How a 15-minute montage helped Indiana State basketball flush NCAA snub, spur NIT run
INDIANAPOLIS — Josh Schertz knew what to expect. His players were less than 24 hours removed from having their NCAA tournament bubble popped and becoming the highest-rated NET team to be excluded from March Madness. A dubious distinction and a devastated bunch of Indiana State Sycamores.
They should have been in, Schertz reiterated following Tuesday’s 100-90 win over Utah in the NIT semifinals. "We feel like we should have been in and hindsight has shown we probably should've been in." But they weren’t, so they had to make the best of what they were given.
That process began with a hard reset.
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With help from their players’ parents, the ISU staff put together a 15-minute montage, tracking when their players were little kids playing “bitty ball” all the way through high school.
The plan, Schertz explained, was to take them back to their why — “Why’d you start this? Why did you play basketball? What made you fall in love with the game?” — and it gave everyone involved (coaches included) a chance to regain perspective and refocus on the opportunities still ahead.
“The true measure of who you are as a person is how you respond when things don’t go your way and I have to set the tone for that, right?” Schertz said. “Of course I’m devastated. I felt like we earned it. … But I can’t expect those guys to pick themselves up if I can't pick myself up. So that’s what we did. We shifted our focus from disappointment to what’s next. Let's not waste this opportunity.”
It would have been easy for Indiana State to mail it in following its historically brutal snub and an unceremonious end to its historic season was very much in play when it trailed SMU by 15 in the second half of their opening round matchup. But the Sycamores instead used it as an opportunity to demonstrate their toughness, rallying to down the Mustangs before reeling off three more wins against Minnesota, Cincinnati and Utah.
"That’s a credit to our kids. They’re resilient. They’re tough," Schertz said. "They’ve been that way all year and have shown it over and over again, but no more than they have here from that disappointment on Selection Sunday to where we are now."
"Being able to continue playing with this team for as long as possible is what's kept us playing as hard as we can, getting us up every morning," sophomore Robbie Avila added. "We have one last one Thursday no matter what, so we're hoping to go out with a bang."
Now the Sycamores (32-6) are a win away from achieving their postseason goal with fellow No. 1-seed Seton Hall — another noteworthy NCAA tournament snub — awaiting in Thursday's NIT championship game (7 p.m., ESPN).
A fifth consecutive win would not only secure ISU's first NIT championship, it would also match the Sycamores for most wins in program history (1978-79).
"The best part is I get to coach these guys again (Wednesday), then I'll be sad Thursday morning, because I know win or lose it's coming to an end," Schertz said. "So I'm trying to savor these next couple days as much as possible."
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Josh Schertz helped Indiana State flush NCAA snub, focus on NIT
