Published: January 04, 2009 12:08 am         

ISU men look to rebound against Evansville

Sycamores play MVC home matinee vs. Aces

The Indiana State’s men’s basketball team has a knack of catching good teams after a bad loss.

The Sycamores felt the full throttle of Louisville’s high-powered attack after the Cardinals lost to Western Kentucky in late November. Now Evansville visits Hulman Center fresh off an 80-50 whooping at the hands of Illinois State.

All that said, ISU can’t worry about what it can’t control. Coming off their own loss, a 79-61 defeat to Creighton on Wednesday, the Sycamores (3-10, 1-1) need to prove they can bounce back and not be the team bounced upon.

“We can’t worry about their mindset, we need to worry about ours. I’m sure Marty [Simmons, Evansville coach] has them re-focused after they lost to Illinois State, a really good team, beat them soundly. We have to be ready to deal with the things they do well,” ISU coach Kevin McKenna said. “Yesterday our focus was pretty good in practice, [Saturday] it was not as good. We played hard, but we didn’t have the focus we always have to have. We’ve got to figure out a way to play with more intensity and play harder.”

Evansville (9-3, 1-1) has lost 17 Missouri Valley Conference games in a row away from Roberts Stadium — the last victory was at Hulman Center in January 2007 — but the current Purple Aces have performed at a much higher level from the teams that were primarily responsible for building the Aces’ road losing streak.

The Aces have one of the most experienced starting lineups in a year where the conference is lacking in experience. Guard Jason Holsinger and swingman Shy Ely have played together for four years and play well off each other on the floor. Ely has developed into one of the conference’s best scorers at 17.3 points per game, while Holsinger has long been one of the Valley’s best 3-point shooters. He’s made 38.2 percent this season.

“They play off each other well. Their other guys drive the ball well and they’re good shooters. They use some high-pick again to free Holsinger up. Ely is a smart player that knows how to get himself open. They’ve been playing for four years and they know each other well,” McKenna said.

Among those who worked on ISU’s white team in practice was former star Michael Menser. Presuming the white team was running Evansville’s offense, Menser took on the Holsinger role.

Protecting the home court hasn’t been easy in the Valley this season. Going into Saturday’s games, five conference school had already lost on their home floor. ISU lost at home to Creighton, but also gave Northern Iowa a home loss last Sunday. Wichita State, Southern Illinois and Missouri State have also lost in their own backyard.

“We beat Evansville twice last year. They’re going to play hard. We need to defend our home-court, which we haven’t done very well this year,” said Reed, referring to ISU’s 1-4 home record, with the one win coming against Division III DePauw.

McKenna and Evansville coach Marty Simmons, hired within a week of each other in 2007, have almost identical records to date -- they’ve each won 18 games, with McKenna having two more losses with the Sycamores having played two more games in that stretch. ISU had the experience edge over Evansville last season, while the Aces enjoy it this season.

No matter how one slices it, ISU would like to have a win not only to fire momentum up, but to give Sycamore fans something to cheer about.

“We played a decent game at Northern Iowa, came back and didn’t play well on our home court [against Creighton]. How can we play hard on the road and not at home? We have to give our fans a reason to come here, we have to play hard, and sometimes, we have times where we have collapses,” Reed said.

Today’s game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Midwest as part of the MVC’s television package.



Today’s pROBABLe lineups

Evansville Purple Aces (9-3, 1-1)

Pos Player Ht Yr Rpg Ppg

G Jason Holsinger 5-11 Sr. 2.9* 13.2

G Kaylon Williams 6-4 Fr. 4.7* 6.3

F Shy Ely 6-4 Sr. 6.4 17.3

F Nate Garner 6-5 Sr. 6.3 9.1

C Pieter van Tongeren 6-9 So. 2.8 5.5

Coach — Marty Simmons (18-24 in his 2nd season at Evansville, 116-97 overall)



Indiana State Sycamores (3-10, 1-1)

Pos Player Ht Yr Rpg Ppg

G Harry Marshall 6-0 Jr. 4.2* 16.0

G Rashad Reed 6-1 Jr. 3.5 10.5

G Aaron Carter 6-4 So. 3.8 9.9

F Jay Tunnell 6-8 Sr. 6.0 11.1

C Brant Leitnaker 6-10 So. 1.1 2.9

Coach — Kevin McKenna (18-26 in his 2nd season at ISU, 107-59 overall)

* assists per game

Game at a glance

Tipoff — 1:35 p.m. at Hulman Center

Broadcasts — TV: Fox Sports Midwest; Radio: ESPN Radio 1130 & 1300-AM; Internet: gosycamores.com

Injuries — For ISU, G Tyler Cutter (ankle) is out; G Harry Marshall (ankle) is probable; F/C Jay Tunnell (knee) is probable.

Last games — ISU lost to Creighton 79-61 and Evansville lost at Illinois State 80-50 on Wednesday.

Series — ISU leads 75-72. ISU swept the season series last year. Evansville had won four in a row in the series prior to last season.

Next games — ISU plays at Drake and Evansville plays host to Missouri State on Wednesday.

— Todd Golden