
and Michael Menser -- left the Sycamores without two key shooting
threats. But another 1,000-point-club member, senior Kelyn Block,
is back and was a 53-percent shooter last season. So far in 2001-02,
opposing defenses have held Block to 37-percent shooting. And
Kante, a 56-percent shooter a year ago, is hitting 35 percent
now.
"I knew shooting would be a soft spot
for us," Waltman said. "But it's a surprise it's been
this big a problem."
The Sycamores' problems only make Hunter more
worried about today's game, especially after his Jaguars pinned
a stunning 72-70 upset on ISU a year ago at Indianapolis.
"It bothers me a lot," Hunter said.
"Honestly, I'd rather be playing them at 4-0 than 0-4. It's
like going up against a wounded animal."
But revenge over last season's ISU-IUPUI outcome
won't likely be a factor, Waltman said.
"If we were going along very well, that
might be something that we'd play upon," he said. "But
right now, we're just in such a need of a win."
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