There is no getting around it: Illinois State has not had the season many expected. An eagerly anticipated campaign that came in with high expectations has not materialized.
The postseason provides a second chance to redeem tough seasons, though, and there also are no style points in March. As such, no matter the frustrations about a year that has been uneven like so many others in the Missouri Valley Conference, the Redbirds owe no apologies after winning their opening game of the 2019 MVC Tournament.
In a game where the basket seemed to have been shrunk by several inches, Illinois State held off Evansville 65-60 Thursday night in the first round of the 2019 MVC Tournament at the Enterprise Center. The No. 7 seed Redbirds (17-15 overall) got a stiff challenge from the 10th-seeded Purple Aces but made the plays down the stretch to advance to a quarterfinal game Friday night against No. 2 seed Drake.
Neither team shot better than 36.2%, and ISU even went more than six minutes without a point in the second half, right after building its biggest lead of the game. When it was go time, though, the Redbirds got big plays down the stretch to advance.
“It was ugly. It was real ugly,” said Redbirds head coach Dan Muller. “(We) made enough plays down the stretch. These two guys (Keyshawn Evans and Phil Fayne next to him at the postgame interview) led us like usual. Milik (Yarbrough) made a lot of big plays. But time time of year, survive and advance. That’s all that matters.”
Fayne was a constant throughout for ISU, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Seniors Yarbrough and Evans were clutch in the time after Evansville had turned a 44-33 deficit into a 45-44 lead with less than eight minutes to play, while Illinois State went through a painful scoreless stretch that included missing the front end on three one-and-one free throw opportunities. The duo stanched the bleeding and scored 12 of the Redbirds’ next 13 points, giving the Redbirds control late even as a stubborn Purple Aces team refused to go away.
“No, I never thought about that down the stretch,” said Fayne when asked if he was thinking these might be the final minutes of his career. “Being a senior, we’ve been down before in many other games, and we fought back per usual. The only thing that crossed my mind is we’ve got to get this next stop, or we’ve got to get these next stops together. We’ve got seven more minutes to pull ourselves back out of the deficit we were in.”
It took more than just ISU’s seniors to win this one, though. The Redbirds’ bench was excellent, and in particular Matt Chastain. The energetic and athletic Chastain was a tornado on the floor with seven points, eight rebounds and even a blocked shot matched up in the post one time on Evansville’s big, beefy center Dainius Chatkevicius.
“He had big plays, a big block, two big layups,” said Muller. “When ‘Chaz’ plays with energy-he always plays hard, but when he plays with energy, he gives us something that nobody else does. I thought he was terrific defensively on Riley in particular. Just the ability to make big plays in big moments, we needed it.
“His role, he knows it. It’s very specific. And we really like him to be aggressive offensively. Sometimes he doesn’t look to be, but we’ve been encouraging him to do that. Tonight luckily he was at the right moments.”
The Redbirds came into the season with high expectations. ISU welcomed back a talented, productive senior trio in Evans, Fayne and Yarbrough, who combined to average nearly 50 points per game among them a year ago. A run to the 2018 MVC tourney final was expected to be a launching pad to bigger and better things, with a schedule that seemed built for not just conference but perhaps even national success.
Instead, Illinois State was one of a mess of Valley teams struggling to separate from each other. The Redbirds missed on a number of prime early season opportunities-losses at home to Mississippi and San Diego State, road games at Belmont and Central Florida, plus a neutral court tourney loss to Georgia.
In conference play, ISU was sometimes snakebitten, losing twice on halfcourt shots at the buzzer, but it also bore heavy responsibility for both, blowing leads in the final minute. The Redbirds did win five of six midway through the Valley schedule to surge into a tie for first, and then proceeded to lose five straight, three by margins of 13, 16 and 23 points.
Illinois State has been hindered by injuries leaving it with short rosters for the past two years now. One might’ve thought otherwise Thursday night, when Muller played ten players all at least 11 minutes, and all ten made noticeable contributions.
Isaac Gassman hit a pair of three-pointers. Josh Jefferson scored five points in the first half. Rey Idowu banged inside and gave Fayne some needed breaks. Matt Hein was scoreless but grabbed four rebounds and gave the team gritty defense. The reserves also helped ISU considerably after Yarbrough spent a good share of the game in foul trouble.
“We have faith in all of our guys,” said Muller after, even while acknowledging that Yarbrough playing just 19 minutes hampered his team. “I thought all ten guys contributed. Ike (Gassman) made big shots. Josh made big shots, Rey. Everybody contributed.”
ISU does at least have 10 healthy players coming into Arch Madness, and contributions from all is especially important for a team trying to make a run of winning four games in four days.
The task ahead might appear nigh impossible. Since the MVC tourney became a 10-team affair in 1997, only once has a team winning in the play-in round won its next game. Play-in winners are 1-43 in their quarterfinal games, including 0-for-the-last-20 years. Only Bradley in 1998 (a winner as the 7 seed over Creighton in the quarterfinals that year before falling in the semis) is keeping 1 and 2 seeds from being perfect in quarterfinal play in this event since 1990, if one goes back before the two play-in games.
Ouch.
At the same time, Illinois State has a semifinal matchup that it might be just about salivating over. The Redbirds defeated Drake twice in the regular season, including a win at home over the MVC co-champs just 12 days earlier. The Bulldogs come in a wounded team (starting guard D.J. Wilkins is injured and out for the rest of the season) and don’t have nearly ISU’s Arch Madness experience. The Redbirds have been in the title game the last two years, while Drake hasn’t won as much as a game in the event since 2013.
On top of that, there’s one more thing. The last ten times Illinois State has defeated a team twice in a season and then face them in the MVC Tournament, the Redbirds are 10-0. So much for that axiom about it being tough to defeat a team three times in one season.
If there’s a team tailor-fit to break trends of play-in teams exiting quickly in the MVC tourney, it just might be this one.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
