Setting The Stage:
Indiana State continues year three of the Kevin McKenna era on Friday, November 20 when the Sycamores return home to face off against Colorado State in the inaugural Mountain West/Missouri Valley Conference Challenge at Hulman Center. The game will be televised locally on WFXW-TV in the Wabash Valley. Jason Pensky and Jim Waugh will call the action on television. On the radio airwaves, the game will be live on The Crock 92.7 FM as well as online at GoSycamores.com. Brian Fritz and Matt Renn will call the action live on the radio broadcast. The game will also be available as a video Web stream on GoSycamores.com on a pay-per-view basis.

ABOUT THE COACHES
Kevin McKenna (Creighton '93) is in his third season as the head coach at Indiana State (28-38). 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 Colorado State nor a member of the Mountain West Conference as a head coach.

Tim Miles (University of Mary '89) Despite a pair of injury-plagued seasons to begin his tenure at Colorado State, Miles, his staff, and the team beat the odds time and time again, taking the first steps to re-establishing Colorado State men's basketball as a power in the Mountain West Conference, and on a national stage. In 2007-08, Miles first year with the program, he led a roster that featured just one returning starter to early season success, including a tournament championship at the BP Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska. His second season at Moby proved to be just as fruitful as the Rams continued to make strides. He led the Rams to early season victories over Montana and Northern Colorado, both of which had beaten the Rams the previous year.

SERIES HISTORY
Indiana State and Colorado State are battling on the hardwood for the just third time on Friday evening. The Rams and Sycamores have split the previous two meetings, with the home team winning on each occasion. Friday night's game is the first in the series since the 1981-82 season when the Rams took a 65-59 victory in Fort Collins. The Sycamores won the initial meeting in the series, 72-65 on December 2, 1979.

A Little History:
Indiana State is currently in its 114th season of college basketball at the school. The Sycamores are 1,333-1,133 all-time on the hardwood.

You Got Yourself A Challenge!:
Indiana State will be looking to do its part in the inaugural Mountain West/Missouri Valley Conference Challenge when the Sycamores host Colorado State on Friday evening. The Challenge is the first of a four-year agreement between the two conferences. Matchups for the first year were made bassed in part on the 2008-09 preseason rankings as RPI data from the previous year, or RPI from the preceding three-year period. The Mountain West leads "The Challenge" 1-0 already as BYU downed Bradley 70-60 last Friday in Provo, Utah. Southern Illinois is at UNLV on Saturday night in the third game of the challenge series.

Against The Mountain West:
Indiana State is faceing a member of the Mountain West Conference for the first time since December 30, 2002 when the Sycamores fell 69-57 to Wyoming. ISU also dropped a 72-58 decision to the Cowboys in 2001 that season as ISU has lost each of its last two meetings against the conference. The Sycamores last won against a member of the MWC on November 21, 1999 when ISU downed TCU in Fairbanks, Alaska as part of The Top of The World Classic.

Best Shooting Performance In Five Seasons:
Indiana State connected on 30-of-52 field goals in the 76-63 victory earlier this week against Milwaukee. That performance equates to a 57.7 percent mark. The 57.7 percent showing is the best by an Indiana State state teams since they hit 59.6 percent from the field in January of 2004 against Drake.

Downed By The SEC:
Indiana State fell to Southeastern Conference member LSU on Monday night by the score of 56-45 in the opening game of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-off. The Sycamores held the Tigers just over 34 percent shooting, but lost the battle of the boards, 50-28 and gave up 26 second chance points. It was the first time an Indiana State gave up at least 50 rebounds to an opponent since the 1999 season when the Sycamores allowed Ball State to pull down 55 rebounds. ISU was paced by Louisiana native Dwayne Lathan, who scored 12 points in a return to his home state. Lathan scored all of his points in the second half.

Dwayne Is Picture Perfect:
ISU sophomore Dwayne Lathan missed the first game of the season due to an NCAA mandated one-game suspension, but he hasn't looked back since. In games against lSU and Milwaukee he is leading the team with a 13.0 ppg average and is a perfect 10-of-10 from the field, including a 3-pointer versus the Tigers. Lathan has added a pair of highlight reel dunks as well in coming off the bench for ISU.

Quick Start? No Problem!:
With no more than two minutes of game time elapsed on Tuesday afternoon against Milwaukee in the second game of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tipoff, the Sycamores found themselves down 7-0 to the Panthers. That didn't matter much as the Sycamores rattled off a pair of 3-pointers and ended up taking a 38-36 lead into the halftime locker room. ISU stretched the lead out to as many as 14 points before taking a 76-63 victory.

The NIT Continues!:
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. ISU split with LSU and Milwaukee earlier this week in Baton Rouge, La. The Sycamores will travel to Bowling Green, Ky., next week to take on Coastal Carolina and the host Hilltoppers as part of the second week of action.

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 requirement 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 last week, 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. Kelly went on to make his first four free throws against LSU on Monday night before missing one, which gave him a 14-of-15 start to the season from the charity stripe.

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 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 will travel to Bowling Green, Ky., for the first of two games during the Consolation Rounds of the Dick's Sporting Goods Preseason NIT. ISU takes on Coastal Carolina on Monday, November 23 and then will battle Western Kentucky on Tuesday, November 24. Monday's tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. (ET) and can be heard live locally on The Crock 92.7 FM as well as online at GoSycamores.com.