SETTING THE STAGE
Indiana State Basketball continues its run on the beautiful islands of Hawaii on Sunday, December 23 as they take on UNLV in the semifinals of the 2018 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. Tip-off is set for 4:30 p.m. (ET) from the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 and the ESPN app. The game will also be broadcast on WIBQ 97.9 FM as well as streamed (audio) on GoSycamores.com.
QUICK HITS
Indiana State has hit at least one 3-pointer in every game since December 20, 2008 against DePauw -- a span of 323 contests, which is the third-longest active streak in the Missouri Valley Conference.
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 140. His career win total is second-best at ISU (and his 73 MVC wins is the most in the history of the program). He also owns the school record with five wins over nationally-ranked teams.
Mid-year transfer Christian Williams has been in double figures scoring in both of his Sycamores games tallying 13 in his debut at TCU and 14 against Colorado in the Diamond Head opener. Fellow mid-year transfer Cooper Neese posted 10 with a pair of triples and two game icing free throws in the win over Colorado.
ISU senior Emondre Rickman now owns 106 career blocked shots -- one of only five Sycamores to record at least 100 blocked shots in program history. He needs three more to tie Nate Green for fourth.
A Win Over UNLV Would ...
Give the Sycamores a 3-0 record all-time against the Runnin' Rebels, and be the first win over the program since a 1970 victory by the score of 78-76 in the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Advance the Sycamores to the Championship Game of the 2018 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic -- the Sycamores' last appearance in an early season tournament Championship game was in the 1999 Indiana Classic when the Sycamores became the first team to ever beat Indiana in their home tournament.
The Indiana State Head Coach
Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing (South Dakota, 1990) is 140-129 (.521) overall in his ninth season as a head coach. He is 73-71 all-time in MVC games, including a 49-23 mark at home and a 24-48 record on the road. During his career, he is 83-36 in all home games, 40-70 on the road, 17-23 in neutral court contests and 47-36 in games decided by five points or less. With the Trees, Lansing is 10-14 in overtime games and 89-10 when holding teams to 63 points or less. This is Lansing's first-ever matchup against UNLV, but he is 3-1 all-time in Hawaii. 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 second on the Indiana State all-time coaching victories list with 140. His 73 MVC victories are a school record.
A Little History
Indiana State is in its 124th season of college basketball at the school. The Sycamores are 1,488-1,296 all-time on the hardwood.
40 Years Since March Went Mad
It's been 40 years since Larry Bird and the Sycamores went to the 1979 NCAA Final Four and took on Michigan State in the finals. The game against the Spartans on March 26, 1979 is still the highest rated college basketball game in television history. ISU won their first 33 games that season en route to the finals. This season Indiana State will be honoring that team all year long for their accomplishments through social media, in game videos, recaps on the web site and much more. The team will get back together on January 19, 2019 when the Sycamores host Loyola. Also on January 31, 2019 head coach Bill Hodges will be inducted into the ISU Athletics Hall of Fame and on February 16, 2019, Carl Nicks will have his No. 22 jersey put in the rafters at Hulman Center.
Christian Williams Now In Double Figures Twice As A Sycamore
Indiana State junior Christian Williams was stellar in his Sycamore Basketball debut at Texas Christian as he scored 13 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to post a double-double in his first game after sitting out an year due to the NCAA Residency requirements. He reached double figures scoring with 14 points in the Diamond Head Classic opener on Saturday. He got to the basket regularly in the second half and led the team with seven rebounds.
Cooper Neese Also Makes An Impact As Mid-Year Transfer
Freshman Cooper Neese reached double figures scoring for the first time as a collegian with a 10-point showing in the 72-67 win over Colorado. Neese hit a pair of 3-pointers and added a key floater in the lane late against the Buffaloes for extend the Sycamore lead out to four points. Neese also grabbed a defensive rebound with five seconds left and hit two free throws to salt away the victory.
Sycamore Defense Forces 19 Turnovers Against Colorado
Indiana State may have allowed 48.1 percent shooting in the win over Colorado but were extremely active on the defensive end. They forced 19 Colorado turnovers and converted them into 20 points. ISU also was strong on the glass, holding a 34-32 edge on the glass and used 11 offensive rebounds to score 17 second chance points.
Jordan Barnes And Tyreke Key Have Each Reached 20 Point Three Times In Same Game
The Sycamore backcourt duo of Jordan Barnes and Tyreke Key have reached the 20-point scoring mark together two of their last three games and three times total this season. The duo continues to be at the top of the MVC scoring race as Barnes leads with a 21.0 ppg average while Key is a close third at 17.9 ppg. Prior to scoring 17 points at TCU on Sunday, December 16, Barnes had scored over 20 points in three consecutive games.
Sycamores Tied For First In The Nation In 3-Point Shooting
The Sycamores entered the Colorado contest, ranked tied for No. 1 nationally in 3-point field goal percentage with a 44.5 mark for the season. That was knotted with former MVC member Creighton who also owns a 44.5 percent mark. The Sycamores hit 8-of-12 attempts from distance in the first half against Colorado and finished with a 9-of-16 mark (56.3 percent) for the game. For the season, Barnes has hit 32 triples which leads the conference with a 3.2 per game average and ranks in Top 30 in the nation. His 20.8 ppg leads the Missouri Valley Conference.
Sycamores In Honolulu For 2nd Time In Last Six Seasons
The Sycamores are back on the beautiful islands of Hawaii for the Holidays for the 2018 edition of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. ISU found success there in 2012 when they took down Ole Miss in the opener and then a Jake Odum buzzer beater gave the Sycamores a thrilling 57-55 win over Miami in the third place game. Miami went on to spend time as the No. 1 team in the country later that season. In fact, ISU has enjoyed great success in MTE play under ninth-year head coach Greg Lansing as the Sycamores have earned 12 victories, including third place finishes in recent years during the Advocare Invitational, Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic and Paradise Jam. The Sycamores improved to 3-1 in the Diamond Head Classic all-time with Saturday's 72-67 win over Colorado.
ISU Notches First Win Over Pac 12 Member Since 1946
Indiana State had last faced a member of the Pac 12 at the Advocare Invitational back in 2016 in Orlando, Fla., when they dropped a tight contest to Stanford. With Saturday's win against Colorado, ISU is now 2-6 against the current membership of the Pac 12. The Sycamores only other win over a PAC 12 member came in 1946 when the Sycamores beat Oregon. The Sycamores have also played Arizona State, Washington State, UCLA and Southern California in previous seasons.
Looking To Keep The Success Alive Against The Mountain West Conference
Indiana State did its part this year in the MVC / Mountain West Challenge with a dominating 86-57 win at San Jose State back on November 28. With that win, ISU now owns a MVC-best record of 5-3 in the MVC /Mountain West Challenge Series and have won a league-best four in a row in the scheduling concept. ISU never faced Vegas in the eight-year run of the challenge series but looks for a win on Sunday, December 23 against the Runnin' Rebels for the first time since the last meeting in 1970 inside the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Clayton Hughes Sets New Single Game Shooting Record At San Jose State
Indiana State sophomore Clayton Hughes enjoyed an unbelievable shooting night at San Jose State as he hit 9-of-10 shots from the field to set a new single-game shooting percentage record for a performance which featured at least 10 shots. Hughes 9-of-10 mark equates to a .900 shooting percentage which tops the previous best of 85.7 percent which has been held by Joe Warfel since 1965. Most recently, Lucas Eitel went 9-of-9 in 2012 against High Point but just missed the 10 field goals attempted threshold. In the first half at San Jose State the Sycamores hit 19-of-25 shots for a shooting percentage of 76 percent which was just shy of the record for a single half which is 76.7 percent in the 2nd half of an Arch Madness win against Drake in 2006. ISU finished the game with a .642 shooting percentage which is the best for the program since a 2012 win over Southern Illinois in which ISU hit 64.1 percent of their shots, including an NCAA record 12-of-12 from 3-point range.
Sycamores Dominate On The Road At San Jose State
Indiana State became the eighth NCAA Division I team this year to score at least 85 points in a road game and win by 29 or more points (in its 86-57 win at San Jose State on Wednesday). The win over San Jose State was just the second in the history of the program and in the first meeting between the two programs since 1948. With the win, ISU now owns a MVC-best record of 5-3 in the MVC /Mountain West Challenge Series and have won a league-best four in a row in the scheduling concept.
Greg Lansing Second On ISU Wins List With 140
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 140. With the Sycamores win on Wednesday, November 14 he passed his mentor Royce Waltman for No. 2 on the Indiana State all-time coaching wins chart. Last season, with the Sycamores' victory at home over Illinois State, he earned his 73rd career MVC victory which is a school record. Coach Lansing now only trails Duane Klueh who owns the school record with 182 career victories.
Jordan Barnes Up To No. 4 On ISU 3-Pointers Made List
Indiana State junior Jordan Barnes has hit 190 3-pointers in his career which is No. 4 on ISU's all-time list as he moved past Eddie Bird for fourth on the Sycamore chart with his four 3-pointers in the 78-74 road win over Green Bay. Last season Barnes hit a school-record 117 3-pointers which was third-best nationally and the fourth-highest in the history of the league (MVC record for most ever by a sophomore). Barnes currently leads the league by making 3.2 trifectas per game. He needs 25 more 3-pointers to catch Jordan Printy for No. 3 on the ISU chart as he hit 215 during his career. Additionally, he owns 930 career points and needs just 70 more to become the 39th member of the Indiana State Basketball 1,000-Point Club.
63 Is The Magic Number
The Sycamores win by the score of 69-63 on December 1, 2018 against Wright State was ISU's fourth this season in which they held an opponent to 63 points or less and earned the victory. Under ninth-year head coach Greg Lansing, the Sycamores are 89-10 when allowing less than 63 points to the opposition (including a 19-0 mark when holding teams to 53 or less).
Good Starter On The Battery
Indiana State's starting five have outscored the opposition's top five six times this season and earned the win. They did it for the first time in 2018-19 in the road victory over Green Bay and again against McKendree, San Jose State, Wright State, Truman State and Colorado. Under ninth-year head coach Greg Lansing, the Sycamores are 91-26 when the ISU starting five scores more than their opponent's starters.
Indiana State With A Pair Of Top 10 Career Scorers In Their Respective High School States
A pair of Indiana State players in Tyreke Key and Cooper Neese enter the collegiate portion of their careers having reached the Top 10 in career scoring in both of their respective home states. Key finished his career at Clay County High School in Celina, Tenn., with 3,287 points scored which is 10th most in the history of the state of Tennessee. As a senior, he set the Tennessee High School record for most points scored in a season, breaking a 25-year old record held previously by Kentucky legend Tony Delk. Cooper Neese, who will sit out the 2017-18 season serving his year-in-residence as a transfer, enters his Indiana State career having scored 2,496 career points at nearby Cloverdale High School which is seventh-best in the Indiana High School Basketball history.
Sycamores Tally School Record Fifth Victory Over Nationally-Ranked Team Under Lansing
Indiana State ended a skid of nine losses 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.
Up Next
Indiana State concludes play in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Tuesday, December 25. With a win, the Sycamores will play at 9:00 pm (ET) on ESPN2 or the team will play at 6:30 pm (ET) on ESPNU.
