The success of ISU men’s hoops inspires Sycamore’s new women’s coach

May 10 – Marc Mitchell sat shoulder to shoulder in Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on April 2, watching men’s basketball’s most compelling mid-major team: the Indiana State Sycamores.

He got a glimpse of the potential of his future community.

That evening, ISU defeated much larger Utah 100-90 in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament.

Then Seton Hall routed Georgia to set up an NIT final between the Sycamores and Pirates on April 4. Seton Hall rallied to defeat ISU 79-77 in that final as the Sycamores capped off an epic 32-7 season.

Mitchell attended the NIT semifinals to support two former colleagues: Seton Hall athletic director Bryan Felt and men’s head basketball coach Shaheen Holloway.

Both Felt and Holloway served in the same role at St. Peter’s University a few years earlier, when Mitchell coached the St. Peter’s women’s basketball program in New Jersey.

So before Mitchell cheered on his friends’ Seton Hall team in the NIT nightcap semifinal in Hinkle, he saw the sea of ​​ISU blue the Sycamores vs. support Utah. “I saw the gym packed with Indiana State fans,” Mitchell recalled Friday morning.

The Elizabeth, New Jersey native also concluded that the NCAA tournament should not have overlooked the Sycamores. “As an outsider looking in, I thought they should have been in the NCAA tournament,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell had no idea at the time that five weeks later he would become ISU’s new women’s basketball coach. The performances of the Sycamore men’s team last season and the Larry Bird-led team of 1978-79 were Mitchell’s only meetings with Indiana State University.

“That’s the extent of what I knew about them, in the state of Indiana,” he said.

Indiana State interim athletic director Angie Lansing announced Friday that Mitchell would become Sycamore’s next women’s coach. He has an impressive track record.

His 15-year head coaching career includes winning an NCAA Division III national championship at Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham University in 2014. His Devils finished 33-0 that season. That’s the same record that Bird and the ’78-79 Sycamores had going into the NCAA finals against Michigan State, but let’s not digress. Mitchell prepared for college head coaching by serving two seasons as an assistant at two different colleges, and teaching and coaching in the girls basketball program at his high school alma mater in Elizabeth.

In nine seasons at FDU-Florham, Mitchell’s teams compiled a cumulative record of 187-67, a .736 winning percentage and six NCAA Tournament appearances. He is the college’s winningest coach of all time.

Mitchell advanced to the Division I ranks at St. Peter’s and faced a difficult task. The Peacocks’ women had won just 19 of 151 games over the past five seasons. His record in four seasons of 41-78 at St. Peter’s was a marked improvement. His 2020-2021 team gave the program its first winning record in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference since 2008-09, and its first MAAC Tournament title game appearance in two decades.

Winning also happened at U of Indy. The Greyhounds finished 18-12 overall and 13-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference before going 13-15 and 10-12 last season.

Now Mitchell takes over an ISU program and made strides in previous coach Chad Killinger’s three seasons, but still struggled to a cumulative mark of 33-60. Killinger resigned last month. Interim head coach Deidra Johnson guided the Sycamores admirably through much of last season after Killinger was sidelined for unknown health reasons.

ISU’s last steady success came in former coach Teri Moren’s four seasons, when the Sycamores won 15 games or more each year. Moren in particular has since turned Indiana University into a national powerhouse. Longtime ISU women’s fans no doubt remember the program’s heyday under former coach Jim Wiedie, when greats like Melanie Boeglin made the Sycamores a contender for the Missouri Valley Conference. Wiedie’s teams then drew 2,000 or more loyalists to Hulman Center for most games.

Mitchell saw firsthand Terre Haute’s passionate crowd last month at the ISU men’s game against Utah in Indianapolis.

“I just think there’s a huge fan base out there,” Mitchell said. “I think we have to put the program together and put a team on the floor that people are excited to see.

“Just give us some time, and I think we’ll have that,” he added.

Mitchell’s first order of business is to connect with the potential returnees to his roster for next season. From last season’s 11-21 team, only two players have exhausted their college eligibility: forward Chelsea Cain and guard Ella Sawyer. Two seniors, Kiley Bess and Mya Glanton, have won the remaining season, if they choose to play. The remaining players could return for the 2024-2025 season.

“I want to reach out to the current players that are there now to see if they plan to stay, and to see who wants to stay and who wants to leave,” Mitchell said.

Putting together that selection will be more difficult than in a normal season. With Mitchell taking over in the second week of May, players from across the country who have entered the NCAA transfer portal have largely all chosen destinations. “It’s very late,” Mitchell said.

“So this year will be a battle, but I assure you that next year we will be in the transfer portal early,” he added.

The portal helped former ISU men’s coach Josh Schertz build last season’s memorable team, and is an important tool for new ISU men’s coach Matthew Graves to supplement that program.

Mitchell and the Sycamore women could also be on an upward climb.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or [email protected].