Indiana Statesman

March 2nd, 2007

final Men’s b-ball vs. Crieghton 3-2

The Sycamores’ season ends here as does Royce Waltman’s career as Indiana State head coach.
Indiana State lost to Creighton in the second round of the Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament 59-38.
The 12-point deficit at halftime was too much for Indiana State to overcome. The game kept snowballing against the Sycamores in the second half.
This looked like a lot of Sycamore games toward the end of the season in that ISU would stay close in the first half then hit a point where the game got away from ISU. That point in this game was at the 8:18 mark in the first half when Creighton freshman guard Isacc Miles started the Bluejays’ offense with a three-pointer that tied the game at 15.
There were too many mistakes by ISU. It seemed that every Sycamore player wnted to lead the comeback on his own rather than working the ball deep into the offense or looking for the extra pass. The Sycamores took a liking to shooting the ball after just one pass. It’s good for everybody to want that shot, but that was ridiculous.
I saw assistant coach Greg Lansing talking to freshman guard Marico Stinson with less than four minutes remaining. I imagine the conversation focused mostly on telling him they would let the seniors finish the game and he should look forward to next season.
This team has a bright future. It is only losing forward Trent Wurtz, and guards Russell Trudeau and Adam Lottino to graduation.
This team also has great guards to work with next year. Gabe Moore will be a senior next year and Stinson and freshman guard Cole Holmstrom will have one year with the program under their belts, which is a good thing.
On the plus side, this shellacking by Creighton gives the Valley more cred. If Creighton had lost to ISU, many would not think them to be as good a team if they had lost to ISU. It isn’t the right way to think because Creighton is a great team.
Seniors Anthony Tolliver and Nate Funk showed great leadership and led the Bluejays in scoring. Funk scored 14 points and Tolliver added 11. Tolliver had three critical blocks.
Well, guess I have to leave St. Louis tomorrow now. Check back during the women’s basketball tournament from March 8-11 to get your Sycamore sports fix.
I will be posting the transcript from Royce Waltman’s last press conference shortly.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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