Indiana State basketball coach Josh Schertz has stirred things up in the Missouri Valley Conference. The career Division 2 coach arrived in Terre Haute in 2021 and has transformed the Sycamores into a Valley power and one of the most entertaining basketball teams in college basketball.
Schertz left Lincoln Memorial (Harorgate, Tennessee) after thirteen seasons of accumulating 337 victories (.831 winning percentage) and ten NCAA Tournament appearances. The Florida Atlantic grad has brought a wide-open, ‘read & react’ style of offense to the Valley that has been revolutionary to the typically physical and defensive-minded league.
When describing Schertz’s offensive creativity people use words like ‘genius’, ‘savant’, ‘guru’, and ‘master-mind’. He humbly says he has attempted to learn NBA-style concepts and options. His players love playing for the story-telling head coach.
Indiana State basketball (13-2,4-0) has the numbers to back up the high praise. The Sycamores are the national leader in ‘effective field goal percentage (.613), third in three-point percentage (.410), fifth in field goal percentage (.513), tenth in scoring (86.5) and play at the eighteenth fastest pace nationally.
All five starters average ten points or more and five of their top six scorers convert better than 40% from deep. Five players average at least two assists per game and the second leading assist man is CENTER Robbie Avila.
The Sycamores’ two losses were at Alabama and at Michigan State. Josh Schertz has his players believing and competing at an extremely high level. Indiana State basketball is thirty-first in the national evaluation tool and fifty-first in Ken Pomeroy’s computer.
College basketball’s ‘Yoda’ is enjoying this success after losing the top three scorers from last year’s 23-win team. This year’s squad includes one grad student (Xavier Bledson) and no seniors. Schertz’s ability to recruit and blend talented and selfless players together makes him something of a Zen-Master.