Former Indiana State coach Bill Hodges, who guided the men's team for four seasons, has come out of retirement to coach at Roanoke Catholic School in Virginia.

Hodges coached during the legendary 1978-79 campaign that ended with the Sycamores losing to Michigan State 75-64 in the NCAA championship game at Salt Lake City.

“My daughter [Zoie Park] had taken a job teaching at Roanoke Catholic,” Hodges told the Tribune-Star. “Their coach had retired and they talked me into doing it [in March 2010].

“I had moved up here [to Virginia] to be close to my grandkids, and I started teaching [world history] at William Fleming High School.”

After leaving Indiana State with a 67-48 career record in 1982, he landed head-coaching jobs at Georgia College (1986-91) and Mercer University (1991-97).

Indiana State has spread the basketball around this season, which has been hard for the Missouri Valley Conference to handle.

Nine different Sycamores have had at least one double-figure scoring game since MVC action began in December.

“I think I’d defend us the same other coaches are, to tell the truth,” coach Greg Lansing said. “It just boils down to having players to make plays so you can win games.”

The team's scoring versatility, along with its defense, has made the Sycamores hard to defend.

“When me and Dwayne went down, I think that helped us a lot in the way that guys got confidence and came together. Now that me and Dwayne are back and tried to fit in the best we can, it’s added to our repertoire,” Kelly said. “Everybody can pick each other up and it makes us hard to guard.”

Indiana State beat Creighton 61-59 on Sunday thanks to a reserve layup by Carl Richard as time expired.

Richard inbounded the ball to Jake Odum and the redshirt freshman attempted a shot. Instead Odum's potential game-winning three missed the mark by so much that Richard was able to read the miss, rebound the airball and bank in a reverse layup as the buzzer sounded.

The second-place Syacmores are now 6-1 in the MVC play, but their six opponents besides Creighton had a combined record of 7-29 in the conference entering play on Sunday.

Indiana State improved to 4-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference with a win over Drake.

There were seven times on Sunday when ISU led by more than seven points.

“That showed people how much tougher we’re getting. We wouldn’t have won that game last year because we’d build those leads early and get complacent.

“Lately, we’ve been doing a better job with our toughness,” said ISU center Isiah Martin.

ISU (9-7, 4-1) is tied with Creighton and Wichita State for second in the MVC.

Greg Lansing has excelled in his first season as the head coach of Indiana State.

“It’s been unbelievable,” Lansing, a former Iowa assistant, said. “Everything that I expected it to be, it certainly is.

“I’m just having a lot of fun, really enjoying it and learning every day.”

The Sycamores (7-7, 2-1) are 5-0 at the Hulman Center this season.

Lansing was a member of Steve Alford’s staff at Iowa for seven years before he was let go in 2006.

“When you get fired, it throws your life into crises mode,” Lansing said. “I’m lucky enough I’ve got good people around me and my reputation is good in the college basketball world.

“I was confident I was going to get another job. I just didn’t know where.”