By Mark Bennett
Exasperated as he tried to explain how his
Indiana State Sycamores had lost for the 18th time in 22 games
this college basketball season, Royce Waltman heaved a sigh and
said it.
"It just seems like we can't win,"
Waltman said Saturday evening after a 67-61 loss to Illinois
State in Hulman Center.
That admission wasn't easy for a coach who
works under a motto learned from his days as an assistant under
Bob Knight during the Indiana Hoosiers' heyday "Winning
is always possible."
Waltman brought that credo with him to Terre
Haute when he was introduced as the new Sycamore coach in the
spring of 1997. Back then, Indiana State fans had been through
17 seasons without a winner under four different coaches. And
cynical Sycamore followers might have been tempted to add the
phrase "except at Indiana State" to that phrase passed
down from the General.
Waltman immediately turned such skepticism
into myth.
His first Sycamore team broke the post-Bird-era
hex with a 16-11 record. The next went 15-12. Then came a 22-10
season with a win over Knight's Hoosiers in Bloomington's Assembly
Hall, a Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship
and an at-large NCAA Tournament berth. And his fourth ISU team
went a step farther, finishing 22-12 after an MVC Tournament
title and a first-round NCAA upset of 13th-ranked Oklahoma.
Turned out Waltman was right. Winning is possible
here.
This season, though, is testing the endurance
of everyone. It began with lopsided losses in a rigorous non-conference
schedule, thanks to second-half collapses. Those routs gave way
to a mind-boggling string of close defeats, thanks to last-minute
misplays.
Now with five games left, the Sycamores' records
of 4-18 overall and 2-11 in the MVC evoke memories of an era
when winning seemed, well, impossible. In 1993-94, ISU finished
4-22 overall and 3-15 in the conference.
Back then, though, the Sycamores weren't coming
close very often. As Coach Tates Locke's team lost 12 of its
last 13 games, the only defeat that held much suspense was a
63-62 loss to Drake. The current Indiana State team plays with
some promise each night.
It just seems like, though, the Sycamores
can't pull out a win.
"Indiana State is getting better and
better and better. That's a team that's just been snakebit,"
Illinois State Coach Tom Richardson said.
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And that's from a coach who lost the MVC Player
of the Year, Tarise Bryson, to a season-ending wrist injury in
the Redbirds' opening game. "You want to talk about bad
luck. We've had our share of injuries. But they've had their
share of bad luck," Richardson said. "But that always
turns around."
Thus the motto Waltman carried to Terre Haute.
He obviously still believes winning is possible here. Right now,
though, that turn-around Richardson predicted just keeps getting
knocked down game after game.
Senior center Terence Avery admitted the loss
of last season's heroes Michael Menser and Matt Renn had a big
impact on the team's ability to finish a game with a win. "Last
year, at the end, everybody had the confidence that they weren't
going to score on us, no matter what. And this year, it just
hasn't worked out," he said.
Renn and Menser "unfortunately they're
not on our team," Avery added, "and we've got to do
it."
A crowd of 5,088 showed up Saturday, hoping
this might be the night the Sycamores find that turn-around,
when winning once again seemed possible. Waltman was grateful.
"They were tremendous today. It's easy
to forget that when you don't come through with the win,"
Waltman said. "Those last couple defensive possessions,
they were up cheering. Given the failure of the team this year,
they've been remarkably supportive."
Eventually, winning will happen again.
Veterans at the finish -- By game's end, Waltman's rotation of players was
down to six -- seniors Avery, Djibril Kante and Kelyn Block,
junior Matt Broermann and sophomores Marcus Howard and Matt Berry.
Freshman point guard Lamar Grimes played 23 minutes as a reserve
early, but was pulled after fouling Illinois State point guard
Randy Rice, who drove for a three-point play. For the first time
this season, freshman forward Jake Sams sat out the entire game.
The reason was strategic. To get that elusive
victory, defense has to be tight. The freshmen are still learning.
"Both Jake and Lamar just need to be
tougher defensively," Waltman said. "We're in close
games, where every possession counts, and that's what led to
their limited minutes."
Howard, ISU's top defender, was on the bench
in the final minutes too. But that was because an overnight stomach
virus had sapped Howard's strength.
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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