Date: December 17, 2007
Location: New Orleans, La.
Site: Fogelman Arena (3,600)
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m.
Radio: The Crock 92.7
Talent: Brian Fritz and Matt Renn
Series: Tulane leads 2-1
Last Time: ISU 59, Tulane 47 (11/25/06)
With just two more non-conference contests left on the schedule, the Indiana State Sycamores are looking to head into the Missouri Valley Conference season on a positive note. First up for ISU is tonight's road contest at Tulane, before Saturday's final tune-up against Bowling Green at home.
However, the road has not been friendly to the Sycamores this year. ISU is winless in four previous road games and will look to earn its first victory away from home tonight against the Green Wave.
The Sycamores head into the contest after last Saturday's 59-48 win over Ball State at home. In that game, Marico Stinson led ISU with 18 points while Jay Tunnell recorded his fourth career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds in the win.
The game tonight will be the third straight at home for the Green Wave, who are coming off wins over Huston-Tillotson and most recently Gardner-Webb. Kevin Sims scored a team-high 19 points and Donnavan Stith came off the bench to produce a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Green Wave to their second-straight win.
ISU won the last meeting between the two squads, a 59-47 win at the Hulman Center on November 25, 2006. Tonight's game is the return game in the series and will be the third meeting all-time between the two schools. Tulane leads the series 2-1, with the first meeting taking place on December 14, 1970, with the Green Wave winning 109-96 in overtime in New Orleans.
► Indiana State's Kevin McKenna is in his first season at the helm of the Sycamores program, after completing his ninth season at Creighton as an assistant coach, where he helped the Bluejays advance to four NCAA tournament appearances. From 2001-05, McKenna spent four years as the head coach (89-33) at NCAA Division II Nebraska-Omaha, where he guided the Mavericks to four consecutive 20-win seasons and three appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament. He is assisted by Greg Lansing, Stan Gouard and Lou Gudino.
► Tulane's Dave Dickerson is in his third season as head coach and had led the team to a 34-33 record in his time at the helm of the program. Dickerson came to Tulane from his alma mater, Maryland, where he spent nine years as an assistant coach under head coach Gary Williams. During the 2004-05 season, Dickerson was named the team's associate head coach. He is assisted by Dick Bender, Chris Hawkins and Andrew Novick.
► Tulane University is located in New Orleans, La., and has an enrollment of 10,606. The Green Wave are Conference USA members and play their home games at Fogelman Arena (3,600).
► The Green Wave are led by third-year head coach Dave Dickerson, who has led Tulane to a 34-33 record in his time at the helm of the program. Dickerson came to Tulane from his alma mater, Maryland, where he spent nine years as an assistant coach under head coach Gary Williams.
► The squad returns seven letterwinners and four starters from last year's team that finished with a 17-13 overall record and a 9-7 Conference USA mark (T-4th).
► Tulane heads into tonight's game with a 5-3 record on the season. The Green Wave last played on Saturday, December, 8 when they defeated Gardner-Webb, 84-79, at Fogelman Arena. Sophomore Kevin Sims scored a team-high 19 points and senior Donnavan Stith came off the bench to produce a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Green Wave to their second-straight win.
► Tonight's game is the third straight at home for Tulane. The Green Wave own a 4-1 record this season at home and are 13-2 (.867) record against non-conference teams at Fogelman Arena under head coach Dave Dickerson.
► Sims leads the way for Tulane with 11.9 points per game for the Green Wave. He is joined in double figures by senior David
Gomez, who is averaging 11.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? Indiana State locked up Tulane in the second half, allowing only two points during a six-minute span in the second half to secure a 59-47 home win. The win improved the Sycamores to 3-1 while Tulane dropped to 4-2.
Indiana State was led by Gabe Moore with 15 points as the sophomore filled out the stat sheet with three assists, three steals and four rebounds. Jay Tunnell and Marico Stinson each chipped in 12 and 11 as the remaining Sycamores in double figures.
ISU got out to a sluggish start, falling behind by six in the first five minutes of the game. However, the Sycamores would find their groove and put together an 11-0 run to build a lead of five with ten minutes remaining in the first half. Both schools would battle during the remainder of the half with Indiana State carrying a two-point lead into the break 27-25.
The slow start would haunt the Sycamores again in the second half as the Green Wave went on a 15-5 run over the first nine minutes of the half, building a lead of 40-32 with 10:48 remaining. However, the water would run dry for the Waves as the Sycamores put together their own 18-2 run as Stinson and Moore combined for three buckets from behind the arc during the stretch.
The about face put the Sycamores ahead 50-42 with five minutes remaining in the game. Indiana State continued to perform down the stretch, sealing the win from the charity stripe hitting seven of eight in the final minute of the game.
It had been almost a year since an ISU player last recorded a double-double, but Jay Tunnell put an end to that string with his 16 point, 10 rebound performance against Ball State on Saturday. Coincidentally, it was Tunnell and teammate Adam Arnold who last achieved the feat last as both recorded double-doubles against Wagner on December 22, 2006. Tunnell recorded 17 points and 11 rebounds in the 92-86 win, while Arnold chipped in with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Sophomore guard Marico Stinson came out firing early this season for the Sycamores, as he scored in double figures in three of the team's first four games. Stinson's scoring numbers dropped off over the next few games, though, with just two and seven points respectively against IPFW and Purdue. However, he got back to his scoring ways last week with nine points, all in the first half, against Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday and followed that with a season-high 18 points against Ball State on Saturday. The Memphis, Tenn., native is now averaging 10.8 points per game, the only Sycamore averaging double figures this season.
Whenever the Sycamores play their in-state rival Ball State, Jay Tunnell seems to put together career games. In Saturday's 59-48 win over the Cardinals, Tunnel recorded his first double-double of the season by scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. However, that performance falls short of his day against the Cardinals last season, when he scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a win over BSU on December 2, 2006. In three career games against Ball State, Tunnell is averaging 14.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game and has recorded two of his four career double-double performances.
Through the first five games of the season, it's pretty easy to see that the Sycamores like to play basketball at home in front of the fans at Hulman Center. In ISU's four games at home, the squad is averaging 68.8 points per game while allowing opponents just 53.2 points per contest. The Sycamores are shooting .465 from the field, including .370 from three-point range, while posting a +4 turnover margin on way to a 4-0 record. However, the road has been less friendly to the Sycamores, as they are averaging just 58.8 points compared to their opponent's 74.8 average in four games. ISU is shooting .393 from the field as a team (opponents .493), including a miniscule .205 from three-point range (opponents .438), which has led to a 0-4 record.
The Sycamores are 4-4 on the season, but those losses are not due to teams scoring too many three-pointers. Through eight games, ISU has allowed just 47 three-pointers to its opponents for an average of about six per game. In addition, opponents are shooting just 34.1 percent from three-point range against ISU this season, which currently ranks as the third-best 3-point field goal percentage defense in the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Sycamores were trailing at halftime on at Miami (Ohio), so a couple of seniors decided to step up and try to get their team back into the game. Point guard Gabe Moore scored 14 of his game and season-high 17 points in the second half, including an 8-for-8 performance from the free throw line. Reserve guard Todd McCoy also got into the action with a solid second-half performance, as he scored all nine of his points in the game on 4-of-6 shooting from the field during the half. McCoy's three-pointer with 12:39 left in the game cut the Miami (Ohio) lead to eight point and a jumper later in the half cut the lead to just six points with nine minutes left.
Heading ISU's non-conference contest at Purdue, few would have guessed that sophomore Harry Marshall's name would be at the top of the stat sheet in the scoring column. However, the sixth man for the Sycamores took over the game and led his team in the first half with 14 points. Beginning at the 7:42 mark, he scored six-straight points for ISU and after an Adam Arnold made three-pointer, he connected on another jumper to pull the Sycamores within two points at 28-26 with 5:37 left to give him eight points in about a two-minute span. Then, later in the half he scored five-straight points with just over a minute to play to give the Sycamores their first lead of the day and get his team to the locker room with the halftime lead. He finished the game with six more points to finish for a total of 20 to lead all scorers.
Blocked shots have been much more prevalent this season for the Sycamores, as the squad already has 26 through eight games this season for an average of 3.3 per game. That production currently ranks fourth among teams in the Missouri Valley Conference, with freshman Isiah Martin's 13 blocks and 1.63 bpg average placing him fifth overall in the conference as well. In addition, if the team stays on that current pace, ISU will rack up approximately 96 blocks this season which would more than double last year's total of 42 as a team.
ISU's game against IPFW was highlighted by the performance of junior forward Adam Arnold. The Decatur, Ind., native put together his best game of the season to date as he scored a team-high 12 points and grabbed five rebounds. He also dished out two assists and blocked his fourth shot of the season at the Sycamores went on to a 63-55 win over the Mastodons.
Home has been a welcome place for the Sycamores this season, as the team is 4-0 in front of their fans at the Hulman Center. In its last game at home, ISU defeated Ball State by a score of 59-48 on December 8 to keep their record at home un-blemished. Since the 2005-06 season, ISU has compiled a 15-2 record at the Hulman Center against non-conference opponents, with the only losses coming to IPFW (1/2/06) and Miami (Ohio) (2/17/07).
National Signing Day can be a very stressful time for coaching staffs, as they wonder whether or not their coveted recruits will sign on the dotted line. However, the Indiana State men's basketball staff now has nothing to worry about as Carl Richard Jr. (Chicago, Ill./Richards HS), Tyler Cutter (Murfreesboro, Tenn./Siegel HS) and Koang Doluony (Omaha, Neb./Bryan HS) have all signed National Letters of Intent to continue their basketball careers as Sycamores. The three new recruits will fill the vacated roster spots of seniors Gabe Moore, Todd McCoy and Mick Yelovich. Richard Jr., A 6-4, 180-pound small forward, averaged 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists per game as a junior at Richards High School, the alma mater Miami Heat All-Star Dwyane Wade. Cutter, A six-foot point guard from Murfreesboro, Tenn., averaged 18.5 points, five assists, two steals and four rebounds per game as a junior for Siegel High School. A 6-7 forward with a wing span of almost seven feet wide, Doluony brings a long presence on the defensive side of the ball for the Sycamores. Originally from the Sudan, Doluony averaged eight points and seven rebounds per game during his junior season at Nebraska power Omaha Bryan High School.
