It’s time for ISU vs. evil ISU: Round three

The Sycamore men’s basketball team will play in a Friday game in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship for the first time since the 2000-2001 season.

That season, the Sycamores were the No. 4 seed in the tournament and went on to become the lowest seed ever to win the tournament.

This season, the Sycamores are the No. 6 seed in the tournament and will be looking to repeat the 2000-2001 season with a MVC Championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Division-I Tournament.

The Sycamores will play the Illinois State Redbirds at 9:35 p.m. on Friday evening at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

The Sycamores and Redbirds split the regular season matchup 1-1 with both teams picking up victories at home.

On Feb. 2, the Sycamores and Redbirds battled in Hulman Center when the Sycamores emerged victorious 72-65, but lost sophomore Dwayne Lathan to a broken hand and senior Harry Marshall to a stress fracture in his foot.

In that game, Marshall scored his 1,000th point in a Sycamore jersey. Marshall also held Illinois State senior Osiris Eldridge to an 0-of-7 shooting night from the field and only six points in the game. 

Marshall led the way for the Sycamores with 18 points, followed by senior Rashad Reed’s 14 points. Sophomores Carl Richard and Jordan Printy added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Senior Dinma Odiakosa was the only Redbird to score in double digits with 21 points.
A key to the Sycamore victory was the rebounding battle. The Sycamores outrebounded the Redbirds 31-25 in the first meeting.

In the second meeting on Feb. 24, the Redbirds put on quite the dominating performance in the final six minutes of the game and defeated the Sycamores 75-58.

In that game, the Sycamores were outrebounded 44 to 26 and turned the ball over 20 times. The three inside presences for the Sycamores – senior Josh Crawford and juniors Brant Leitnaker and Isiah Martin – went scoreless and combined for only 22 minutes of action.

The game marked the return of Marshall and Lathan to the lineup after the injuries sustained in the previous meeting with Illinois State, but their presence alone was not enough to deter the inside dominance of Odiakosa and junior Tony Lewis

This Saturday, the Sycamores will have to make another decision: Do they allow Odiakosa the inside and pinch down on the Redbird 3-point attack or do they allow Illinois State to shoot threes while maintaining Odiakosa in check?

“It’s like ‘Pick Your Poison’,” said head coach Kevin McKenna after the Sycamore win on Feb. 2. We didn’t give up too many wide-open perimeter shots on rotations. You have to give up something at some point. Sometimes a contested 3-pointer is better than a one-on-one situation in the paint against a guy like Odiakosa.”

Regardless, the Sycamores will need to have a better rebounding effort and smaller turnover margin on Friday than they did at Illinois State on Feb. 24.

If the Sycamores defeat the Redbirds on Friday evening, they will play the winner of the Wichita State v.s. Missouri State/Evansville game at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 6th.

The Championship game will be played at 2:05 p.m. and will be broadcasted nationwide on CBS.