Indiana State's NIT run comes to a bitter end, but they took Terre Haute, and all of us, on a helluva ride

Seton Hall's 9-0 run to close the game made the ultimate difference. But ISU proved something: It belonged in the NCAA Tournament. No question.

Back in February of 2020, back before the pandemic shut us all down, I spent 36 hours embedded with Indiana State’s basketball program while working for The Athletic. The school offered the opportunity and I immediately agreed it was a great idea.

They regretted the decision the moment the story came out.

Here’s how it began:

Some days, head basketball coach Greg Lansing walks into the Indiana State coaches’ office at the Hulman Center and sees feces.

“I’ve seen raccoon shit, bat shit and mouse turds,” he says, sitting in the same office the day before the Sycamores’ Jan. 25 game against Bradley.

What he’s saying, somewhat indelicately, is that the 47-year-old Hulman Center is very much under construction. The dust is so bad, the team wet-mops the floor before every game and practice. Lansing said he’s brought recruits in and had them wear hardhats. The $50 million renovation is supposed to be finished in time for the start of next season. “Progress, they tell me,” he says sarcastically. It can’t come quickly enough.

“One day, the arena people threw down some of these mice-killing things where they stick to ‘em,” Lansing says. “I come over one morning, there’s like five mice in these things, so I took ‘em and put ‘em in the hallway.”

The unkempt state of the arena is one of the many challenges that come with being a mid-major playing in the Missouri Valley Conference. Indiana State, a program best known for having produced Larry Bird and reaching the NCAA Championship Game against Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team in 1979, doesn’t have the money that other Valley schools do.

According to Lansing, ISU’s basketball budget is last in the conference by $500,000.

And on it went.

Lansing, who is now a scout for the Philadelphia 76ers, got fired at season’s end, and I’m a little queasy about the very good chance the story had a whole lot to do with it. The Indiana State people were beside themselves. Of course, Lansing thought the whole thing was mildly hysterical and didn’t hold me or the story responsible for his demise. Truth is, he was ready to head on down the road.

In a way, it was probably best for everyone to move on.

The Hulman Center renovation resulted in a very nice arena, and the coach who replaced Lansing, Josh Schertz, has revealed himself as one of the bright young coaches in the country. Yeah, ISU lost Thursday night, 79-78 in the NIT Final to Seton Hall, blowing a seven-point lead in the last two minutes as the Pirates went on a closing 9-0 tear. And it was heartbreaking for the Terre Haute contingent, the players, the long-suffering fans. “Gutting,” Schertz said through tears.