By Mark Bennett
And that's not even the hardest part.
After losing by 16 points to Illinois-Chicago
and by 17 points to Valparaiso, the Indiana State Sycamores'
non-conference schedule steepens quickly.
Today at 3:05 p.m. in Hinkle Fieldhouse at
Indianapolis, ISU (0-2) plays Butler (3-0). The Sycamores have
a nine-game losing streak in Hinkle, and the Bulldogs are even
bigger and stronger than their 24-8 team from last season.
Then, ISU travels to Eastern Illinois (21-10
a year ago), plays host to IUPUI (a team that beat the Sycamores
72-70 last season) and Murray State (with four starters back
from a 17-12 team), visits Wyoming (the Mountain West Conference
co-champion in 2001), and then plays host to Ball State (winner
over Top-5 opponents Kansas and UCLA last week) and Bowling Green
(four starters back from a 15-14 squad).
Oh, and there's a two-game road swing to Missouri
Valley Conference rivals Drake and Creighton before the journey
to Wyoming.
"We've played two decent teams, but I
really think much stronger teams are on the horizon," Sycamore
Coach Royce Waltman said after Sunday's 71-54 loss to Valparaiso.
"And if we don't do something to improve, it will snowball."
Two facets of the Sycamores' game, one linked
with the other, are likely crucial to that improvement -- depth
and shooting.
So far, the reserve players for ISU's opponents
have outscored the Sycamore bench unit 60-16. And the four Sycamores
with three or more seasons of experience -- seniors Kelyn Block,
Djibril Kante and Terence Avery, and junior Matt Broermann --
have hit 31 of 59 field goals (53 percent). The younger Sycamores
are 12 of 49 (24 percent).
"We have enough older guys," Waltman
said, "but we've got to have some other guys do something."
Some hope flickered in the first half against
Valparaiso. The Sycamores made seven of their first 10 shots
and managed to lead the Crusaders 32-29 at halftime. Then as
Valparaiso's shooting sharpened, Indiana State began to miss.
Kante and Avery combined to hit 11 of 17 field goals. The rest
of the team shot 10 of 41.
"I don't think we took too many bad shots
[Wednesday]," Avery explained. "I think after seeing
[the Crusaders] hit so many shots, it just took the confidence
and spirit out of these guys. It was just harder to step up and
make a shot."
In less than 13 minutes, the Sycamores watched
their three-point lead disintegrate into an 18-point Valparaiso
advantage. And there was no dramatic comeback, as in ISU's 102-99
double-overtime victory over Eastern Illinois in 1999, or in
the Sycamores' 84-79 win over Western Illinois last year.
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| Tribune-Star/Joseph
C. Garza |
| Easy one: Indiana State's
Djibril Kante (3) gets past the Valparaiso defense for an easy
bucket last Wednesday, one of only a few easy shots the Sycamores
got that night. |
"It's harder to make big plays when you're
down like that," Avery said. "It takes a lot of guts
to bring a team back. And right now, that's what we need to focus
on."
Butler is capable of taking leads today. A
week ago, the Bulldogs beat Radford, Delaware and Washington
to win the Top of the World Classic championship at Fairbanks,
Alaska. Four starters are back from Butler's 24-8 team last year,
when the Bulldogs routed Wake Forest in the first round of the
NCAA Tournament. And their new starter is 6-foot-11, sixth-year
senior Scott Robisch, who scored 24 points against Delaware.
"What they've been in the past is a team
that defends really well and shoots the ball just great,"
Waltman said of the Bulldogs.
That was true for most of Butler's Alaska
trip. But in the final game, the weary Bulldogs hit just five
of their first 24 3-point attempts. In the game's final five
minutes, though, Butler shot 4-for-5 beyond the arc. Defensively,
the Bulldogs are yielding less than 60 points per game.
Miserly defense carried the Sycamores through
some of their finest moments over the previous four seasons too.
Ironically, ISU and Butler put on a shootout in their game last
season. The Sycamores won 90-88 when Block hit a layup in the
final seconds of overtime in Hulman Center.
"We played here last year, and neither
team could stop the other," Waltman said.
But after a pair of 54-point scoring nights,
point totals in the 80s and 90s seem like a longshot for ISU
right now. The cure may be finding even more opportunities for
6-9 Avery and 6-8 Kante to score in the paint, and for Block
to drive his way to the basket, Waltman said. And that might
also help their younger teammates shooting from outside.
"We've got to take some pressure off
our perimeter shooting," Waltman said, "somehow."
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