By Mark Bennett
Granted, just as Indiana State Coach Royce
Waltman pointed out, his Sycamores' 66-56 victory over IUPUI
in Hulman Center won't go down in history as one of ISU's finest
basketball moments. But at least it won't be recorded as a loss
in those record books, and that's good.
After four progressively better seasons as
coach of the Sycamores, Waltman's fifth team started this season
with lopsided losses to Illinois-Chicago, Valparaiso and Butler,
followed by an even more painful 52-50 loss at the buzzer at
Eastern Illinois.
Sycamore fans, who endured a generation of
losing basketball until Waltman arrived in 1997, were used to
this 0-4 stuff. Waltman, on the other hand, had pretty much purged
sub-.500 basketball from his system since his first season at
the helm of the Bedford (Pa.) High School team back in 1971.
In his first 14 seasons as a college head coach, his 13-14 University
of Indianapolis club in 1992-93 was the only one to finish with
a losing record.
It's the situation he prefers.
"As I've said before, unless you've been
involved in competition, you don't know how demoralizing it is
to fail in front of people. You really get your confidence broken"
Waltman said after Saturday's win. "That's what happens
in sports. You walk right out there and you lose right in front
of everybody. So we just needed a win to get to thinking we still
knew how to play."
And the small but vocal crowd of 4,483 appreciated
the turnaround, slight as it might have been. When seniors Kelyn
Block and Djibril Kante left the game with 33 seconds on the
clock, the fans applauded. Together, they'd contributed 22 points
and 12 rebounds. And when the final horn sounded, the audience
was on its feet cheering.
Even the crowd had turned in a season-best
performance. After Valparaiso thumped the Sycamores 71-54, beat
writers from newspapers who cover the Crusaders asked the visiting
players if the Hulman Center crowd's quiet response to ISU's
32-29 halftime lead helped Valpo launch a strong second-half
comeback. The Crusaders politely brushed off the question.
Still, the higher intensity from the seats
clearly had a positive effect on the Sycamores, and could again
in Monday night's 7:05 p.m. home game against Murray State. Saturday,
ISU's 32-30 halftime lead was almost identical to its intermission
lead over Valpo. This time, though, the Sycamores came out in
the second half and completed an 18-2 run that put IUPUI away.
"The way we fought back was huge, and
it gave us more confidence as a team," said sophomore Matt
Berry, who grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds.
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Coaches like winning. Players like winning.
Fans like winning. Winning is good.
The refs goofed
-- In case there was any question, the officiating crew of last
Wednesday's 52-50 Sycamore loss at Eastern Illinois erred by
not checking the televised replay of the Panthers' buzzer-beater
final basket by Jesse Mackinson.
The play was triggered by Henry Domercant's
block of Kante's attempted layup with eight seconds to play and
the score tied 50-50. EIU got the ball downcourt quickly and
Mackinson hit his own layup as the buzzer sounded. Waltman sternly
demanded EIU administrators ask the referees to review the play
on WTWO television monitors. NCAA rules state that in a televised
game that ends on a buzzer basket, officials are obliged to review
the play.
The crew of Brett Miles, Jeb Hartness and
Joe Ward-Wallace did not.
Replays showed Mackinson's basket was clearly
good, but also that three-tenths of a second remained afterward.
Granted that nanosecond would require ISU to make a miracle play.
But last season after Michael Menser's second 3-pointer put ISU
ahead of Indiana in Hulman Center, Hoosier freshman Jared Jeffries
heaved up a desperation shot that almost went in, and that play
began with less than a second left.
ISU Athletic Director Andi Myers conferred
with Jim Bain of the Missouri Valley Conference about the lack
of a review.
"He said the officials were in error,"
Myers said Saturday. "It was not their choice [not to review
the play]. It is the rule."
Also, Myers said ISU's contract with EIU called
for the officiating crew to be a mix of MVC refs and those from
the Ohio Valley Conference, of which Eastern Illinois is a member.
Instead, the crew was an all OVC trio, she said.
In the end, though, it all ends up as an L.
Coach suspended
-- IUPUI Coach Ron Hunter acknowledged that his absence at Wednesday's
game against Indiana Tech was the second game of a two-game,
university-imposed suspension for a secondary violation of NCAA
recruiting rules. The violation involved Hunter commenting on
recruits before receiving their national letters of intent.
Earlier in the week, Hunter told the Tribune-Star
he missed the Tech game because of pneumonia. On Saturday, he
said both reasons were true.
"I was going to choose a game [to sit
out], and I chose that game because I was sick," he said.
Mark Bennett can be reached by telephone
at 1-800-783-8742, Ext. 377, by e-mail at mark.bennett@tribstar.com
or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
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