SETTING THE STAGE
Indiana State Basketball begins play at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Thursday, March 2 at 7:00 p.m. (ET) as they take on Evansville inside the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. The two teams also played each other in the final game of the regular season with the Purple Aces taking a 65-63 victory. The Sycamores are 11-19, 5-13 MVC while Evansville is 15-16, 6-12 MVC.
 
QUICK HITS
- Indiana State is 80-9 when holding teams to 63 points or less under seventh-year head coach Greg Lansing (and 18-0 when limiting teams to 53 or less). The Sycamores have won each of the six games in which have hit this defensive mark this season.
- Indiana State has earned 65 close victories (five points or less) since 2005. Under Greg Lansing, the Sycamores are 39-27 in close games. 18 of Indiana State's games so far this season have been within one possession in the final two minutes of regulation this season.
- Greg Lansing is just the sixth head coach in the history of the program to record at least 100 victories at the helm of the Sycamores as he owns 120. He is tied with John Longfellow for fifth on Indiana State's all-time career list and needs one more to tie Gordon Stauffer for fourth.
- Junior Brenton Scott owns 204 trifectas in his career which is third-best in the history of the program. He is one of just three Sycamores to record at least 200 career 3-pointers.
- Senior Matt Van Scyoc has scored over 1,000 career collegiate points as he tallied 807 in two prior seasons at The Citadel plus 494 with the Sycamores. He now has 1,306 career points scored during his career with the two institutions.
- The Sycamores opened the season with back-to-back overtime games and had two more in a row go to extra time against Missouri State and Southern Illinois (Dec. 31 & Jan. 4). It was the first time Indiana State has played consecutive overtime games since the 1986-87 season when they did it in the first two games of 2016-17. Of the Sycamores' 26 games, 12 have been decided by one possession or in overtime, including five of the last seven victories. ISU has set a new school record with six overtime games so far this season. The NCAA record is eight while the MVC standard is seven.
- Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing owns a school record five victories over nationally-ranked teams during his tenure, a new standard set on December 7 in the win over No. 15 Butler.
- Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing led the Sycamores for the 200th time against Missouri-St. Louis. He is one of just four head coaches at Indiana State to coach at least 200 games. Duane Klueh, Royce Waltman and Gordon Stauffer are the others.
 
An Indiana State Win Over Evansville Would ...
• Improve the Sycamores to 3-1 in the conference tournament under the direction of seventh-year head coach Greg Lansing and 3-2 overall.
• Give the Sycamores at least one victory at the conference tournament in six of the last seven seasons.
• Tie head coach Greg Lansing with Gordon Stauffer for fourth on the ISU all-time coaching victories at Indiana State with 121.
 
The Indiana State Head Coach
Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing (South Dakota, 1990) is 120-107 (.529) overall in his seventh season as a head coach. He is 65-61 all-time in MVC games, including a 45-18 mark at home and a 20-43 record on the road. During his career, he is 71-28 in all home games, 33-61 on the road, 16-18 in neutral court contests and 39-27 in games decided by five points or less. Lansing is 10-7 against Evansville and is 2-1 against the Purple Aces at the State Farm MVC Tournament. With the Trees, Lansing is 10-10 in overtime games and 80-9 when holding teams to 63 points or less. Lansing led the Sycamores to the postseason in each of his first four seasons at the helm (2011 NCAA, 2012 CIT, 2013 & 2014 NIT). Lansing is the second head coach to lead the Sycamores to the NCAA Tournament in their rookie campaign in the history of the program, with the other being Bill Hodges leading ISU to a 33-1 record and a Final Four appearance in the 1979 NCAA Tournament. Lansing was just the 14th rookie head coach in the history of the MVC to lead his team to 20 victories during their debut season. Lansing holds the school record for most victories over a nationally-ranked team (five) in the history of the program. Lansing is currently tied for fifth on the Indiana State all-time coaching victories list with 120 and needs one more to tie Gordon Stauffer for fourth.
 
Television Particulars
The Evansville game will air live on FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports Indiana, FOX Sports Kansas City and Comcast SportsNet Chicago. The game will stream live on FOX Sports GO (within the FOX Sports Midwest footprint in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska) and ESPN3 (outside the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska). Additionally, the game will air on DirecTV (Channels 665 & 671), Dish Network (Channels 418 & 429) and AT&T U-Verse (Channels 740 & 1740 as well as Channels 748 & 1748).
 
A Little History
Indiana State is currently in its 121st season of college basketball at the school. The Sycamores are 1,467-1,274 all-time on the hardwood.
 
Sycamore Basketball At Arch Madness
Indiana State continues play in the 2017 edition of Arch Madness as the No. 9 seed in the tournament. The Sycamores last tournament championship came in 2011 when Indiana State used victories over No. 6 Evansville, No. 2 Wichita State and No. 1 Missouri State to earn their fourth trip in program history to the NCAA Tournament. Indiana State is 26-33 all-time in MVC Tournament play. Under seventh-year head coach Greg Lansing, the Sycamores are 8-5 in the MVC Tournament. The Sycamores are 2-2 against Evansville in the MVC Tournament.
 
Quick Rematch! Sycamores Playing Evansville For Second Consecutive Game
Indiana State concluded the regular season at Evansville and are returning right back to play them again in the opening round of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Heading into this year's tournament, an immediate rematch had happened 13 times league-wide in the 26-year history of the event in St. Louis and the Sycamores' matchup against Evansville is one of three on the slate for this year. This will be the fourth time that the Sycamores have had an immediate turnaround from the last game of the regular season to the first matchup of the league tournament. Ironically, three of the four quick rematches for the Sycamores have come against Evansville. It is the first since the 2013 season when the Sycamores lost 84-68 to Evansville in the regular season but No. 5 Indiana State downed No. 4 Evansville 51-50 in the tourney opener. Indiana State also had this happen in 2004 (against Evansville) and 2001 (against Southern Illinois). In all three prior instances, the loser of the regular season matchup was the winner the next week in the conference tournament. Evansville downed the Sycamores 65-63 on February 25 and the two teams split the season series in games that were decided by a total of three points and the first meeting in Terre Haute on February 1 went to overtime.
 
Brenton Scott Named All-Missouri Valley Conference Third Team
Indiana State junior Brenton Scott was named to the All-Missouri Valley Conference Third Team after also earning all-conference honors as a sophomore and was the Valley's Freshman of the Year in 2015. Scott finished the regular season ranked second in the league with a 15.9 ppg average and was 16th with 5.0 rebounds per game. His 1.6 steals per game ranked in a tie for fourth while his 2.3 3-pointers per game was tied for the most in the league. Scott averaged 4.7 defensive rebounds per game to rank in a tie for seventh-best in the MVC this season. In league play, Scott's 13.3 ppg was good enough for 10th in the league while his 1.4 steals per game was fifth. He averaged 2.2 3-pointers per game to rank tied for fourth while his 4.4 defensive rebounds per game was ranked 11th. He scored 25 points and hit the final free throw with 1.5 seconds remaining to down No. 15 Butler inside Hulman Center.
 
Jordan Barnes Picks Up Missouri Valley Conference All-Freshman Honor
Jordan Barnes was named to the MVC All-Freshman team after averaging 6.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. He hit 40 3-pointers during the year and was 36-of-40 from the free throw line (90 percent). He added 61 assists and 17 steals in 30 games of action. Barnes saw his first collegiate action and made quite the debut by scoring 14 points as he hit a pair of 3-pointers and went a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line (including a mark of 4-of-4 in the final minute of regulation) to help the Sycamores come back from seven down with 37 seconds left and force overtime at Northern Illinois. He sparked a second half comeback with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds in the double-overtime victory over Eastern Illinois. Barnes scored a career-high 20 points as he hit five 3-pointers in the home win over Bradley. He hit a trio of free throws in the final seconds at Evansville which forced a late tie in that contest.
 
Coach Lansing Climbing The Leaderboard In Career Victories & MVC Victories
Indiana State seventh-year head coach Greg Lansing continues to climb the Indiana State all-time victories list as he earned win No. 120 against Northern Iowa on February 22. He is currently tied with John Longfellow for the fifth-most victories all-time as the Sycamores head coach (Although John Longfellow did begin the 1954-55 season as coach and earned two victories, the NCAA awarded all of that season's results to Paul Wolf). With each of his next two additional victories, Lansing will move up one spot on the ISU coaching wins list.  His next victory will be No. 121 and will tie with Gordon Stauffer for fourth place on the career coaching victories list. He needs four more to catch Royce Waltman for second at 124 and the school record is held by Duane Klueh who owns 182 career victories. Lansing also now owns 65 victories in Missouri Valley Conference play which is just four off the school record of 69 held by Indiana State's second all-time winningest head coach Royce Waltman (1997-2007). Lansing has led the Sycamores to the MVC Championship Game twice, the Arch Madness semifinals four times and has never done worse than a Friday appearance at the league's annual tournament.
 
Scott's 3-Point Shooting Moving Up ISU Career Ranks; Now 15th All-Time In Scoring
Indiana State junior Brenton Scott became just the third Sycamore to ever record at least 200 career 3-pointers  He now sits at 204 for his career. Scott has now joined school record holder Michael Menser (1997-2001) who owns 283 career trifectas and Jordan Printy (2008-12) who has 215 as the only Sycamores to post at least 200 career trifectas. Scott has also crept into the Indiana State Basketball all-time top 15 against Drake and now has 1,294 career points scored. His next target is Dan McDonald (1947-50) who had 1,298 career points and is currently 14th.
 
Close Game Alert! Sycamores Set School Record For Most Overtime Games In A Season
For Indiana State, 13 of the Sycamores' games this season have been decided by just one possession or have entered overtime. The Sycamores have now set a new school record by playing in six overtime contests this season. Indiana State is 3-3 in overtime games. The NCAA record for most overtime games played in one season is eight, and the MVC record is seven. The Sycamores had not played consecutive overtime games since the 1986-87 season before doing that twice this year (first two games at Northern Illinois and Ball State as well as at Missouri State and at Southern Illinois). Additionally, the Sycamores have had 18 games that have been within one possession with less than two minutes to go in regulation.
 
Everett Clemons Near Top Of Valley Leaderboard In Several Categories
Indiana State senior Everett Clemons is ranked highly in seven different statistical categories inside the Missouri Valley Conference. Clemons lead the Sycamores in rebounding with a 6.2 average which ranks eighth. His field goal percentage is an outstanding .519 which ranks eighth-best in the league. Always a distributor, Clemons is averaging 4.6 assists per game which is second while he is second in assist-to-turnover ratio with a mark of 2.3. On the defensive end, Clemons averages 1.6 steals per game which is the fourth-highest this season inside the MVC while he is pulling down 4.9 defensive rebounds per game to rank sixth. Finally, Clemons' 32.4 minutes per game is ninth-most in the MVC.
 
Sycamores Tally School Record Fifth Victory Over Nationally-Ranked Team Under Lansing
Indiana State ended a skid of nine loses to nationally-ranked teams when No. 15/16 Butler fell inside Hulman Center on December 7 by the score of 72-71. Coach Lansing has led the Sycamores to a school-record five victories against nationally-ranked teams during his time at the helm of the program. He passed Bill Hodges (head coach of the Dream Team in 1978-79) and Royce Waltman (head coach of the Sycamores during back-to-back NCAA Tourney trips in 2000 & 2001) for the most in program history with the win over Butler. It was just the second victory for the Sycamores under Lansing at home against a nationally-ranked team and the first overall since a win at No. 21 Notre Dame in 2013.
 
Sycamore Success Inside Hulman Center Under Greg Lansing
The Sycamores are 71-28 (.717) inside Hulman Center under seventh-year head coach Greg Lansing. The Sycamores have won 61 of their last 85 home games. Additionally, the Sycamores have won 45 of their last 63 MVC games at home. The longest stretch of current success against a league member is eight wins in a row at home against Bradley after this season's 81-71 victory over the Braves.
 
Oh So Close! Everett Clemons Nearly Posts Triple-Double At Ball State
Indiana State senior guard Everett Clemons scored 11 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to record the Sycamores' first double-double of the season as part of the overtime win over Ball State. He also posted nine assists (of the team's 13) and narrowly missed his first career triple-double and the first by a Sycamore since Jake Odum did it in the 2011 Old Spice Classic (now Advocare Invitational). There have been just two triple-doubles in the MVC era with Odum owning one as well as Larry Bird in 1979. Currently, Clemons is averaging 5.5 rebounds per game which is 13th-best in the league while he is tied for the league lead while his is third in the MVC with 1.8 steals per game.
 
63 Is The Magic Number
The Sycamores win by the score of 69-59 on February 22 against Northern Iowa was ISU's sixth this season in which they held an opponent to 63 points or less and earned the victory. Under seventh-year head coach Greg Lansing, the Sycamores are 80-9 when allowing less than 63 points to the opposition (including a 18-0 mark when holding teams to 53 or less).
 
Good Starter On The Battery
Indiana State's starting five outscored the opposition's top five three times this season and earned the win. Under seventh-year head coach Greg Lansing, the Sycamores are 73-23 when the ISU starting five scores more than their opponent's starters after doing so in the win over Drake on February 11.
 
Greg Lansing Selected For Induction Into Iowa High School Basketball Hall Of Fame
Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame as part of their 2016 class.  Lansing and the other selected inductees were honored individually at halftime of the Iowa Class 4A State Championship Game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on March 12. The IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame is the highest honor the Iowa High School Board of Control can bestow on a high school coach or former player. Lansing graduated from Harlan High School in 1986, where he was coached by his father Dave, who was inducted into the IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 as a coach. The Lansing father/son combination of Dave and Greg are just the 10th father/son duo to both be inducted into the Hall of Fame since 1969.
 
Up Next
The winner of Thursday night's opening round game against Evansville will be top-seed Illinois State on Friday, March 3 at 1:00 p.m. (ET). The game will be televised on the MVC TV Network and ESPN3 as well as Fox Sports Go.