Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.An Indiana State team expected to challenge for the top spot in the Missouri Valley Conference is dangerously close to scraping bottom.
The Sycamores head into Saturday's game against No. 19 Creighton in ninth place in the 10-team league. Indiana State's 2-6 Valley record is one win better than last-place Bradley's 1-7 mark.
That's hardly the standings anyone, Indiana State coach Greg Lansing included, anticipated from a team that returned four starters from an NCAA tournament qualifier. The Sycamores got this season off to a good start, going 9-2 in nonconference play, with one of the wins coming against Vanderbilt, a preseason top-10 team.
"They ended the nonconference with a road win over Vanderbilt," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. "From an ability standpoint, it's all there.
"They're just in the middle of a tough three-week stretch. They're going to come out of it, and you just hope that it's not against you."
The victory against Vanderbilt actually came in the Sycamores' next-to-last non-league game. Indiana State closed nonconference play with a 50-35 rout of Louisiana-Monroe, but little has gone right since.
Picked third in the Valley's preseason poll, Indiana State opened conference play with a 15-point loss to Drake. The Sycamores bounced back to beat Bradley, but their only win since was an 80-78 home victory against Evansville.
A 73-67 loss to Southern Illinois started a current skid that reached three with Wednesday's 67-54 defeat at Illinois State.
Lansing points to his team's struggles on the defensive end as a key factor in the slump. The departure of guards Aaron Carter, a starter, and Jake Kelly off last season's team have left Indiana State with issues on the perimeter.
"The way we've been defending hasn't been near what we wanted to be," Lansing said. "Our field-goal percentage defense has been way too high. We lost three good defenders, two that played significant minutes (Carter, Kelly) from last year who were our best perimeter defenders.
"People have really come at us, penetrated and spread us out. We've just given up too many easy shots. We're trying to get better and work on how to guard these people."
Indiana State led the Valley last season in field-goal percentage defense (.406). The Sycamores put up respectable defensive numbers in nonconference play, holding opponents to an average of 59 points per game and 42.1 percent shooting.
In the eight conference games, opponents are shooting 46.2 percent and scoring an average of 71.5 points per game.
"We have to try to take away some things from other teams," Lansing said. "We'll get better. We've been stubbing our toe and not playing as well as we need to, but we'll get better."
While shoring up the defense is a priority, Lansing said the Sycamores also have to deal with the mental aspects of the rough start. This was a team that most observers thought would challenge for an NCAA tournament berth. At this point, Indiana State might have trouble getting out of the play-in round at the conference tournament.
"We came in with high expectations and we still have high expectations," Lansing said. "We can't do anything about the games that we've lost. We just have to watch the tape and get our guys to learn from them. We have to keep competing in practice, and we're going to do that.
"This is a competitive group that's disappointed with our record and some of our losses. We're not deterred and we're going to stick with it. This is a good group of guys that wants to win. We just have to stay away from getting negative."
A win against Creighton would be a positive step for the Sycamores. The Bluejays know that Indiana State's lack of success does not diminish the challenge the Sycamores pose.
"Everyone is dangerous in this league and we know they're going to come in here hungry," Creighton center Gregory Echenique said. "We're ranked and doing well, so they're going to want to come here and make a statement and bounce back from how their season is going.
"We're going to have to be prepared to go all out against a team that wants to change its season."
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