In his fourth season as an assistant coach with the Indiana State basketball program under head coach Greg Lansing is David Ragland.
In 2012-13, Indiana State finished 18-15 and advanced to the semifinals of the MVC Tournament on the strength of a 51-50 victory over Evansville on March 8. The Sycamores also played in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), reaching the postseason for the fourth consecutive season, including each year with Lansing at the helm.
Indiana State’s three victories over the RPI Top 50 are tied for the most of any one in the Missouri Valley Conference. Creighton, the league’s tournament and regular season champion also owned three. Indiana State owns a victory in the Diamond Head Classic against ACC Champion Miami and also took down Ole Miss to finish third in the event while Jake Odum was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Odum also became the first Sycamore to appear on the All-Missouri Valley Conference First Team since 2001 and just the sixth all-time. Freshman Khristian Smith was a member of the MVC All-Bench Team while Lucas Eitel and Justin Gant were named Second Team MVC Scholar-Athletes. Additionally, Odum was named to the 2013 Lou Henson All-America Team as well as the 2013 NABC All-District 16 First Team.
Indiana State downed a pair of nationally-ranked opponents on the season, giving the Sycamores a total of three victories over opponents in the Top 25 under Lansing. ISU won at No. 14 Wichita State -- its best-victory over a nationally-ranked team on the road since 1999 and downed No. 13 Creighton at home, the highest ranked team to fall to Indiana State inside Hulman Center since joining the MVC.
Odum also went over the 1,000 point mark to become just the eighth Sycamore to do so by the end of the his junior season. He currently has 1,117 career points scored, which is 23rd on the all-time scoring list. He has made 174 free throws this season, which is the fifth-most in a single season and he made 19 in a row late in February. He ranks fifth in career assists with 448 and in steals with 169. Odum is just the third Sycamore to rank in the Top Five in both categories in the history of the program. He was a finalist for both the Bob Cousy Award -- which goes to the nation’s top point guard as well as the Lou Henson Award -- which goes to the nation’s top mid-major college basketball player.
In 2011-12, the Sycamores finished the year with an 18-15 record and advanced to the CollegeInsiders.com Postseason Tournament. It marked the third consecutive year the team has reached postseason play -- its longest such stretch since the 1977, 1978 and 1979 seasons when Larry Bird donned the Indiana State uniform.
Jake Odum was one of just four players nationally to average at least 10 points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists per game during his sophomore season and was a Second Team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection as well as Second Team All-District selection as announced by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
The Sycamores downed No. 25 nationally-ranked Vanderbilt on the road and finished third at the Old Spice Classic -- the best-ever finish by a MVC team in the event.
ISU reached the NCAA Tournament in 2010-11 and took on Syracuse in Cleveland, Ohio based on the program's third-ever MVC Tournament Championship won at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. ISU raced to the title with victories over No. 6 Evansville, No. 2 Wichita State and No. 1 Missouri State in the Championship Game as the Sycamores entered as the No. 3 seed in the tournament. Freshman Jake Odum was named to the MVC All-Tournament Team.
Odum was named a CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Freshman All-American and was named an All-MVC Honorable Mention selection as well as a member of the MVC All-Freshman, All-Newcomer and All-Defense Team. Carl Richard was also named to the All-MVC's Honorable Mention squad. ISU took two thrilling buzzer beating victories over league foes Missouri State and Creighton during the regular season at Hulman Center. The buzzer beater over Creighton by Richard was voted the No. 2 play of the weekend by ESPN's SportsCenter.
With Ragland at the helm, Vincennes went 44-19 in two seasons. In 2009-10, the Trailblazers went 22-10 and reached the NJCAA district tournament finals. Their 22 wins garnered the program's 29th consecutive 20-victory season.
Prior to taking over the VU program in 2008, Ragland was an assistant at VU for three seasons, helping the Trailblazers to a 79-20 record during that span. Ragland also spent one season at Frank Phillips College in Borger, Texas, helping that program put together a 25-5 record.
Ragland, a native of Evansville, Ind., began his collegiate playing career at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, Mo. During his freshman season, the Lions posted a 30-3 mark and made it to the NCAA Division II Final Four. Following his sophomore season, Ragland returned home to Evansville to play at the University of Southern Indiana, where the Screaming Eagles went 47-14 in his two seasons there.
A 2003 graduate of Southern Indiana with a degree in Communications, Ragland and his wife, Annie, have two children, six-year old Ava and four-year old Joshua.
