Photos of the ISU Men’s Basketball team in their game against Syracuse are online in the photo gallery.
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I grew up on the south side of Chicago. It was pretty rough. My mom didn’t let me outside much. I pretty much just went to school. I was a straight A student first through sixth grade. Then basketball was introduced into my life around seventh grade. I went to a new school. It was high school that branched off with an eighth grade program. I didn’t start playing until seventh or eighth grade. That was new to me. Everybody had always told me I needed to play because I was so tall. I wasn’t that interested in it. I always watched Michael Jordan and what not. But, my dad and mom didn’t put a ball in my hands. They didn’t force it upon me like some people would have. I just came around and started playing and I started to love it right away. My mom has been there more so than my dad, but my dad is always around. He has done more lately that he did at the beginning. I actually learned how to play from my friends from around my neighborhood. We used to pull a goal out and play on the playground. We didn’t have much room but they taught me to shoot at the square. I didn’t have a jump shot at all, at first. Just shoot at the square and that is how it all started. That’s where it all started. I have a few cousins that play. They live in Ohio, Delaware- Columbus area. My dad played in high school. My mom wasn’t into sports, she was a model. My grandparents didn’t play. I am pretty much the first one to go somewhere for it. Do something big sports wise. Click on the “Read More: Sycamores Going to the NCAA Tourney!” to view some pictures from the NCAA Selection Party, March 11. . . . → Read More: Sycamores Going to the NCAA Tourney! Family…my dad’s name is Jeff, my mom’s Kelley and I have 2 younger sisters. One sister, Jaime, is a sophomore, she plays basketball at Iowa. She’s had a great career so far. It’s fun watching her play and my younger sister, Jenna, is a 7th grader this year. She’s big into dance. She’s got all these dance competitions that are fun to go to and watch her. I’m real close to my family, –talk to them all the time. My mom ran track one year at Iowa and my dad played basketball in high school and played at a junior college close to home for 2 years. Sports have always been a big part of our lives. My sisters have had a pretty big career too. We’re all pretty close. We’re a pretty close family. I’ve always pretty much been just basketball. In high school that’s the only sport I played. Middle school I did run track and stuff like that but mainly its always been basketball. I do like to golf in my free time. I joined the Martin Brothers AAU team out of Iowa. I joined that after my freshman year in high school. We had some tournaments that summer and I started getting some letters and more recruiting after that. So I’d say college recruitment really picked up my sophomore year of high school. At first I was getting letters from lot of all the Iowa schools, Iowa, Iowa State, UNI, Drake, then recruitment started branching out a little bit and then my college offers ended up being from here (Indiana State) and them Indiana State, Evansville, Drake, Wright State, and Wyoming were my five major offers. Then decided to come to ISU. My mother and father are still together. I have an older brother and older sister. My brother in high school played basketball the first two years. He was the number one guard in the state. He got caught up with his friends and girls, so he stopped playing basketball. I didn’t seriously start playing until about my sophomore year in high school. My father wasn’t a constructive basketball player. He didn’t play on school teams but he did play on club teams. He wasn’t really skilled. All he did was rebound. That was his thing. He lead all the leagues he played on in rebounds. My mother didn’t get into sports. My sister was a cheerleader. I started getting attention my very first varsity game in my junior year. We played against Eisenhower; I had eighteen and thirteen, something like that. I received my first college letter. I thought basketball was just fun. I didn’t think I could do anything with it. I received my first college letter and I was like, “Oh wow”. I thought,” I can actually play somewhere”. We won state my senior year. We were having a pretty good season. It seemed to me that my teammates couldn’t get me the ball where I needed it. I don’t know if they didn’t know how or if they just didn’t want to. There was one game that I had thirty points and maybe fifteen rebounds. That was my highest points I made in one game and we lost. I think it clicked right then that, “ maybe we should just get him the ball and good things will happen”. None of my points were coming from them passing me the ball. They were just from offensive rebounds, me getting the board, me pushing coast to coast. Then it clicked and we ended up winning State. They just got me the ball and they found out that I am not selfish. Growing up, I was always played sports, I was into baseball and basketball especially. Playing basketball really hit around third grade I started playing on a local AAU team, for Bobby Moore. The Terre Haute Wildcats, that really got me kick started, that was big. I still love Bobby Moore to this day and the players on that team. RJ (Mahurin) was actually on that first AAU team back in third grade. We have two other kids that were on that team playing baseball here at ISU now. I think eight out of ten of us are playing Division-1 sports now. From that team right there… from third to eighth we made a solid case of unity. We really learned how to play team basketball. That is where it originated, how I approach the game of basketball. Hard work and you get what you put in. I feel like if you put hard work and time into something you can be whatever you want to be and however good you want to be. I started off at that (AAU) and then went on to Woodrow Wilson and played three years there. I kind of got a chip on my shoulder when I went there because they we all about Terre Haute North. I was all about Terre Haute South so I decided I needed to work hard. I lived on the tennis courts over there playing basketball since my house was a couple of blocks away. I was there every day before and after practice, before school shooting on the courts. I moved on to high school…. Coach Saylor is a great coach. He put me in a system where I was able to develop my game. He had me in different areas, distributing and scoring. He taught me many things that I still use today in the game out here in the college level. I didn’t realize what he was doing back then but now that I have been through four years of high school and two years here (ISU) I realize what kind of path he put me on in high school. My Dad played basketball in high school. He actually has the rebounding record for most in a game in high school. He had twenty-six (26) or something like that. He claims that is what he got in the season but, he’s just being modest. My brother played… he was really good in high school. He has a lot of records in high school. He played at the University of Southern Indiana for four years. He was recruited by I U and schools like that. So he was pretty good. My sister played volleyball in college down in Tennessee. One of my uncles played college basketball at Oakland City. It’s in the blood a little bit, I guess. My family is great. They are very supportive. My Mom and brother come to every home game. My Dad comes when he can. Just yesterday, Sunday, some of my high school teachers and athletic director came to the game. That was pretty neat. My whole family came up. They are really supportive. I love them. I am a marketing major with a minor in sports management. I should graduate in May. I have to take fifteen (15) hours to get my diploma. I’m looking forward to that. It is kind of bitter sweet. I will be out of college and into the real world but it’s time to grow up. It is surprising how fast college life goes. It flies, it seems like yesterday we were just freshmen. Little naïve freshmen not knowing what college life is all about. Not knowing what it takes to make it in college athletics. It has gone by fast but I have learned a lot and I have grown a lot, both as a freshman and a basketball player. It has been really fun. My accident, I have a stress reaction. It is basically, like,… a prerequisite of a stress fracture. It is where the tissues around the bone in my middle foot are inflamed and weakened. I have to really take it easy. I have to wear a boot when I am not on the court. I can’t practice for at least two weeks but basically the diagnosis is day to day. It is just about what pain I can bear or if I am having any pain at all, I can’t play. If I get a stress fracture then I will have to have a surgery. I grew up here. I moved away when I was twelve years old. I stayed in touch with my close family who lived around here. I came here on the weekends with my dad all through high school. So it’s definitely my home. During Christmas and holidays I am home. I am visiting family. That’s definitely nice. I can see them whenever I want instead of two or three days that I was allowed at Iowa for Christmas break. My family understands my schedule and everything. When they call me at night and I don’t answer they know I am probably just resting and tired and don’t feel like talking. At times when we have family get-togethers, if I have a late practice they understand if I don’t make it. I don’t hear any bad things from that side. As far as that being a distraction on being on the court… it can be. I came back because I wanted to be around my brother and I wanted the support of my dad. Also to help my brother out. I am doing that. He is living with me. None of that is a distraction. It only makes you stronger I guess. It’s just part of life. My first comment was, “you people are crazy”. No, I don’t think it can get any better. You kind of go through your life working to a point you have goals and things you want to accomplish in life. And this has certainly been my goal my whole life. And, 20 years into coaching, it’s how I’m celebrating my 20th year… in my first head coaching job in college. I’m just really, really happy and feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be the head coach at a place that means a lot to my wife and I. A line of very good men have coached mens’ basketball here. We’ve had Curtis, Wooden, Kluegh, King, Waltman and I’d certainly add Kevin McKenna there too. We had a lot of work to do when he got hired and hired us as assistants. And I think we did a really good job of building this thing and the talent level where we needed to. And if it hadn’t been for two or three injuries last year I think we’d have been talking about something a little more special than what it was. I don’t know. I’m not going to put any we have to win this many games or this is what I want to do. All I know is I’m going to want to win championships. I’m going to want to win the Missouri Valley every year. I’m going to want to play in the NCAA tournament every year. I’m going to recruit guys that would have the same types of goals. Granted we were pleased with how we survived last year with the injuries, but .500 in the conference isn’t good enough. It’s not what we’re shooting for. We want to be up there fighting for a conference championship every year. , putting a really good product out on the floor. You know, I’m a basketball junkie. I’m a high school coach’s kid. So it’s been from since I could walk and talk that I’ve been doing basketball stuff. My dad was a tremendous coach. He’s in the hall of fame in Iowa
by Tony Harper I’m originally from Louisville, Kentucky, a lot of people think I was born and raised in Bowling Green. Moved to Owen Valley, Spencer, whenever, I was 10. Loved the quietness. Loved the peacefulness. Real quiet out there Bowling Green, Indiana. Great place to live. People are nice. People welcomed me. Family of course Mom and Dad –love them both. Dad’s probably one the most hardest working guys or man I’ve seen ever in my life. I have three brothers Antonio, Jordan, Brandon and one older sister, Carolyn. All of us played basketball. Three of us still play basketball now. So a very competitive family and you know… we learned from each other and we back up each other. I think without family I really wouldn’t be here. I really wouldn’t be anything in life. |
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