(St. Louis, MO) – It has been five years since Indiana State was an upper echelon Missouri Valley Conference team. Now the Sycamores are looking up at Loyola, Illinois State and others.
Head coach Greg Lansing believes his team is poised to climb higher in this year’s Valley race.
Indiana State has an all-league performer in guard Jordan Barnes, an emerging star in sophomore Tyreke Key and two upper-level transfers in Cooper Neese and Christian Williams.
What will it take for the Sycamores to improve? Lansing says it’s about improving players and improving defense. He has posted last year’s defensive statistics that showed his team looking up at most of the league. Heading into his ninth season in Terre Haute, Lansing knows the Valley competition will be stiff.
Jordan Barnes 2.0
Barnes thinks he needs to improve. After making a Sycamore record 117 three-pointers and averaging 17.4 points per game, he wants to be a better leader, defender and more efficient. Barnes is working hard to become a better version of himself.
Transfer Help
Neese was one of the State of Indiana’s best high school basketball players in 2016-17 and the seventh best scorer in Hoosier State history. He signed with Butler and before the Bulldogs ever played a game Neese transferred to INS.
Williams transferred from Iowa where he averaged 2.4 points per game. At 6’5 and 6’4 Williams and Neese are taller than most MVC guards and will present matchup problems throughout the league.
Lansing says those two players are talented difference makers.
North Texas graduate transfer Allante Holston is a 6’7 wing who can rebound and score.
The Returners
After averaging over eight points per game, Key was named to the Valley’s all-freshman team. The 6’2 Key is the tenth leading scorer in Tennessee prep history and Lansing says he has added so much muscle that he looks like a football running back.
He joins forwards Devin Thomas, Emondre Rickman, Bronson Kressinger and others to provide experience in the Sycamore system. Rickman could be the key to Indiana State’s interior defense.
The early season schedule has some difficulties. With road games against Ball State, Green Bay and San Jose State and a home contest with Western Kentucky all before Williams becomes eligible, the Sycamores could be looking up at the non-conference winning percentages of the other Valley teams.
That could change dramatically during the conference season.
Do Good
Twitter Feed
As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
