By Kim Doss, Her Hoop Stats
 
Aim high. That’s the mindset of head coach Chad Killinger as he and the Indiana State Sycamores head into his second season leading the team.
 
“Our number one goal is to have a winning season, and finishing in the top half of the conference,” Killinger said. “That might sound ambitious for someone in their second year, but I feel like if you set your goals at what you think you might accomplish, you're probably not going to accomplish much, because in most things, people are going to fall a little bit short of what their true goal is. So our goal is to have a winning season and finishing in the top half of the league, and if we fall short of that, at least we've accomplished something.”
 
Killinger came to Indiana State from an assistant coaching position at Nicholls State, but he has years of head coaching experience at the junior college level. He returned to his home state to meet his own goal. He wanted to become the head coach of a Division I program.
 
“The opportunity to do it in my home state,” Killinger said. “My parents' house that I grew up in and that they owned for 40 years before my father passed away is 50 miles from here. So, for me, you're living the dream.”
 
Last year was just the start of that dream. It had its successes even if the wins and losses weren’t what the team would like. The Sycamores finished 11-20 overall and 5-13 in MVC play. Both were improvements over the previous two years. More importantly for long-term success, Indiana State made strides in its statistical performance.
 
The Sycamores improved on both sides of the ball in 2021-22. Their offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) jumped to 91.0, which put them in the top half of Division I. The team had not been that successful since the 2013-14 season when they had an offensive rating of 92.4.
 
They also made a considerable improvement in the gap between what they were doing on offense and what they were allowing their opponents to do. Indiana State’s defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) dropped from 104.7 in 2020-21 to 96.8. The net difference between offensive and defensive ratings dropped to -5.7, the program’s best since it was -3.8 in 2016-17.
 
Those kinds of improvements are why Killinger says that he’s not really on year two with this program. They’re already ahead of schedule.
 
“As far as the first step with the program, I really felt like we got a year ahead probably around Christmas time,” Killinger said. “I felt like we were probably advancing about a year ahead of where we felt like we could be that first year, and so we kind of look at it more as going into our third year. The same results you'd want your third year more so than your second year. Your first year, … there's so many things, unknowns. And then the second year, you get a better grasp of some things. But I feel like we've kind of skipped ahead to like that third year of development.”
 
It helps that Indiana State didn’t have many departures after that first year. Coaching changes can bring roster instability both in the year they take place and the year after. The Sycamores didn’t experience that. They lost just one player to transfer. With three more players exhausting their eligibility, seven from the 11-player roster returned. Killinger believes the lack of transfers out of the program was due to the relationships they were able to build quickly.
 
“The biggest part when you take over a program is getting the young women to buy into what you're trying to do,” Killinger said. “And there's a lot of used car salesmen in this business that don't really have the best interest of the players in mind, or in recruiting they aren't necessarily honest. And then a kid gets to an institution, and it's not anything close to what they thought it was going to be as far as their experiences. We don't do that.”
 
Having players who can be around for four or five years was a major reason Killinger dreamed of coaching Division I. During his days in the JUCO ranks, he knew he was guaranteed to say goodbye sooner than he would like. He had only coached one player for three or more years prior to this season.
 
“I felt like in junior college, you had [the players] those freshmen and sophomore years [which] are so important for development,” Killinger said. “They would transfer to these Division I schools, Division II schools, and NAIA schools, and I would be like, ‘The worst part about it is, I'm probably not gonna get [to] see your best basketball. I'm not gonna get to coach you when you're playing at your best.’”
 
These days, players are transferring in order to be coached by Killinger during the later years of their careers. Last year, guard Anna McKendree followed Killinger from Nicholls State. This season, the team added Chelsea Cain, another Nicholls State transfer. The Louisiana native left her home state because of her rapport with Killinger. She wanted to be one of those players he got to coach when she was playing her best basketball.
 
“He wants the best for you,” Cain said. “So even if that means getting on you, it's not him just getting on you. He wants you to do better and he sees the good in you, so he wants to just see you at your best ability.”
 
One returner Killinger believes can still rise to get the most out of her ability is Del’Janae Williams. Williams was the team’s second-leading scorer last season, but she was the top scorer among the players who played all season. Her 12.5 points and 2.8 assists earned her honorable mention recognition and her 2.0 steals landed her on the all-defense team. Her coach believes she can stay on the All-Defensive team while also being more than honorable mention All-MVC if the team does just a little bit better as a unit.
 
Williams sees that kind of improvement in her future, as well. She was encouraged by the changes Killinger brought to the team last season and thinks they can take another step this season.
 
“It was really good last season,” she said. “The environment was different from before. The style of play, the trust he has in us with executing what he has in store.”
 
While the team played at a slower pace than in years past, Williams believes that will change as they get further into their development this season.
 
“We want to play fast, which is a thing I like to do,” she said. “We want to get up and down the court. We even want to play faster this year. So, it’s progressing very well.”
 
The combination of returners, promising transfers, and incoming freshmen makes Killinger feel like the issues that kept them from winning more games last year can be addressed. While the team improved their record and had some big wins in the MVC – including winning their first MVC Tournament game since 2014 – depth kept them from reaching even higher levels.
 
“That lack of depth that we had last year, at times we’d get a big lead – double-digit leads – in the first half against the top teams in the league, and then we just didn't have the gas to finish those games out,” Killinger said. “There's a lot more fuel in the tank now.”
 
Adrian Folks was one of the players the Sycamores missed. The redshirt junior started the first five games last season before tearing her MCL and ACL against Jacksonville State in late November. In those five games, she led the team with 14.6 points per game.
 
Folks was able to practice with the team in a limited capacity during offseason workouts but has had to have another minor procedure performed on her knee. The team hopes to get her back in practice at full speed this month so she can be ready for the start of the regular season.
 
It’s not an easy task, but in their second year together, players and coach know a little bit more about what to expect from each other and, just as importantly, what to expect of their opponents in the Missouri Valley Conference.
 
“I knew there were good coaches, I knew there's good talent, but the depth of the conference is probably the thing that maybe surprised me a little bit,” Killinger said.
 
Indiana State wants to prove that it can compete with the best of this deep conference.