Five years for Illinois State. Seven for Utah State.
Yes, it's been awhile since these two basketball teams went to national postseason tournaments (ISU to the NCAA vs. Michigan in 1990, USU to NCAA vs. Vanderbilt in 1988; both were losses). Players with national tourney experience are, well, on other teams.It is hard to know then, what to expect from the 19-12 Redbirds and 21-7 Aggies tonight at 7 when they tip off in an NIT first-rounder in the Spectrum.
It's been a headspinning week for USU coach Larry Eustachy, who just turned down a rich offer to coach UNLV in favor of many years' security in Logan.
One minute he's saying his Big West regular-season champs who lost their BWC tourney quarterfinal Friday is still pouting over not getting an NCAA berth. "I'm concerned about our team, about them running out of gas," he said Tuesday night. "It's been a long season, particularly when you overachieve like I think we have."
The next moment, Eustachy's saying the Ags have shrugged off the NCAA snub, "bounced back from the emotional letdown. We have had two good days of practice. I'll be extremely disappointed if our guys don't play with a great deal of enthusiasm."
One positive for the Ags: They've not lost back-to-back games since Jan. 29, 1994. In fact, they've come back with huge wins after losses this season - by 14, 24, 16, 27 and 20 points and their first-ever win at UNLV.
Eustachy's perception of Illinois State is that the Redbirds are building and thrilled to still be playing.
ISU won eight of its last 10 games to tie for second with Southern Illinois in the Missouri Valley Conference behind Tulsa (which beat New Mexico State by 18 on Feb. 6.). The Redbirds' late-season run matches what USU did in '94.
ISU coach Kevin Stallings says, "Our wins over Tulsa (Jan. 19) and Southern Illinois (Feb. 10) really solidified our kids' confidence. They really started believing in what we were doing. They could see their hard work was paying off, and we were making progress."
Eustachy looks at Illinois State and sees Nevada. That hurts. On Feb. 25, Nevada handed USU its worst loss 15 points) since Jan. 10, 1994.
"Illinois State has three outstanding perimeter scorers in Maurice Trotter (10.9 ppg), Chad Altadonna (10.5) and Dan Muller (10.3). Trotter is an explosive off-guard who has the range of Brian Green (Nevada). (Point guard) David Cason (6.8 assists) reminds me a great deal of Nevada's Eathan O'Bryant," says Eustachy. "Cason has perhaps the best assists-to-turnovers ratio (212-85) in the country."
Eustachy says ISU has such depth it substitutes five at a time, and that the inside players run well and are the first options in the motion offense.
USU's Eric Franson (18.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg), the BWC Player of the Year, has slumped the last five games with totals of 11/8, 11/8, 14/6, 17/6, 11/6 and 14/10. But Silas Mills (12.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg) has six straight double-doubles (16/12, 13/11, 13/10, 20/11, 11/12, 14/15), and Corwin Woodard (15.5 ppg) has scored in double figures in 18 straight.