Saturday, January 24, 2015 12:05 p.m.
Hulman Center, Terre Haute, Indiana
Immediately after concluding its season series with Evansville, Loyola begins its season series with the other Indiana MVC school and the other surprise of the conference season, Indiana State. After lumbering through the non-conference schedule at 4-8, the Trees won their first five conference games—including a sweep of Illinois State and an overtime home win against Evansville—before dropping their last two conference games in Iowa by six points each. At 5-2 and undefeated against two teams challenging for third place, the Sycamores have positioned themselves nicely to solidify that spot if they can beat the banged-up Ramblers.
Indiana State starts 6’10” senior center Jake Kitchell, 6’9” senior forward Justin Gant, 6’6” junior small forward Kristian Smith, 6’1” freshman guard Brenton Scott, and 6’2 junior Devonte Brown. Their starting five plays astoundingly high minutes (71% of their total minutes), and works as a cohesive, multi-tooled unit. Each of them averages between 7.1 and 11.9 points per game and between 3.6 and 5.2 rebounds per game. Each of them shoots over 46% from inside the arc, and from outside every one of them has sunk at least 9, and up to 35 three-pointers. Gant and Kitchell have 35 blocks between them, and the three guards have between 30 and 50 assists each. Scott is the most prolific three point shooter with 35 made threes at a 41% clip, but every player on the team but one (Bell) will take the long distance shot.
Augmenting the core unit from the bench to provide strategic specialization are 5’10” juco point guard Tre Bennett, 6’8” sophomore center TJ Bell, 6’5” redshirt freshman Alex Etherington, and 6’0” sophomore juco transfer Grant Prusator. Bennett is the pass-first guy who is not shy about taking a lot of outside shots; Bell, at 254 pounds, is the big inside body who’s a high-percentage scorer near the basket; Etherington is a versatile shooter who shies from contact; and Prusator is the three-point specialist who shoots almost exclusively from long range. By adding doses of the bench specialists, Coach Greg Lansing can fine-tune his players on the floor like a painter mixing colors on a palette.
In non-conference games, the Sycamores gave no indication they would be a factor in the MVC, losing their last 7 consecutive games against Division 1 foes before the starting bell rang. But apparently, that was just about exactly how long it took for them to work out how to win without Jake Odum as their leader for the first time in four years. And Lansing finally seems to have a good handle on when to push his new set of various levers, and exactly what he’ll get.
Loyola was 0-3 against the Trees last season, losing by 12 in Terre Haute, by 4 in Chicago, and by 13 in St. Louis—but that was when ISU had Odum, and against a very different kind of Ramblers team. The new-look Sycamores are more vulnerable to the three (allowing 40% shooting by opponents, 43% in conference games), don’t rebound as well, sometimes take questionable shots, give over the ball a lot under tight defensive pressure, and allow too many opposing field goal attempts—although they’ve shored up some of those weaknesses in conference play. A fully healthy Loyola team this year would present a major challenge to the Sycamores, even in Terre Haute. But without all the Ramblers—Doyle in particular—Loyola is likely to struggle on the road against a very versatile team, now hitting full stride, with so many weapons and points of attack.
Loyola game notes:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 123aaa.pdfIndiana State game notes:
http://www.gosycamores.com/pdf9/3129422 ... M_ID=15200Streaming video: Sycamore Vision
https://www.nmnathletics.com/PremiumVid ... R_CONTENT= (Pay)
Vegas odds: Indiana State by 2
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