Indiana State's Graves looks back on exhibition contests

Indiana State men's basketball coach Matthew Graves took time Tuesday to speak on the lessons learned from the exhibition slate.The Sycamores started with a closed-doors meeting at Notre Dame. ISU coach Matthew Graves said the Sycamores and Fighting Irish played 12-minute quarters."We treated each quarter like it was the end-of-a-game scenario," Graves said. "So if it was close, then you'd foul or you might go two-for-one and different scenarios."After that event, the Sycamores went to Butler to take on the Bulldogs and then hosted crosstown institution Rose-Hulman. So how did playing Notre Dame and Butler help ISU with Charlotte looming to open the season?"You can't always simulate the athleticism and size," Graves said. "Even though we're a little bit bigger this year, they're still high-major programs and they've got more size, more athleticism."He said to be able to play those two programs and now with Charlotte looming Monday, Graves said it's not the first time that the Sycamores will be seeing size and length."We still have to respond and execute appropriately, but at least we've seen it before," Graves said. "So that's one advantage of playing those two programs early."Graves said that his exhibition starters of Karmani Gregory, E.J. McQuillan, Maguire Mitchell, Jackson Cooper and Alessio Calamita are the likely early-season starters.Gregory dropped 22 points at Butler before ISU decided to play everyone against Rose-Hulman, which held him to seven. Cooper dropped 12 at Butler and 22 against Rose-Hulman. McQuillan had nine at Butler and one against Rose-Hulman. Mitchell tallied 10 points at Butler and 19 against Rose-Hulman. Calamita had six points against Rose-Hulman."As we sub different guys off the bench, whether it's Chance [Puryear] or Meechie [White] or Deuce [Paschal] and then a backup big between Alexa [Vlajic] and Calamita, that's kind of our 10-man rotation in some form or fashion," Graves mentioned.With Gregory and Cooper, Graves said those guys are learning how to play off each other."It's not necessarily a situation where this possession it's you know, KG's turn, this possession, it's Jackson's turn," Graves said. "It's more of a flow and how to play off each other, reread the situation, what it calls for."Looking back at Saturday's game against Rose-Hulman, Graves said with how the Engineers came out firing, a lot of credit is due to coach Nick Sales and the team. The Engineers had the lead for a bit before the Sycamores held a four-point lead at the half and eventually pulled away for an 81-59 victory."I've said this several times, they had their top seven, eight guys in scoring return and the continuity piece, that means a lot," Graves said. "Hopefully they can stay healthy moving forward, but they're going to be a fun team to watch."Graves credited his team pulling away due to fatigue from the Engineers and that the Sycamores were able to impose their will more."Obviously, we're a little bit bigger team and more athletic," Graves said. "I think we did wear them down."As far as other aspects the Sycamores learned they need to work on, Graves noted some lapses in defense."I didn't think we closed out very well with their shooters and we need to do a better job of that," Graves assessed.ISU tips off the regular season at home Monday when Charlotte comes to Hulman Center for a 7 p.m. matchup.