NORMAL — After losing a 14-point second-half lead at Tulsa in early December last season, Dan Muller's message to his Illinois State basketball team was clear:
Somewhere on the flight back to Bloomington-Normal, the Redbirds heeded their coach's warning and underwent a drastic change. Suddenly — like the very next game — everyone started defending like Paris Lee and Tony Wills.
What could have been a long season turned into a historic one with a school-record 28 victories and ISU's first Missouri Valley Conference championship since 1998.
The Redbirds held opponents to 37.9 percent field goal shooting (a school record) and 61.