By Mark Bennett
If you think this season's Indiana State Sycamore
basketball team looks different from the Michael Menser-Matt
Renn era, consider the 2002-03 squad.
Coach Royce Waltman said the current team
that begins this season Sunday at Illinois-Chicago contains some
remnants of his first year as Sycamore coach -- namely standout
seniors Kelyn Block and Djibril Kante.
But once this season ends and the next one
begins, Waltman's roster will contain nine players who are either
sophomores or freshmen.
Nine.
That might seem like a daunting situation,
but Waltman is excited by that young squad's future.
"Next year is really when we start a
completely new team," Waltman said Friday. "And I'm
really excited by the kind of guys we have in those [last two
recruiting] classes."
Four members of the current team are freshmen
-- 6-foot point guard Lamar Grimes, 6-7 swingman Darron Evans,
6-9 forward Jerod Adler and 6-8 forward Jake Sams. This week,
Waltman's staff of associate head coach Dick Bender and assistants
Rick Ray and Kareem Richardson, completed ISU's most recent recruiting
class.
By Friday, they had received NCAA national
letters of intent from three of those future Sycamores -- 6-10,
212-pound center Ted Morris of St. Louis Chaminade Prep School;
6-5, 180-pound guard David Moss of Thornwood (Ill.) High School;
and 6-5, 200-pound guard Russell Trudeau of Lafayette Central
Catholic.
Trudeau (19.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per
game as a junior) "shoots the ball very well and will help
us in that regard," Waltman said. "He reminded Coach
Bender of Matt Renn and how hard he played."
Morris averaged 10 points and 9 rebounds per
game as a junior at Chaminade. "He can rebound in traffic,"
Waltman said. "Most tall kids are just too weak to rebound
the ball in traffic."
Moss, who played alongside current NBA rookie
Eddy Curry at Thornwood, is just plain impressive. "He's
just a good basketball player. He can rebound. He can shoot.
And he's smart," Waltman said.
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As a group, they're the constantly improving
mold of the quintessential Sycamore.
"They're three kids who are good players
and good students and good competitors," Waltman said. "And
that's what we're looking for."
And they're bigger, by position, than ISU
recruiting classes of the past -- two 6-5 guards and a 6-10 center
who can clutch a rebound. Four straight winning seasons and back-to-back
NCAA appearances have boosted recruiting.
"As we've done in other programs, we've
recruited undersized kids [at their positions] just to get good
players," Waltman said. "Now we're able to get kids
who are good players but also have good size.
Another ISU recruit -- 6-8, 210-pound forward
Tristan Parham of Thornridge (Ill.) High School -- earlier told
the Tribune-Star he will play for ISU. But until a recruit's
letter is received by the school, Waltman cannot and would not
comment on that recruit under NCAA rules.
With four recruiting spots to fill this fall,
a fifth spot came open when sophomore guard Barry Welsh decided
last week to leave the program to transfer elsewhere. Waltman
hopes to sign yet another high school player in the spring period
to fill that scholarship spot.
Evans will redshirt
-- Evans, the Sycamores' freshman forward from Chicago Providence
St. Mel High School, will sit out games this season as a redshirt,
Waltman said Friday.
That means Evans will continue practicing
with the team, but his four-year playing career won't begin until
the 2002-03 season.
"We've decided at this point to redshirt
Darron. Obviously, if two guys get hurt then that could change,"
Waltman said. "Mentally and emotionally, he's ready to play
and compete this year. But physically, he could stand a year
to get stronger and then have four good years left."
Evans stands 6-7 and weighs 190 pounds. After
watching last week's exhibition victory over Pella Windows from
the sidelines, Evans said a redshirt wouldn't bother him.
"I'm OK with it because I know it would
be better off for me in the long run," 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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