Belmont stakes high for ISU, which still sits alone atop MVC standings

Jan. 30—Indiana State men's basketball isn't too far removed from a handful of agonizing moments in winning time.

Last campaign, the Sycamores went 1-5 after the turn of the calendar year in games decided by one score.

Four of those defeats came against Missouri Valley Conference opposition.

Three starters and two rotation players graduated, while two starters and three more holdovers from that group appear to have exorcised their late-game demons following a 95-86 win over Bradley on Saturday at Hulman Center.

ISU coach Josh Schertz said closing out crunch-time games is a hallmark of a team. ISU is 2-0 in one-score games and the Sycamores' win against the Braves was the first one in single-digits inside Hulman Center this season.

The Sycamores (18-3, 9-1) are in the driver's seat in the league approaching February. They have a one-game lead on Drake and a two-game cushion and tiebreaker on Bradley.

Last year, ISU lost by 11 points in Hulman Center to the Braves and by one in the MVC semifinals.

After securing a regular-season sweep of the Braves, ISU has a chance to win two against Belmont and remove the sour taste from the previous trip to Nashville, Tenn.

The Sycamores and Bruins will square off at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Bible Belt.

Indiana State junior transfer Isaiah Swope earned his first MVC nod Monday — Newcomer of The Week.

Swope averaged 40.3 minutes (after against Bradley) in ISU's 2-0 week. The Newburgh native averaged 24.5 points (43.6% from the field), 4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and snagged a pair of steals.

Sophomore Robbie Avila is averaging 16 points and has scored at least 18 points in ISU's past four games. The team has won five straight.

"Avila is as good as anybody in the league," Belmont coach Casey Alexander said. "His usage rate and the things he can do with the ball in his hands is phenomenal. It's really impressive how instinctively he plays."

—About the Bruins — The Bruins (12-9, 5-5) are amid their second go-around in the conference after coming over from the Ohio Valley.

They lost three starters, one to graduation, Even Brauns to Iowa and Ben Sheppard, a first-round NBA draft pick to the Indiana Pacers.

Alexander said the team's 94-64 pummeling at the hands of ISU on Jan. 13 in Terre Haute was rock bottom this campaign.

He said playing a school of ISU's caliber requires executing at the highest level.

Belmont has posted two jaw-dropping results on the opposite end of the pendulum.

In the conference opener, the Bruins dropped 90 points in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which hadn't been done against the now-winningest coach in MVC history, Northern Iowa's Ben Jacobson. The Bruins won by 20.

Belmont throttled Drake 87-65 on Jan. 7 at the Curb Event Center to hand the Bulldogs their first league loss.

Sophomore Malik Dia, a Vanderbilt transfer, dropped 32 points on 10-of-16 shooting and 5 of 8 from long range against DU.

"It will be interesting to know if we ever see any classic bigs anymore," Alexander said. "There aren't very many of them that are signing up to go down in the low post and be fed the ball and stay in there.

"[Dia] is a very talented player. He's got a lot of ways that he can impact the game. For us, it's been ... a challenge is probably too strong of a word, but consistently talking about, hey let's extenuate the positives. Let's give you the freedom to do what you can do and then let's at the same time, make sure we are not doing stuff to harm ourselves."

Another sophomore, Cade Tyson, who made the MVC All-Freshman Team last year, poured in 22 points at UNI.

A 6-foot-7 wing, Tyson has upped his scoring from 13.6 points to 16.8 in Year 2.

"Two tremendous players, the two that I'm sure got the most votes for [the freshman team last year]," Alexander said of Tyson and Avila. "Cade has made a lot of improvement. I think in a lot of ways it's gone unnoticed. He's a lot more of a marked man.

"This year, we don't have Ben Sheppard. He's drawing the toughest defender every night out. His efficiency, particularly on the offensive end, is still there."

Sophomore Ja'Kobi Gillespie, who was a key member of last season's rotation and another MVC all-freshman team member, has been out injured for the past seven games. He's averaging 16.2 points. Alexander hinted that his role will be limited when he does return to action, but didn't provide a timeline.

Lee University graduate transfer Jayce Willingham has stepped up in his stead, averaging 9.1 points a game and 4.7 rebounds.

—ISU's tourney resume — The conference-leading Trees are racking up wins that are generating viable arguments for an NCAA at-large candidacy, that's if automatic qualification at Arch Madness isn't attained.

Ken Pomeroy, who has been charting advanced statistics since 2004 for college hoops, has ISU with a rating of 37, as of Tuesday, on kenpom.com. That placement is ahead of the likes of Villanova, Colorado State, Xavier, Iowa and Northwestern.

The NET ranking, introduced by the NCAA in 2018, is regarded as the primary metric for selecting the tourney field of 68. The Trees check in at No. 24 in that.

They are in front of Michigan State, who beat them 87-75 on Dec. 30 in East Lansing, Mich., Texas Tech, Florida Atlantic, Gonzaga and Cincinnati.

The MVC is significantly up from last year with a NET of 10th as a league compared to 15th last March as of Monday.

"You watch the Indiana State-Bradley game and that's unbelievably high-level play in a sold-out arena," Alexander said. "We've seen that at Bradley, we've seen that at Drake, we saw that at SIU last year when we were there. And that's what this league should be. And it makes it better for everybody and raises the bar."

The Sycamores' Men's College Basketball Power Index on ESPN.com is ranked 39th with a 9.2.

On Monday, the Sycamores received more votes in the AP and coaches polls at Nos. 34 and 33 respectively.

ISU just ascended to the apex of the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 for the inaugural time. With a couple of wins last week, the Blue and White leapfrogged Gonzaga, Grand Canyon, Princeton and Drake.

College Insider has run this poll for 25 years with 31 coaches, including Schertz voting on the panel. The Sycamores were unranked in the preseason.