My Dad, he works for the Indianapolis Airport. He was a basketball player coming up. He played in the army. My Mom is a beautician and an air traffic controller. Both are just regular hard working people.

I played football, basketball and baseball at Pike. I just . . . → Read More: Rod Hardy — In His Own Words]]>

Ron Hardy - Junior Defensive Tackle

My Dad, he works for the Indianapolis Airport. He was a basketball player coming up. He played in the army. My Mom is a beautician and an air traffic controller. Both are just regular hard working people.

I played football, basketball and baseball at Pike. I just kind of got into baseball. Not too many played baseball in my family.  My mom did a lot of softball.  They didn’t want me coming home after school.  They wanted me to stay active.  So I picked up baseball. Actually coming up… basketball was my favorite.  With my Dad playing in the army always had time to train me. Teach me different things.  Football, it just kind of came about, like I said my parents didn’t want me coming home they wanted me to get involved in stuff at school.  I picked up football and before I knew it, it was my best sport.

Indiana State was a good pick for me.   Coach Miles gave me the opportunity to go to school and get a degree while playing football.  It was close to home.  My family would be able to see me play.  My brother loves to come to my games and watch me play.  So I wanted to give my family the opportunity to experience the college athletics atmosphere. Like I said, Coach Miles gave me the opportunity so I took full advantage of it.

I love everything about Indiana State.  I would offer Indiana State to anybody.  I think the professors are good, the coaching staff, the administrators.  Everything’s going in the right direction.  Everything’s positive around here.  I really love it.

I study psychology with a minor in African American studies. I plan to go to law school. I picked up philosophy and different things.  I took a lot of political science and legal studies courses.  Just working.  I know law school is going to be heavy but those are my plans.

Outside of football we don’t have a lot of time, but we make the best of your time.  My favorite thing to do is hang with my brother.  He’s like one of my best friends.  Me and him do a lot together.  He comes up and stays with me every once in awhile.  He comes to the games.  He’s always at the games,  He’s a big sports fan.  He can tell you anything about any team… college or pro, every sport you can think of. He didn’t play many sports coming up.  He played a little football in middle school.  He’s older than me.

My favorite song?  I don’t know, just anything to get me going.  I don’t really have a favorite song or favorite style of music. A lot of rap music and R&B. I like a lot of old music. Hanging with my Dad and brother I picked up on a lot of old rap, old R&B a lot of different stuff.

My favorite food.  Probably pasta, they feed to us so much playing sports you get use to every kind of spaghetti and pasta there is.  It just becomes your favorite.

My friends are a couple of guys I went to high school with and played ball with. They no longer play but they do go to Indiana State.  I still hang with them.  A couple of my best friends are actually from a travel basketball team that I played on when I was in elementary.  To this day those are my two best friends. Those two guys,… I didn’t go to school with them.  We just played travel ball together.  Always just kind of hung together coming up.

On game day… I call my Dad every morning, prior to game, prior to team meals whatever. We get a prayer, we pray for the players, for the coaching staff, my team, myself, the other team… make sure they travel safe.  Prevent all major injuries and stuff. I do that, then I just like to listen to my music.  I make sure I talk to my Mom, my brother, my girlfriend, everybody.  Get them out of the way so I can get into my own zone and get my music going and just focus on the game.

No, no superstitions, just two pair of socks every game. Gotta stack 2 pair of socks. Bob Elson keeps us in good gear… makes sure I’m taken care of.

The defense is a little different this year.  Just more intense.  People flying around. We’re more aggressive this year.  We feel like we have more talent on the field.  More athletes. We had guys last year we red shirted, who are really going to step up this year and be factors on our team.  A lot of guys played their first year last year. And we have a lot of guys going into their third year like me, Alex Sewell, C.J. Cook. Guys who played a whole lot of games, Aaron Archie is coming back off a big year last year. I think we should be that much more fine tuned, use to playing with each other. Use to college atmosphere and we’ll be ready to go.

A lot of unity with the team. We hang together a lot actually. By the time we get to the cafeteria after practice there is nobody in there but us. So we just have a lot of fun together. We hang out at each other’s house all the time. A lot of video games and stuff. So we know each other pretty well.

We expect to do big things. The game experience…there is nothing like game experience.  We have a lot more than a lot of other teams though.  Other teams aren’t forced to play their freshmen, their sophomores right away.  They usually red shirt them. We had a positive and a negative with playing all our guys that way. The positive was that we got the experience.  We know from now on we’re ready. The negative was at the time we didn’t know what to expect.  We just kind of just went out there and did what we were asked.  We’re the men on the field now.

Actually a lot of my leader qualities come from my sister.  Being the oldest of three– me, my brother, and my sister. She took care of us. She made sure we were in line and that’s

what its all about.  Knowing when to be tough and when to back off and have a conversation with a guy.  When to push him and know you can get more out of him and when to back off and know he needs up-lifted and not yelled at.  Then just going out and performing and doing the things that you want everybody else to do and follow suit. Leading by example is probably one of the biggest things.  I try and get into my playbook and learn everybody’s spot so I can be there to help guys.  Even though it’s not my spot, as a leader,  that’s just kind of the things you do.  So that when I am verbal I actually know how to send them in the right direction on what to say what to do.

I expect to win.  I expect to play hard.  In the past we had some games get out of hand with the score and stuff.  I expect us to be tough and compete in every aspect.  I expect our coaches are that much better.  They have been here that much longer.  They know us so I expect everybody across the board to be better this year and put us in a position to win.  In the fourth quarter,  I expect us to be in a position to win every game.  Everything has to be moving forward and growing.  I feel at this point we’ve grown enough to make positive gains in the right direction.

I need ISU supporters, alumni and former players to know I respect everything they have done.  I try to portray Indiana State the way they would like to see it portrayed to the public eye on the field.  Everything positive they’ve done we really appreciate it.

I’m going to play hard and do everything I can to win… help this team.  Whether, it’s getting my playbook and teaching someone else.  Whether

it’s playing hard day in and day out, offense, defense, special teams.  Anything I can do to help this team win. That’s my job as a football player.

As a team we are really trying, we really are working to change things, to make a difference.  I see a lot of positive support from the community.  I’ve seen growth in the administrators, the locker room, the field, the fan base, the website.  Everybody is really backing us, now it’s time for us to give something back to them.

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 . . . → Read More: In His Own Words – Greg Lansing]]>

ISU Men's Basketball Coach, Greg Lansing

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

and showed me right away how hard to work. I also learned that you don’t want to accept loosing. It wasn’t nice to be around the house or around him after a loss. And it’s how to handle those things. I’ve had so many good coaches and friends along the way that I’ve picked up stuff from.  Way too many to say. But I have to give Coach Waltman a ton of credit for hiring me twice, when he didn’t have to, and he did.  He’s still as good of a game coach and basketball coach as I’ve ever been around.  And then Steve Alford . A basketball junkie. And he’s really competitive.  He’s a student of the game.  He’s a film watcher. Always looking to approve.  And then with Coach McKenna. A lot of his NBA philosophies and some of the things there.  There are a lot of other guys as well but those guys have made me to kind of where my philosophy is.  I’ll be more emotion. And I want to be more fast paced.  My relationship with the Phoenix Suns for the past 7 years makes me want to play a little faster, with the ball screening and more freelance on offence. Defensively.  We’re going to work very hard on the defensive end.  On defensive rebounding.  Mostly man to man guy.  I’d really only rather play man to man.  Those types of things.  I think it’s going to be a fun style to watch. The biggest thing is I hope our guys compete and  play as hard as they can.

I think we’ve got good guards.  I really like what we have. Two of them are Jakes, you know.  And both of those guys can handle a ball. There both very different, their bodies look the same, they could be brother and younger brother.  I really like both of those guys and what they bring to the table.  Incoming Steve McQuarter is … we can’t watch our guys right now, but all of our guys are raving about him right now. When I saw him last summer, we weren’t even recruiting him, and I kind of liken him to a key smart type guy that can handle the ball and do things that a decent shooter, good, good enough shooter, but a guy that competes and wants to defend.  So um, being a point guard in high school and college, and a coach’s son, I want that person on the floor with the ball in his hands to be thinking like I do a bit. We’ll have a lot of work to do on that. Loosing Harry and Rashad is a huge loss.

Walker, he’s hopefully going to be the biggest, baddest guy on the floor every night.  I just went down to see him.  For one.  Lou gets all the credit for recruiting him.  The Junior college coach is a good friend of his.  He got that done and we beat some big schools. If we hadn’t got him early, we wouldn’t have had a chance.  He’s 6’8,  255.  Doesn’t have much body fat on him at all.

Body just like that (Antonio Davis).  No high flying or anything like that.  But he’s a great kid, a kid that works hard.  There are coaches that just rave about how hard he works, runs and plays all the time.  Phenomenal kid.  Yes sir, no sir type of guy.  And he’s so excited to get here and I can’t wait to get him up here.  He’s going to walk into the place and you’ll know he’s going to make a little difference for us.

You know you have to have a physical presence and Brandt tried, but with his feet it just wasn’t something he could really do all the time for us.  And we were a little thin in there with Josh and Isaiah, but this guy can handle your physical load with out any problem, and some of our… Kitchel, he’s 235, he’s a little more physical, and R.J’s put on some weight, so we’ve got a little more physical in there.  And Miles isn’t going to be out shooting a bunch of threes but I think every one of those other guys can do that.

Kitchel’s a very nice young man.  Very mannerly.  Mom and dad did right there.  Any small town kid that puts up big numbers you kind of worry about how he’s going to be against a higher level competition. In his AU stuff he’s done that and he’s been real solid with all that.  Is he going to come in here and average 20/10 next year? No. But he’s certainly a piece to the puzzle and a high quality kid.   And I think he’s a guy that is skilled enough, like R.J., that can do stuff out on the floor and will continue to develop.

We’re going to see a change in basketball style… more motion.  I’m not going to run sprints.  I like some of the sets coach (McKenna) had out of that.  Because he was so good with those things.  I’m not a guy to run set after set after set.  I want to give them the freedom to get the rebound or get it and go and play with some freedom and not be looking over their shoulder at me with what the heck are we doing.  Coach has so many good ones (plays), we’ll try to keep it (the playbook), we’ve changed them a lot, but we’ll try to keep them as small as possible.  We’ll be tougher to scout, because we won’t be running a lot of sets on offense.

What about your communication with the players? Are you going to be closer to them on a day by day basis? Because of your background, you’re known to be family friendly, and family oriented, and wanting everyone on the team to be a family. Are you going to be closer to them?

I think so.  Coinciding with that, I’m also going to be really hard on them.  Their going to have to do things academically. And they want that.  Practices are going to be tough.  They’ll have to defend, and really work in the off season.

They’re going to have to guard somebody if they want to play.  I love them. Out of all these guys, I want to know everything about them, and what’s going on with their families, what their social life is like.  Even if they’ve messed up, I want them to be able to walk in here be a man and tell me.  We’re going to challenge them in that way too. I think I’m going to have close relationship with them on and off the court. And know that coming here isn’t just a commitment to play basketball for me for four years, it’s a lifetime commitment as a family member.

Lou Gudino has already done a great job with recruiting.  We basically worked hand and hand.  I may have been the coordinator, and kind of ran it, but he’s very good at what he does. I think I’m pretty good at that still, I’ll still be hands on with that because I like to recruit, but Lou’s going to coordinate it, and kind of lead the whole staff in where we’re going and what we’re doing.

We defiantly need another assistant.  And I’ve narrowed that to a real short list. And I’ve already talked to the guys. And we’re going to get a good one (David Ragland, Vincennes University). There’s not question on being really good.  Amazing how many people wanted the job. So I was able to narrow that down quick.  And I’ve wanted to be head coach for awhile, so I knew of guys for a while anyway.  And then hopefully, we’re one person short .  Every school in the conference has a director of basketball operations.  We don’t.  But I’m going to try to raise enough money to pay them out of our budget, and get somebody back in here.  They can’t do any on floor coaching, but everything else. It’s a lot of office work, video work.  It’s very, very important, because we’re traveling, coordinating, recruiting, being here, stuff that our guys don’t have time to do… we don’t have a secretary either, so it’s a lot of work.  We need something like that.  Mr. Prettyman’s been great. And hopefully we’ll be allowed to do that.

With (former players), it’s open door policy.  Obviously I was very close to the players when I was here, I want to have all those former players back around, and whether it be friends of ours or local people that want to come in… I really want to reach out to the community and make it the hometown team.  I want people to be here, and it starts with former players and they’re welcome here anytime and anything I can ever do for them, but we have to give them some pride and sense of ownership in what’s going on here.  Obviously with my relationship with Michael Menser, Nate Green and Matt Rant, those guys will be around here.  Those three will be involved.

NO matter where I’ve been, you always have somebody that has seen some kid, that’s called, emailed about this guy. By no means do we think that we have all the answers or that we don’t have the time to see everybody. So all that helps appreciated.  If somebody has something I’ll respond to the email and so will the coaching staff.  Maybe we don’t get to see them all the time, but if somebody wants to take the time to promote some kid, then we’re happy to have help.

Coach McKenna was the right hire three years ago.  I think it’s just three more years of experience.  It’s learning things under another guy.  It’s being at Indiana State for three more years and continuing to develop relationships and continue to develop relationships with our current players.  Three years ago I was coming from a staff that had been let go. I understand.  Ron explained that to me.  It came down to Kevin and I, and the one drawback was I came from the previous staff. And there needed to be a change.  I understand that, I also understand if you put Kevin McKenna’s resume next to mine three years ago, you’d pick his every time.  So, I just appreciated the chance three years ago, didn’t get it, was happy to stay on, and it meant something to me.  I’ve turned down other jobs to stay here and now it’s worked out for the best.  And I’m just happy to get it now.

I’ve had a long relationship with the Phoenix Suns and David Griffin, who is a VP of player personnel.  He should be a GM this year sometime coming up here.  He’s involved with that stuff right now.  You know, the longer you go in the business, sometimes you get frustrated, about not getting chances at being head coach, and seeing other guys get it.  I’d say for the past four or five years that’s always been something in the back of my mind.  I’ve gone down and I’ve done pre-draft work for the Suns, the Bulls and worked out some pros locally up in Indianapolis.  I like the pro game and I’ve always had an interest in it, But I haven’t had any particular job offered in the Pros, but it’s something that’s always in the back of my mind.

We don’t need to talk about that. I’ll say this.  I’ve had other opportunities in college.  There’s no question, I’ve thought about professional basketball.  Never had any offers on any of that, but in college I have.  But when it came right down to it, I wanted to be a head coach, and if I was going to move somewhere, I wanted it to be for a head coaching position. Angie’s got her family here, We’re happy here.  We love it here. This place means something to us.  So I’d rather have been here than go somewhere else in the system.

Scheduling…It’s hard and it’s difficult.  I’ve tried to help him (McKenna) some with it as has Lou.  It’s harder to get bigger schools to come here and play you. Or play in general. I want to play schools.  I want to play in-state rivals.  I want to play good games.  It’s just not easy.  I think one thing I’ll try to do is get stuff a little earlier. Get games earlier, and things like that.  Not wait.  But in college basketball, today… I talked to Wichita today,  they need three games yet.

I’d do two for one with any instate big school.  No Question. Matt Painter is nice enough this year to let us come up there and play them at Conseco. We’re really happy about that. Indiana won’t do it, Notre Dame’s not gonna do it.  It’s just part of those guys philosophy.  And I understand.  When I was at Iowa, we had to play Northern Iowa and Drake every year. You’re supposed to win those games.  If you do win, you don’t win by enough, and I understand that… What ever it would take to get any of them on our schedule any year, we’d do it.

We were talking to Illinois before the Purdue thing happened.  Actually it was almost a done deal.  So. We have to get home games.  We already have a brutal schedule for road games, we have to get some home games.  Plus for our fans.  The season ticket package, we need that,  we have to have that.  But I’ve got good relationships with all of those coaches in the big 10, and we’d love to at least play one of them every year.

We want people to come to our games.  If people call and need me to do something for them, or our players, we’re certainly going to try.  The foundation department here are a bunch of really good people.  They’ve already had me doing some things with, whether it be golf outings or speaking.  I’m going to do as much as I can with them non stop. Because it’s an arms race in college sports.  You have to raise money.  And here especially.  It’s something that’s got to be priority number one with us.  And our head coaches have to help.  Players have to help.  And that has mostly to do with fundraising, but stuff with the community.  We ask people to support us and come to our games, we want to get out there, so if people, whether it be schools, getting out in the community, helping in anyway. We want people to ask us.  If we can’t do it, these guys are busy to, if we can’t do it, we’ll say we can’t do it, but we’d certainly like to be asked.

The players.  They go into schools, they read, do those things.  They do cleanups and different types of things.  They’ve done special Olympics, they’ve gone around town and done different things, so what every somebody would want us to do, if there are ever promotional things that help their businesses, or they would want to promote themselves or Indiana State or Indiana State Athletics, we need to get them there.

TH-  There’s always a question about schedules. Would it be possible to have players go to businesses and pass them out..

Yeah, I mean they could do that, it’s not a bad idea.  I think with one thing, there are people with jobs that it’s kind of their job to do that, to promote us.  But that’s not a bad idea.  Next things is, the only thing you get caught with is there is “Oh Jake Kelly took a poster to this business” and them somebody else is wondering why nobody came to theirs.  You know what I mean?  You don’t want to offend anybody.  We want to do all that we can, certainly, but you might run in to a little trouble there.

We can try though.

Lou’s local, and I’m local now too.  I’m a hometown Terre Haute guy now. I consider myself.  I just grew up in Iowa. I was just lucky enough to work at University of Iowa for 7 years. We recruited a lot of out of state kids there too.  Again, we want to build it from right around here.  There are enough players we don’t have to go too far if we do our jobs.  And happen to beat some really good schools on kids then we’ll do that. As our need comes we’ll expand as far out as we have to go.  But… Indiana and Illinois there are plenty of good players.

Obviously, look at our team. RJ and Jake, and Jake … But any coach wants to win.  Whoever it takes, if it’s somebody from in town, or if it’s somebody from New York or LA, you’ve got to go where you can get players.  We don’t have to go very far.  But there are kids… you’re not going to win every recruiting battle.  There are just too many good programs out there.  Too many good coaches, and kids are looking for different things. So, we’re going to start right here at home, and work our way out, and if we can finish it by just getting Indiana kids, then we’ll do that.

You have to go by your needs. What’s your team and positions like… we’re recruiting different things in the 2011 class than we are in the 2012 class. We’ve already targeted all those guys’ positions and we’ll work hard at those now.  Things change in your program some time or your recruiting changes, or you get to your team and you’re like “boy we need another one of these” or this or that. So you have to be able to adapt your philosophy.  But you really target certain positions and then you get the best player you can.

You go all over the place.  There are players everywhere now.  Jake Kitchell is from a small little dinky school in the middle of no where. But we think he’s going to be a good player.  Aaron Carter’s from down in a little small town. So you go where the players are.

We have three players playing in the Indy Pro End Summer League.  This something new here … our staff can’t work with them this summer, They’re here lifting 4 days a week, playing 4 days a week for themselves, but it’s something.  They can go up there and play with other college guys, some pro guys. I really encourage that. Last night was the first night of it. I see no reason that we wouldn’t continue that. As long as nothing interferes with this, I think it’s a good opportunity for them.
I just feel very lucky to be in the position that I’m in.  You know, a lot of people, have had a large impact on this. Along the way.  So it’s not like I said at the press conference, This is not about me, this is about the program. I’d like to think it’s in real good hands with the current staff and we’re certainly going to make the most of it. We’re going to work like crazy, have a lot of fun and hopefully make people from Terre Haute and the Wabash Valley and around Sycamore Alumni every where, make them really proud and have some ownership in this thing.

Opening night practice. We’ve already talked about that a little bit. I think they’re just talking about doing a function that night. We’ll practice, but I will say this… people want to come practice, they can come practice.  The more people that want to come and watch our guys and get to know them and see how hard their going to be working .. I think that’s a good thing. I’m not going to have a closed door policy during practice.

A 3 point shooting contest.  A dunk contest.  I’m sure our guys would like that.  Something.  I agree with how Coach McKenna and Coach Waltman did it.  That’s first day of practice. We’re ready to get our hands on them.  We want to get a practice. One thing we will do is get that practice. Now if there’s some others, so fun stuff we can do, we’ll do as much as we can.

Superstitions.  My dad was like that, with stuff he’d wear. Maybe some of the things he’d eat or do. I’m a little bit like that, you know if… I think Coach Waltman would always be.  If stayed at a hotel or ate at a certain restaurant, and you got your butt beat on the road, you didn’t stay there again the next year.  Sometimes you’ve got to rotate that stuff. But, ah, hopefully I’m not overly superstitious.  I just like to think that’s the way it goes.  You didn’t deserve to win that night.

My favorite color is Royal Blue. Sycamore Blue.
Favorite song?  Oh.. there’s a lot of them. I grew up you know… an old classic rock guy, then you get into college athletics, straight early hip-hop. I love all that stuff.. I hate to say it because Angie loves country, I’m not a huge country guy, other than maybe a Johnny Cash here or there.  But I’ll listen to anything.  I love music, so I’ll listen to anything.

My game day routine… I think it’ll be the same as an assistant. I get up early every morning and work out.  Get up about 5:30, try to be working out by 6.  Get here in the office when it’s quiet.  Before people start rolling in here and get some things done.  I’ll be watching tape.  I’m big on that.  If they are our opponent, I’ll be watching a lot of tape on them. We’re always going to be very prepared for who we play. So that whole game day, I’ll be doing a lot of that.  Getting with our guys, maybe bring them in here and show them things about who we’re playing.  You’ve got your pre-game and walk through the day before. That time after pre-game and walk through is so long before the game starts, I hate it as an assistant, I’m just going to struggle with that time.  I’m going to have to walk around Hulman Center or something like that for a couple hours. And hopefully be happy after its over.

We lost our best, our two toughest kids, our best leaders. They both played 35 minutes a game. So we’ve got to find ourselves. We’ve got to find leaders.  We’ve got talent here, but we’ve got to find some leadership with guys on the floor.  Guys are going to take ownership. And get after their own teammates and be coaches on the floor.  And do those things. We’ve got good kids, This is the nicest group of kids I’ve been around in 28 years of coaching. They’re going to work hard.  They are working hard.  They have been working hard.  Now it’s as a staff, we’ve got to get things going.  Build a chemistry. Its on them too when they’re outside of here to build they’re chemistry and be around each other.  It’s on us to turn them into a good team.  If they just compete and work every day, it’ll be our job to do those things, and I think they will.  They’ll going to listen and work, they’re going to be demanded a lot of stuff. And they’re going to have to come to practice with great effort all the time. To play and compete against each other everyday like it’s a game and hopefully that will carry over to the floor.
We’ve had good kids, we had leadership ability, but it wasn’t overt.  I lead by example, I don’t get in their face, I don’t tell them this, I don’t tell them that, it seems that we’ve lacked that personal touch to grab the other person and say. Hey!

I wasn’t a great player, but one thing I tell our guys, is I could lead.  I was a guy that talked and competed, and fought and worked everyday.  Getting in fights and practice with your buddies and then you walk off the court and it’s over.  I’m not asking them to go fist to fist during practice, but I’m asking them to get after each other and make it as hard if not harder in a practice as in a game. And if those guys do that then a leadership will develop. And you need your hardest workers and your toughest kids to be those guys. To get your team where you need to be. That’s going to be a tough job for us, with what we’ve lost with Harry and Rashad, but I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve said this before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, It’s been overwhelming.  The support and I know a lot of that has to do with I’ve been here a while, but I know a lot of it has to do with Angie being a student athlete here, Michael Mentzer playing here, her whole family here … but those are good people that deserve what they get.  Angie is the hardest working person in the athletic department.  Terrific person. Her whole family,  they’re all here now.  That’s how much of a passion they have for Indiana State and Terre Haute and I’m an adopted son. I’m not from here, I’m from Iowa. But this is my 2^nd time here.  There could have been other things that happened, but I certainly want to be here, and really appreciate the opportunity to have a chance to guide the program.  I want everybody to have ownership.  We want to be here, we want everybody to be excited about it and come support us and come have fun with it. So it means something when we win or lose a game. I want people to feel what we feel.

Harry Marshall

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 . . . → Read More: In His Own Words – Harry Marshall]]>

Harry Marshall

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.

I played tennis in high school, ran track in high school. Ran the 100, 4 by 1, high jump and long jump. Those are just things after basketball season to keep some shape, jumping and any thing involving jumping back in high school I loved to do. Tennis, I played with my brother just to play with him so he would have someone to play with. Played football in middle school into my freshman year concentrating on basketball and just keeping in shape and working hard at that.

Tennis is a very delicate and really I think the key is finesse. You got to be light on your feet. Got to be able to move, cut and be in shape. Tennis is a really hard sport. Tennis definitely helped on my footwork and track helped on conditioning my legs.

My younger brother, 1 year younger than me, Antonio plays basketball at Olivet Nazarene up in Kankakee Illinois, he is a sophomore starting there. Younger brother, Jordan plays at Terre Haute North, senior graduating and also is looking to play somewhere next year as he graduates high school.

After the Pizza Hut Tournament I started getting letters to small junior colleges… nothing big, nothing Division-1 nothing Division-2, just small junior college letters. It was one of those cases where you feel like your good enough to play, you feel like you should be looked at, you should be getting recruited by somebody. And when you come over to Terre Haute, Indiana and there is a Division-1 within 4 miles of where you’re playing and you play like that and really nobody is recruiting you it makes you feel like you are trying to show somebody something or prove something to somebody. Before that tournament (Pizza Hut Classic) I was playing and I was playing well but I don’t know what that tournament did but after that first game, exposure just it came out of nowhere. It made me a better person. It made me feel like a better person. It made things back at home better. My family was happy for me because finally out of all the work I have put in, my dad helping me, my brothers being competitive with me and me being competitive with them it was really rewarding for me and not just me my whole town back in Bowling Green and Spencer. And for my family it was really rewarding.

Funny story… we had won our first sectional in, I think, 21 years at Owen Valley, we were going down to the Washington Regional. I’m sure people remember Norman Wells freshman year here, he was being recruited and I think he had signed with Indiana State and Coach Stan Garrard that use to coach here was down there watching him play, but he was playing the game after me. Coach Garrard was down there early. I played Evansville in our first regional game. We lost by 4 but I had 31 points and 10 rebounds. I didn’t know he was in the gym, I got out of the locker room and there was over 15-20 people telling me an Indiana State coach was here, an Indiana State coach was here. I heard of the guy, I didn’t know Norman at the time, I heard he was playing after me so I thought he was just really here to watch Norman and maybe he just happened to see me play.

After I got back home I just wanted to play somewhere so bad I started to write my own personal letters. I sent them out. I sent to IUPUI, I sent them out to, I remember one team, Dane Fife was the coach. I sent them out to Butler. I sent them to Indiana, I sent them out to Indiana State, I sent them out to Louisville, I sent them out to any in state Division-1…any Division-1 that was around here. Just asking to walk on …asking for a chance. I got a letter back from juco Kelly Community College all the way down in Kansas. They were recruiting me. They were the only one that was really spending time coming to see me, took a visit down there (Spencer, Owen Valley High School). I was about to sign with them, I think the next day after I came home from a visit. Then I got a call from Coach Waltman to my high school coach saying he was going to come down to my school and watch open gym. Watch me play and I had to sit up some guys and ask some guys to come in and play cause this was after season. I had to ask them to come in and play because a  Division-1 coach was coming to watch me play. I just want guys to come in and play …and play me hard so he could see me play. He came in, didn’t introduce himself, I was a nervous wreck. I think we played for about 20 minutes I just look over and he’s gone. So,  I’m thinking maybe I am not Division-1 or maybe he didn’t like me. So I’m nervous and go home …can’t sleep.

The next day, I get a call saying he wants me to come up and play with the team. They were having open gym that day. So I came up here and played open gym. I think I did very well. He asked several guys that was on the team,  Trent was still here and Gabe was still here,… and to their credit they told Coach Waltman I would be a steal to get me as a walk on. Coach Waltman walked up to me and offered me a walk on spot. I would definitely be a practice player not guaranteeing any playing time not guaranteeing any dress time. Everything from that moment on I earned. I just remember that day Coach Garrard was down at our regional. I had one of those games that I can’t even explain… the rim was huge, the crowd in Washington was huge, it was one of the best high school games I ever played in. It was Coach Stan Garrard who spotted me.

Freshman year we made that Canada trip. First time ever going outside of probably 2 states. First time leaving the country. First time going on any type road trip. I’m 18. I remember being so nervous, so scared. I went over there and I played in maybe 2 of the games. I think I played a couple of minutes. I did terrible.. -did terrible. The whole ride back home, all the way-back from Canada, I’m thinking I made a mistake. I’m thinking I made a big mistake. Something, I don’t know what it was, something inside of me just clicked. Freshman year Gabe is guarding me everyday in practice. I can’t bring the ball up the court. I’m guarding him for 2½ hours everyday ,cause I can’t play on offense, cause Coach Waltman can’t trust men with the ball. Well, you know that’s what made me a better player and that’s really what earned me my position my freshman year… playing defense. I think I started a game my freshman year and played in every game back here after the Canada tournament. I just worked hard.

My major was elementary education I changed it to criminology. I should be graduating this summer before I leave to go over seas or before I start my basketball professional career. Hopefully, after all my basketball is said and done I can come back and get a minor in education. Be a teacher, be a coach. After school there is scouts out there for overseas basketball then there is a slight chance I could get into the camps here and try to stay in America and play. If that would work out that would be really fortunate I would be really blessed. There has been a Pacers scout and an Atlantic Hawks scout here a couple of times so maybe, maybe so… I hope so.

On the basketball court I am aggressive. I kind of play with a sense of I’m angry… kind of mad at the world…that’s because of the way I am off the court. Off the court I am very outgoing, laid back, relaxed. I like to laugh, like to have fun, never really have an attitude problem. Very emotional, I am very emotional. I use to be real shy when I was younger. I use to cry all the time whenever I was younger. Like my Dad use to tell me… I have a real big heart. Sometimes when you have a big heart people try to take advantage of you. Take your kindness for a weakness. How I get that out of me? I step inside the four lines of the court and I play basketball. Off the court I think I am a loveable person. A lot of people, I think, look at me different because of the troubles I have been through these last couple of years. The things that’s been going on off the court the last couple of years people think maybe I’m a bad person, a bad influence on other people or maybe other people are being a bad influence on me. I don’t think that’s necessary the case. I was born and raised pretty much in Spencer. My family, they raised me right. I have manners. I’m polite. Anybody you ask back home… I am a well-mannered kid yes sir, no sir. That’s because my parents wouldn’t have it any other way. My Dad was a Marine for a little bit so things are definitely strict back at home. You aren’t going to get away with anything.

My Mom she is a little bit of the sensitive kind but she will still get after you when she needs to. My brothers, we love each other to death. We’ll fight with each other and we’ll fight for each other. I think that’s pretty much like how I would bundle myself and wrap myself up as a whole. Family oriented. I’ll do anything to help anybody who is willing to help me. What it all boils down to is, kind of like, if you take a bullet for me I will take a bullet for you. If you are willing to take something for me and shield me a little bit whenever I need you to help me, when I need to lean on you, you can always lean on me… no matter what the circumstances. No matter what’s going on.

Back home,I hang out with my real close friend… he plays down at Oakland City right now, Jarret Manners. He played with me in high school. Back home I really don’t get out too much. I hang out with him and couple other old teammates. Here at Indiana State I hang out with my teammates. You always have to hang out with them… create that team bonding, team chemistry. I hang out with Gabe Moore as people know. That’s only because my freshman year with Gabe Moore. Me and him are a similar type person. I know this interview is about me buy people have a real bad image of Gabe. He’s not what people think. He is not what people make him out to be.

My freshman year, I came in not knowing anything about being a point guard. I played small forward and power forward in high school. I might have dribbled the ball up every once in a while in high school but I couldn’t bring the ball up the court. I couldn’t bring the ball up against a true point guard for my life. Gabe not only made me a better person on the court… in here everyday for the 2 years he played with me but he made me a better person off the court in seeing things in general. His family background once again a Mom that’s in the Army, he’s got a Dad that works everyday and 3 loving brothers just like I do. They fight for each other. They fight with each other. Just the same as I do, I just think, he along with my dad and my brothers, he is a big key to me being the player that I am on the court today and me being the person I am off the court today. I hang out with him pretty much. But I’ve made a lot of friends this year. I don’t know how it happened this year. I have opened up and people have opened up to me… so just hanging out with the right people the right group. Staying true to the people who know me and not straying too far outside my circle.

Outside of my family, outside of my teammates I would say half a dozen people. I just started hanging out with most of them. Besides my teammates one person is a true friend, true absolute friend, that’s Gabe Moore. If we’re not playing basketball we’re either one having fun, you can ask anybody on campus we’re going to talk to everybody on campus weather we’re dancing, we’re joking, we’re singing to you, making jokes, laughing, going to parties every once in a while… just having fun, watching TV, even like to play poker every once in awhile. Then whenever you just need to step away from the game of basketball you just go to a movie. You go to Boogey’s… is a nice place. Just arcade games maybe ride the go-carts, play a game of miniature golf.

Superstitions in life? Black cats and broken mirrors. In basketball, I don’t have to wear the same socks. I don’t have to wear any of the same stuff.

The one and only superstition I have and that’s not really a superstition that’s just a routine… is to pray while the Star Spangle Banner is being played. I pray for myself. I pray for my family. I pray for both teams. For everybody that’s in the arena and I pray for the world as a whole.

In the conference, the team I like to play would have to be Southern Illinois. Southern Illinois… they kind of test your manhood. If you are going to back down from them you’re most likely going to get beat. If you’re going to stand up to them you are going to be in a fight for 40 minutes. So as a team they are going to play defense. They are going to get after you and their coach is a great coach. I like coach Ligherty and I think his personality and his aggression is what his players do out on the court. So, I like playing against Southern and guys I really like playing against are Josh Young and Osias Eldridge. We all came in as freshmen. The last two years we most likely guarded each other. With those two guys, we are competitors. We go against each other. After the game and before the game it’s friendship with them… in between the four lines it’s something where nobody wants to lose. We’re going to be competitive and play hard against each other.

The time (in school) it’s been a roller coaster. The four years I have been here have been a roller coaster that I thought would be a slow uphill grind. With the ups and downs of this roller coaster its been anywhere between us losing and us beating Butler here, us beating Purdue here and just the simple fact of basketball being a hard sport to play day in and day out. You got to come in every single day ready to play basketball every single day. The big key is if you’re not ready to play every single day then it gets hard and it gets to be a grind on you. With the ups and downs its just been a real big roller coaster. My freshman year it was mostly good for me. I played all the time. I started when I never thought nor media people thought I would ever be able to play.

My sophomore year, we got a new coach and things were different the system was different. I still came in and worked hard earned my spot. Earned the scholarship that I always wanted. That was another up to the roller coaster. We had a bad ending to our season. Never had a winning season until this season now. My junior year, I had struggles with not playing the first half. That was one of the lowest moments not only my life but basketball career and that was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do. Just sit on the bench and watch. Watch basketball. Last year another up was us going to Illinois State and me hitting a game winning shot. Us winning 7 games in a row. Our 7 games out of 8 ending the season well… even thought it was a bad season.

This season, the guys are so much different than the first three teams I have been with. This group is kind of… you can’t explain it cause you have so many different personalities, you have so many different looks, all types of ways people go about things. This year is just different. I stepped up as a leader, I stepped up as a player, I stepped up as a person I think this season has made me do that. This season we have already clinched our first winning season since 2001. The feeling is a great feeling because we have always been one game or two games under 500. Whenever you can be apart of a winning season to turn around a program… you put your stamp on it and me, as a person, I feel good and I feel great about that. To put a stamp on it and be a leader on this team. I hope people will remember me, I hope people will remember how hard I play and I hope people will remember this team.

I would not only like to beat the number one team which is Kansas I would pick them because I would want to beat the number one team in basketball right now… and then I would want to beat and play who I think is number one or one of the top 3 guards in college basketball today. Its just a competitive thing with me I want to play the best, I want to beat the best and I want to compare myself to the guys and to the people that NBA scouts are looking at and see what I can do against them.

I can’t say this team is more of a team… because our previous years we have been a group, we’ve been a team. This team, I think, is most likely the most athletic team and the most sporadic team. You normally have guys that act the same, guys that tend to do the same thing but with this team you really and truly, even the twins, have 15 different personalities. You have 15 different ways. You have 15 different looks. You have 15 different ways of going about things. That makes us as a team, us as a whole, a unique bunch you don’t always have. This group is just different. They are going to play hard. They’re going to compete and its just mind boggling how when you get 15 different people how they can come together as one person, as one big family. I think that’s the biggest key to us being and having a winning season this year… is that at the beginning, we talked about family and it slowly has become a true family.

I want a ring so bad. We came close last year. I think whenever we step in St. Louis that’s when I will remind my team about it… of how close we were last year. I said it and I am going to say it again, cause I said it in the newspaper at the beginning of the year and I feel this exact same way, anything short of a championship is a disappointment. I feel with the group we have, with the talent we have, with the players we have and how we have come together, throughout this whole season… with injuries, with suspensions, with anything going on the court, off the court… we should have and we do have the toughness to play 110 percent in St. Louis.