By Eric Stock

NORMAL – Illinois State will play its first matchup against new Missouri Valley Conference rival Valparaiso Saturday.

Dan Muller’s Redbirds are trying to bounce back from two ugly losses to Indiana State and Northern Iowa. Muller said his team has struggled with a lack of confidence.

“I got to call a timeout sooner, number one, that’s on me,” Muller said. “Hopefully that will help.

“The first two baskets, that’s just two in a row, but once the teams makes three shots in a row or maybe it’s an 8-0 run and we drop our heads. That’s just a function of some lack of confidence right now with our team.”

Junior forward Phil Fayne said it won’t take major adjustments to get the team back on track.

“I love my teammates, I have full faith in my teammates, that we are going to turn this around really quickly,” Fayne said. “it’s just a few small things that need tweaked.”

Sophomore guard Madison Williams said its going to take hustle and hard work which he considers to be two of his strengths.

That’s something I take pride in because obviously I’m not the most talented player on th court, so I just try to do the little things – dive on the floor, play as yard as I can,” Williams said. “That’s one thing I try to bring to the team is energy and defense.”

The game is scheduled for a 9 p.m. tipoff. Our pregame begins at 8 on WJBC.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].