Sycamores Considered 4th best Mid-Major team in the U.S.

[GuardShock]

According to NBC Sports.

Considering I'm supposed to be working. Looks like I'm getting a lot of "work" done. Enjoy!

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcspo...orts-coms-2013-2014-mid-major-power-rankings/

4) Indiana State: For parts of last season, it looked like Indiana State would have a shot to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. With early season wins against Mississippi and Miami (FL) and conference wins against Creighton and Wichita State, the Sycamores had a good looking resume. Losing five of their final six regular season games dashed those hopes. Jake Odum, who led Indiana State to the NCAA Tournament as a freshman, is back for his senior season, along with three other starters from last year’s team.

Last NCAA Tournament appearance: 2011

 

[bent20]

Hope this team responds well to all of the attention. Some teams don't.

 

[Daveinth]

Well allow me to remind you that the team did not handle the attention last year . Pretty much the same team so lets hope they learned from that mistake .

 

[IndyTreeFan]

If the team is no more mentally tough than they were last year, then we'll likely all be disappointed. I'm expecting (hoping, really) that the seniors (heck, anyone, really) have developed the leadership skills necessary to weather the storm this year. We'll have a target on our backs all season long. Gotta be tough upstairs...

 

[BlueSycamore]

Well allow me to remind you that the team did not handle the attention last year . Pretty much the same team so lets hope they learned from that mistake .

Yep..........nice to be talked about but they failed to take advantage of it last season. Hope they have the mental toughness to git'r done (Big Dance) this time around.

 

[ISUCC]

I'm sorry, but I am not drinking all this cool aid about the team. The collapses at the end of the past 2 seasons are still fresh in my mind and until they prove they can end the season without another epic collapse I'm not getting too excited. Everyone thinks we're gonna be 2nd in the MVC behind WSU but I could easily see us being 4th or 5th.

 

[agrinut]

I'm sorry, but I am not drinking all this cool aid about the team. The collapses at the end of the past 2 seasons are still fresh in my mind and until they prove they can end the season without another epic collapse I'm not getting too excited. Everyone thinks we're gonna be 2nd in the MVC behind WSU but I could easily see us being 4th or 5th.

Someone posted these stats on our board and I think this is the biggest reason to expect the trees to compete.
Team W-L MVC Pl New Lost Ret % Ret M B P Total
ISUb 18-15 9-9 5 1 9 88 88 85 261
MSU 11-22 7-11 5 2 9 75 70 77 222
LU 15-16 5-11 6 4 10 61 61 52 174
BU 18-17 7-11 8 7 7 45 48 46 139
UNI 21-15 11-7 10 5 8 53 43 40 136
WSU 30-9 12-6 8 5 7 49 29 47 125
SIU 14-17 6-12 10 9 5 43 38 40 121
UE 21-15 10-8 7 8 7 38 46 28 112
DU 15-17 7-11 7 8 6 33 30 29 92
ISUr 18-15 8-10 11 10 3 14 5 0 19

It is obviously concerning that the trees lost 7 of 9 down the stretch but hopefully they have fixed that. I know our staff believes the trees to be the favorite, as they are not convinced they are as talented as some. My concern with the trees is not talent at this point.

 

[hans1950]

Expectations of success are well and good but if our offense doesn't improve this season we could be in trouble.We either get tough mentally right from the start or we could lose our confidence experienced players or not.Looking forward to much success.

 

[SycamoreFan317]

I am just going to lay low and let this team earn what ever praise or criticism that comes their way.

 

[sycamorebacker]

I think the big unknown and the key is shooting.

 

[ISUCC]

Expectations of success are well and good but if our offense doesn't improve this season we could be in trouble.We either get tough mentally right from the start or we could lose our confidence experienced players or not.Looking forward to much success.

this worries more than anything else, I mean we had noone who stepped up to be a leading scorer last season. JO seemed very hesitant to shoot much last year and nobody else really stepped up. I am like 317, lay low and let them earn their praise.

 

[sycamore tuff]

I'm sorry, but I am not drinking all this cool aid about the team. The collapses at the end of the past 2 seasons are still fresh in my mind and until they prove they can end the season without another epic collapse I'm not getting too excited. Everyone thinks we're gonna be 2nd in the MVC behind WSU but I could easily see us being 4th or 5th.

I think I will get excited the first game instead of waiting for the last game.

 

[WOZ]

I think the big unknown and the key is shooting.

Amen! We were not a good shooting team last year, nor the year before.
I believe the key will be the center position. We need some kind of offense there each game. Kitchell is not the answer.
We do not do well in recruiting big men nor developing them.

 

[TH_Sycamore12]

I'm sorry, but I am not drinking all this cool aid about the team. The collapses at the end of the past 2 seasons are still fresh in my mind and until they prove they can end the season without another epic collapse I'm not getting too excited. Everyone thinks we're gonna be 2nd in the MVC behind WSU but I could easily see us being 4th or 5th.

Couldn't agree more. Games aren't won in October publications.





Sent from my SGH-i917 using Tapatalk

 

[sycamorebacker]

Here's the deal. We are not getting this respect and notoriety because of our whole season last year. We are getting it because of our performance in Hawaii. This year, we need to put a whole season together.

 

[Gotta Hav]

The secret to winning this year is a couple of things.....one is X mgt......and the other is guard play.

We can't waste 7 seconds bringing the ball up the court, then another 8 seconds dickin' around past the 10 second line...or 15 seconds total of nothing. In a 60 possession game...I believe that's 9 minutes. That's almost 25% of the time in the whole game!!!

The other minus for us is...... for ALL THE GOOD things that JO does...and for ALL THE RECORDs he may set this year...and for being one of a handful of ISU players that can say they were on four winning seasons in a row at ISU.....that thing of leaving your feet with no place to go, or no one to throw it to, is just about over. If he does that 30 - 40 X's this year...or 50 X's......look for another 18-15 season.....when this team really should win 23 - 25 games, and or make the NCAA Tourney.

Let's see how it rolls out.

 

[sycamorebacker]

for ALL THE GOOD things that JO does that thing of leaving your feet with no place to go, or no one to throw it to, is just about over.

You see a lot of really good players, or even average players, make great passes when their feet are on the floor. When you do that, you can pass at the split second that the pass needs to be made and you are not forced to pass it before you come down.
And the double-whamy is that the defense knows when you leave the floor to block the passing lanes.

 

[TreeTop]

Here's the deal. We are not getting this respect and notoriety because of our whole season last year. We are getting it because of our performance in Hawaii.

And because we beat Creighton and because we broke a final four team's home winning streak and because we return almost our entire team.

 

[TreeTop]

I would much rather receive some preseason recognition than not receive any preseason recognition.

I already no what it feels like to not see ISU mentioned anywhere in the preseason, so I'll take anything and everything I can get.

And for those of you who don't care about stuff like this, then you must have truly appreciated the lack of mention in preseasons such as:

80-81
81-82
82-83
83-84
84-85
85-86
86-87
87-88
88-89
89-90
90-91
91-92
92-93
93-94
94-95
95-96
96-97
97-98
98-99
01-02
02-03
03-04
04-05
05-06
06-07
07-08
08-09
09-10

 

[sycamorebacker]

And because we beat Creighton and because we broke a final four team's home winning streak and because we return almost our entire team.

I don't agree. I don't think the national sportswriters know or care that we beat CU or WSU. We have big wins like that every year.