Setting The Stage:
Indiana State continues year three of the Kevin McKenna era on Monday, November 16 when the Sycamores travel to Louisiana State in the opener of the 2009 Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tipoff. On the radio airwaves, the game will be live on The Crock 92.7 FM as well as online at Crock927.com. Brian Fritz will call the action live on the radio broadcast. The game will not be available online as a video webstream. Prior to the Indiana State contest against LSU, Western Kentucky and Milwaukee will face off as well. The winner of the LSU/ISU contest will face the winner of WKU/Milwaukee on Tuesday while the losers will do the same.

ABOUT THE COACHES
Kevin McKenna (Creighton '93) is in his third season as the head coach at Indiana State (27-37). In his first season with the Sycamores, McKenna led the team to its highest win total since the 2000-01 season and an impressive 12-2 record at home in the Hulman Center. Last season, he led the Sycamores to six victories in their final seven regular season games, including three consecutive league road wins in the span of 10 days. McKenna came to Indiana State after spending nine seasons as an assistant coach at Creighton, 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. McKenna is one of just two NCAA Division I head men's basketball coaches who have won an NBA World Championship (with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1982). Florida International's Isiah Thomas is the other. He is the only NCAA Division I men's basketball head coach to earn both an NBA and CBA Championship and is the only person in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference to win a MVC Regular Season Title , MVC Tournament Championship, NBA Championship and CBA title. McKenna has never faced LSU nor another member of the Southeastern Conference as a collegiate head coach.

Trent Johnson (Boise State'86) Trent Johnson is the 20th head men's basketball coach at LSU and he continues to earn the respect of the college basketball world nationally. He was tagged as one of the "Five Best 2008-09 First-Year Head Coaches" by Athlon Sports. Johnson's five-year head coaching record at Nevads was 79-74 and he was 80-47 at Stanford. This is coach Johnson's second season in Baton Rouge, La., and he is 28-8, including a mark of 27-8 one season ago. He has never faced Indiana State as a head coach.

SERIES HISTORY
Indiana State and LSU are meeting on Monday for the first time in the history of either program. ISU is participating in the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tipoff for the first time as well. Indiana State is 4-6 against current members of the Southeastern Conference (1-1 against Arkansas prior to their membership in the league). ISU has not faced a member of the league since taking on Georgia in 2000. The Sycamores last victory against an SEC member was an 88-77 victory at home over Vanderbilt in 1984. ISU downed current SEC member Arkansas 73-71 to advance to the Final Four during the 1978-79 season.

A Little History:
Indiana State is currently in its 114th season of college basketball at the school. The Sycamores are 1,332-1,132 all-time on the hardwood.

The Take On Jake:
Indiana State junior Jake Kelly had to wait until early October for the NCAA to clear him for play this season as the national office waived the year in residency requirment for Division I transfers due to his extraordinary personal circumstances after his transfer from Iowa. After his performance in the season opening victory over Nebraska-Kearney on Friday evening, its appears that the wait was well worth it. He led the team with 16 points scored, 10 of which came at the free throw line. He was a perfect 10-of-10 from the charity stripe in his Sycamore debut. He added three field goal and a pair of rebounds versus the Lopers. Kelly was a Preseason All-Missouri Valley Conference selection and was an Honorable Mention All-Big Ten pick one year ago at Iowa.

Lathan To Play Against LSU:
Another Indiana State transfer, sophomore Dwayne Lathan is a native of Chatham, La., and it was originally ruled by the NCAA that he would miss the opener of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tipoff against LSU due to his participation in a charity 3-on-3 basketball event while he was still a student-athlete at Louisiana Tech in the spring of 2008. An original two-game suspension that was levied by the NCAA for his participation in that event was reduced to one after the national office researched the case further and it was determined that since his two game participation in the unsanctioned tournament should only result in a one game suspension since both of those games occured on the same calendar day. Lathan served his one game mandate in the season opener against Nebraska-Kearney.

Appearing In The Dick's Sporting Goods Preseason NIT:
This year's appearance in the Dick's Sporting Goods Preseason NIT is the first in the history of the program. The Sycamores last appeared in the postseason version of the event following the 1977-78 campaign when they downed Illinois State 73-71 at Hulman Center and lost at Rutgers 57-56 on the road.

Balanced Attack Versus The Lopers:
Indiana State placed five scorers in double digits against Nebraska-Kearney, paced by Jake Kelly's 16 point performance. Senior Rashad Reed hit three 3-pointers in the game to score 14 while sophomore Jordan Printy used an eight-point first half to finish with 11 (also hitting a trio of triples). Senior Harry Marshall and junior Aaron Carter added 10 each. The game marked the first time since a November of 2006 matchup with Western Michigan that the Sycamores put exactly five scorers in double figures scoring.

Getting The Bounces:
The Sycamores used their height and length advantage to pull down 44 rebounds against Nebraska-Kearney, paced by seven each from Jordan Printy and senior Josh Crawford. ISU outrebounded the Lopers by a 44-32 margin, including a 14-8 edge on the offensive glass. The Sycamores recorded 10 second chance points in the contest.

Forcing The Issue:
The Indiana State Sycamores used a pressure defense to force 18 Nebraska-Kearney turnovers in the season opener on Friday night. The Sycamores made good use of those Loper miscues and converted them into 21 points. ISU dished out 13 assists against UNK and turned the ball over only six times, allowing the Lopers only four points off their own turnovers.

Keeping Fresh Legs:
The Sycamores played ten players against Nebraska-Kearney and was able to spread minutes pretty evenly. Harry Marshall played a team-high 31 minutes against the Lopers, while only Jordan Printy's 27 minutes was closer. Only five Sycamores played more than the team average of 20 minutes in the contest.

Now That's Hot:
Paced by 3-of-5 efforts from Jordan Printy and Rashad Reed for 3-point range against Nebraska-Kearney, the Sycamores were a blazing 7-of-17 (41.2 percent) versus the Lopers. Redshirt freshman Koang Doluony added the other triple for the Sycamores in the contest.

They're Free; Take Em:
Indiana State hit 27-of-36 free throws against Nebraska-Kearney, including a perfect 10-of-10 mark by Jake Kelly. Josh Crawford was one of two others besides Kelly to finish the game perfect from the charity stripe. Crawford was 6-of-6 while Doluony was 2-of-2.

No Place Like Home To Open The Season:
Indiana State won its season opener for the eighth time in the last ten seasons by taking an 88-58 victory over Nebraska-Kearney on Friday night at Hulman Center. When the Sycamores have opened the season at home, the Sycamores have been victorious in each of its last 18 attempts. The Sycamores have won each of their season openers which have occured at Hulman Center since falling by the score of 66-63 to Armstrong State to open the 1979-80 campaign.

Local Flavor Of Team To Get Some Seasoning:
All four of Indiana State's incoming freshmen are expected to redshirt this season. Jake Odum, a native of Terre Haute, along with RJ Mahurin (Rockville, Ind.,) and Logan & Lucas Eitel (nearby Marshall, Ill.) will all sit out their initial seasons in the program and take a redshirt season. Subject to change as the season progresses, the four local student-athletes will push the total to of six freshmen to redshirt in head coach Kevin McKenna's three seasons. Jordan Printy redshirted during the 2007-08 campaign while Koang Doluony took a redshirt season last year and made his Sycamore debut on Friday against Nebraska-Kearney.

Sycamore Signees:
Indiana State inked three student-athletes to national letters of intent as part of the NCAA Early Signing Period. Steve McWhorter, Myles Walker and Jake Kitchell comprised the Sycamores' 2009 Signing Class.

McWhorter, a 6-2, 185, point guard from Racine, Wis., won a Division 3 state championship last season at Saint Catherines High School as he averaged 10.0 points, 5.0 assists and shot 57.6 percent from the field for coach Bob Letsch. McWhorter took over as the starter at point guard when he was a sophomore. As a junior, he was on a team with nine seniors, and his talent shined in the state tournament. He had 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds in a 48-34 state championship victory against La Crosse Aquinas. In the state semifinals, McWhorter had nine points and nine assists.

"Steve McWhorter is first and foremost a leader," McKenna commented. "He is a very quick, aggressive point guard whose strengths are passing, ability to penetrate and defense. He continues to improve as a shooter and he has experience playing for a quality championship caliber program. He had a great summer and is working hard this fall as well. He will fill a need for us with the graduation of Harry Marshall and Rashad Reed next season. We feel very strong about the abilities he is going to be able to bring right away into the program."

Walker is a 6-8, 250, junior college post player from South Plains Junior College who averaged 7.4 points and 4.8 rebounds, while shooting 46.7 percent from the floor and 38.6 percent (32 for 83) from the free-throw line as a freshman last season for coach Steve Green. Walker's best game was a 24-point, 13-rebound performance on Jan. 1. He averaged 1.0 blocks per game with a season-high of five, and he twice had three steals in a game.

At Antonian College Prep in San Antonio, Texas he played for head coach Andre Walker. Myles was named to the all-state team three times and all-district four times. He was once named to the North-South All-Star tournament. As a middle linebacker for the football team Myles earned all-state recognition three times and played in the Army All-American Bowl. He also ran track, boasting a time of 48.07 seconds in the 400 meter dash.

"Myles Walker is a good post player prospect," McKenna said. "He plays the game with a physical presence especially on defense. Myles is an extremely athletic player who can score around the basket. His physical presence was one of the things that attracted us to Myles because that is something that I feel we need to improve on. He has been very well coached in high school and at the junior college levels and that also was a key factor in his recruitment."

Kitchell is a 6-9, 225, power forward from Union Mills, Ind., and played for coach John Steinhilber at South Central High School. Kitchell averaged 20 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and six blocks per game for a team that finished the 2008-09 season with a record of 17-5. He is expected to be a first team all-state selection later this month in the upcoming edition of the annual Hoosier Basketball Magazine. He was a member of the Indiana Junior All-Stars last spring.

"Jake Kitchell is a inside/outside post player that will remind those that watch our games of Jay Tunnell," McKenna commented. "He is a tough, physical player that can shoot from the perimeter well. He comes from both a winning high school and AAU program (SYF). He has put up some big numbers in several categories and we are looking forward to having him join the program next season."

Preseason Valley Predictions:
The Indiana State basketball team has been picked to finish seventh in the Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Poll as announced today by the league office. Additionally, senior Harry Marshall and junior transfer Jake Kelly were named Preseason All-MVC Honorable Mention selections in the annual vote of conference head coaches, media and sports information directors.

The Sycamores' seventh place predicted finish is its highest since the 2001-02 campaign when Indiana State was picked to finish third. Last season, ISU won six of its final seven regular season contests to finish with an 11-21 record, including winning three MVC road contests in the span of ten days. Indiana State captured the league's No. 8 seed at the State Farm MVC Tournament and downed Drake in the opening round before being nipped in the waning moments against eventual league champion Northern Iowa, 71-67, in the tournament quarterfinals.

UNI is picked to repeat as the league's champion with 38 first place votes (389 points) and are followed by the only other team to garner a first place tally, Creighton (336). Picked to finish third is Illinois State (299), followed by Southern Illinois (272), Wichita State (216), Bradley (208), Indiana State (173), Drake (105), Missouri State (92) and Evansville (55).

Marshall was an All-MVC Honorable Mention selection at the end of last season after leading the team with a 13.6 ppg average. Kelly will make his Sycamore debut this season after earning All-Big Ten Honorable Mention status last year before transferring from Iowa.

Up Next:
Indiana State continues play in the 2009 Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tipoff against either Western Kentucky University or Milwaukee in Baton Rouge, La. Tipoff will be at either 5:30 or 8 p.m. (ET) depending on Monday night's result.