By Mark Bennett
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Only the firmest Sycamore
believers inside rowdy SIU Arena on Saturday night considered
Indiana State a favorite to beat the host Salukis.
ISU Coach Royce Waltman isn't used to being
in such a position.
In 15 previous seasons as a college head coach,
his lone losing season was his first at the University of Indianapolis.
Even that Greyhound team finished 13-14 and was the surprise
team of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
And through his first four Sycamore seasons,
Waltman rattled off winning records totaling 75 victories and
just 45 losses as if ISU's prior disastrous 18-year run was pure
myth.
This season, though, his team has been considered
an underdog virtually every night, especially Saturday, when
the Sycamores came to Carbondale with records of 3-12 overall
and 1-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Meanwhile, the host
Salukis have moved into the spot ISU held the past two years
alongside perennial MVC power Creighton. Southern Illinois won
15 of its first 18 games, and five of its first six conference
games.
Waltman doesn't relish the situation. But
his style hasn't changed. He still demands his players and staff
pay attention to detail, still keeps the officials alert with
constant - and sometimes hot - sideline commentary, still can
bark directions in a huddle over the buzz of the crowd, still
sheds his suit jacket and tie if the game gets close, still can
crack a smile at mid-game.
"He's been patient with us," sophomore
guard Matt Berry said last week. "Last year, we would lose
a couple games and he would be really on us. But this year, he's
really being patient with us and trying to teach and coach. That's
the only difference I see - his patience and his willingness
to keep fighting."
That routine hasn't changed much since Waltman
took his first coaching job in his hometown as coach at Bedford
(Pa.) High School. His second season there was almost as rough
as the current 2001-02 Sycamore season.
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Win or lose, the job stays the same, Waltman
said last week, whether he's criticized or not. In fact, the
second-guessing may never actually reach him.
"It's difficult. But it really doesn't
change what you do day by day as a team," he said, watching
practice in Hulman Center. "You're somewhat insulated because
you're so immersed in your team. When it's going well, you don't
know if people on the outside are saying, 'It's going great.'
And when it's not going well, you really don't hear all the criticisms
either. You're always, either way, immersed in trying to make
your team better."
Despite the losses, the Sycamores have had
moments of improvement. Some of those, though, may not show up
until next season when sophomores such as Berry and Marcus Howard
are juniors, and the freshmen - Jake Sams, Jerod Adler, Lamar
Grimes and red-shirting Darron Evans - are a year older.
The waiting for that payoff, Waltman admitted,
is the hardest part.
"Yeah, it's frustrating, and I hate to
lose," he said. "But yet there's not a big difference
when you come to practice each day than when you're winning.
You're trying each day to put your team together better. And
the majority of the players have the same attitude."
Berry is evidence of that. He realizes a MVC
regular-season title run is unlikely, but a surprising sweep
at the Valley Tournament on March 1-4 is a possibility - a longshot,
indeed, but a possibility. After all, it happened last year when
the Sycamores were seeded fifth.
Berry's plan: "Just work toward the conference
tournament and try to get better with each game."
So Waltman and his Sycamores will try to keep
their chins up and go on.
"It's been hard. But it's not like everybody
walks around with a cloud over their heads," Waltman said.
"You get out and work and try to get better."
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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