By Mark Bennett
Royce Waltman and Jim Wiedie know exactly
what they're getting into today.
The risk both Indiana State basketball coaches
face is the possiblity of their NCAA Division I Sycamore men's
and women's teams losing an exhibition game to an in-state Division
II team. Today in Hulman Center, Wiedie's ISU women play Southern
Indiana at 2 p.m. Then at 4:35, Waltman's men play the University
of Indianapolis Greyhounds.
Wiedie spent five seasons in the Division
II ranks as an assistant at powerhouse Northern Kentucky before
coming to Indiana State in 1997. Waltman coached that same Indianapolis
Greyhounds program from 1993-97, reaching a No. 1 ranking among
Division II teams.
They haven't forgotten.
"The kids at Division I are a couple
inches bigger at each position," Waltman said, trying to
compare players from college basketball's top two levels. "But
that Great Lakes Valley Conference is a brutal league."
Waltman's days in the GLVC ended when he came
to Indiana State in 1997, bringing four straight winning seasons
to a program that had stayed .500 or below since 1980. Within
three years, his Sycamores had won the 2000 Missouri Valley Conference
regular-season championship.
"I hold Coach in high regard, but that
was pretty impressive," Indianapolis Coach Todd Sturgeon
said of ISU's rise to the top. "They just did so well, so
quickly. But it didn't surprise me." Sturgeon was Waltman's
assistant at U of I before he was promoted to head coach. He
also played for Waltman and ISU associate head coach Dick Bender
at DePauw.
Today, the Sycamores will begin their post-Michael
Menser and Matt Renn era. Today, Waltman will still be searching
for clues as to who will replace Menser at point guard. The candidates
include sophomore Barry Welsh, freshman Lamar Grimes and walk-on
junior-college transfer Batiste Haywood, as well as two shooting
guards from last season -- senior Kelyn Block and sophomore Marcus
Howard. Howard will miss today's exhibition, still recovering
from a stress fracture in his foot.
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They'll test themselves against the Greyhounds,
who finished 13-14 last season. Their lineup includes three former
Indiana high school All-Stars -- senior guards Rob Kent and Cedric
Moodie (who played against ISU as a Ball State Cardinal before
transferring after last season), and junior forward Brad Borgman.
They're able to play ISU in an exhibition
format under an NCAA rule adopted last season. Sturgeon appreciates
the opportunity. His team opens for real on Nov. 16 at Seattle
Pacific, a Top 10 Division II program.
"We feel like we need to be ready to
go, and hopefully playing Indiana State will do that," Sturgeon
said. "They're big, athletic and well-coached."
Meanwhile, Wiedie's ISU women are about to
face the first of two highly ranked Division II opponents in
exhibitions. Coach Rick Stein's Screaming Eagles finished 28-4
overall last season and 17-3 in the Great Lakes Valley, winning
that conference's title. They've been rated as high as ninth
in some preseason polls. Then on Nov. 10, ISU plays Northern
Kentucky in Hulman Center.
Wiedie, trying to regroup a team that went
10-18 last season, knows the perils.
"There's that stigma of losing to a Division
II school, but that's mostly for people who don't understand
how good that [Great Lakes Valley] Conference is," Wiedie
said.
As with the ISU men, the Sycamore women have
some early injuries. Guard Lindsay Galbraith will suit up but
won't play today. And frontcourt player Erin Rhodes has dealt
with back pain, but will likely play.
They'll face a USI team that has eight returnees,
led by the 2001 GLVC Freshman of the Year Jessica Stuckman, who
averaged 14.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. On Nov. 9, the
Screaming Eagles officially begin their season against Nebraska-Omaha
in the NCAA Division II Tipoff Classic at Orlando, Fla., in the
Disney's Wide World of Sports complex.
"We play exhibition games to improve,"
Stein said, "and hopefully [playing] Indiana State is going
to prepare us for going to Disney World."
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