Editor’s note: Read more about Evansville as a sports town in the full feature story.
Basketball simply is played at another level in hoops-mad Indiana, including in Evansville.
The University of Evansville menโs basketball program has won five NCAA Division II national championships and made five trips to the Division I tournament. The University of Southern Indiana, now in its second season in DI, captured the DII menโs title in 1995.
If youโre a history buff, consider that Evansville may have hosted Indianaโs first basketball game.
The Evansville and Terre Haute YMCA menโs teams met on Jan. 27, 1894, at the Evansville Y. An article written by S. Chandler Lighty titled โJames Naismith Didnโt Sleep Here: A Re-Examination of Indianaโs Basketball Origins,โ published by the Indiana Magazine of History, found that โEvansville seems to have been the site of the earliest competitive (non-exhibition) basketball game in the state.โ
Now, that basketball legacy is rebuilding under two familiar names. Former USI player and current UE coach David Ragland played for the Eagles from 2001-03 for head coach Rick Herdes, the first season in which current USI head coach Stan Gouard was Herdesโ assistant.
โWe have a unique relationship,โ Gouard says of Ragland. โIโm pulling for him and heโs pulling for me.โ
Ragland transferred to USI after playing his first two seasons for Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
After battling pancreatic cancer for 15 years, Raglandโs father, Darrell, died in 2017, at age 61. Gouardโs father also died of cancer, in 2006. Ten years later, Gouard was there, helping Ragland through the same painful process.
Ragland marvels that Gouard earned the nickname โSupermanโ during his playing days without a hint of irony. Owing a debt of gratitude to then-USI head coach Bruce Pearl, Gouard is an accomplished coach in his own right. He guided the University of Indianapolis to eight NCAA DII tournament berths before joining USI in 2020.
As for Ragland, he is starting to turn UEโs program around in his second season as head coach. The Aces eclipsed 2022-23โs win total โ admittedly, a meager five โ by the end of November. Last season had marked the Acesโ fourth last-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference in the past six years. Heading into Christmas 2023, UE had the MVCโs third-best overall season win record.
Ragland was a senior at William Henry Harrison High School in 1999 when UE made its last NCAA tournament appearance. That same season, he led Harrison to the Class 4A semi-state tournament at Indianapolisโ Hinkle Fieldhouse.
โReturning to town, the city of Evansville, to coach at the University of Evansville, itโs come full circle,โ says Ragland, 42.
His mother, Karen, was a major player in USIโs Varsity Club, so he knows what it takes to win on the floor and succeed behind the scenes. Ragland carried his basketball acumen over to a series of DI assistant coaching jobs, also serving as head coach at Vincennes Universityโs junior col- lege program and now at UE.
Gouard, who lifted the Eagles to the 1995 DII championship and was named the two- time DII National Player of the Year, posted a 16-17 record in USIโs first season of DI. The Eagles finished seventh in the Ohio Valley Conference; the OVC tournament at the Ford Center takes the top eight teams in the league.
Gouard, 53, notes that the second year in DI often proves difficult. Aside from lead- ing mighty Duke University at halftime of Thanksgiving weekendโs Blue Devil Chal- lenge before reality set in, the Eagles struggled early this season. They must survive a four-year waiting period before becoming eligible for the NCAA tournament.
Lightly recruited Isaiah Swope, a Castle High School graduate, flourished as a freshman at USI. But the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) money available at Indiana State University helped lure Swope to the Sycamores, where he already is among the Missouri Valley Conferenceโs best players as a junior. (Read more about Swope and other athletes to watch.)
On the court, Ragland says UE was in a โdark placeโ when he arrived. โWe had an individual mindset we had to overcome. We are building the program, brick by brick. We are changing the culture, from the strength and conditioning program (on up).โ
As for Gouard, he continually praises Pearl, his old college coach, now in his ninth season at Auburn University.
โWe talk on a weekly basis,โ Gouard says. โHeโs part of my life. I wouldnโt be a coach without Bruce Pearl. He coaches hard and loves harder. Heโs a great playersโ coach. Heโs a winner everywhere heโs been. Heโs a great friend, a father figure, and a mentor.โ
East Side, West Side Rivalry Intact
Just like the East and West sides of Evansville, UE โ a small, private school โ and USI โ a still-relatively young public university โ are distinctly different. That said, Gouard mentions that Eaglesโ and Acesโ scouts occasionally are recruiting some of the same players.
The universities also have some of the same donors and sponsors, such as Old National Bank. But UE officials were reluctant to single out their largest donors and sponsors.
โMultiple businesses and organizations support both programs,โ USI athletics director Jon Mark Hall says. โAs far as alumni and friends go, we have had gifts from Tri-State Orthopaedics, Heritage Federal Credit Union, and Ron and Connie Romain for naming opportunities this year. Those mentioned, plus Old National Bank, Heritage Petroleum, and Banterra Bank, continue to be major sponsors for USI Athletics in 2023-24. The USI Varsity Club and private gifts are critical to the transition to Division I for USI Athletics.โ
USI has eight menโs and nine womenโs sports; its budget in DI was $6.5 million per year. Hall says itโs currently in the $8-$9 million range and hopes to increase it to $12 million by the end of the four-year transition period. Part of the cost has been absorbed by students. Their annual athletics fee went from $60 to $120.
NCAA Division I requires non-football schools to sponsor at least 14 sports, notes UE athletics director Kenneth โZiggyโ Siegfried. UE has seven menโs and eight womenโs sports.
At the Division I non-football level, budgets can range from around $5 million to $50 million-plus. At the Football Bowl Subdivision level, the budgets also vary, but the amounts range from about $18 million to $215 million. UEโs athletics budget is around $13 million, Siegfried says.
UEโs 2022-23 average home attendance of 4,548 ranked fourth in the MVC despite the Acesโ 5-27 season, speaking volumes about its fan base. USIโs average home attendance, 2,372, was third in the OVC.
Siegfried, who joined UE from California State University Bakersfield in 2022, says the community is excited to have two DI programs, and โit will continue to be a pride point in a city filled with a lot of great sports history.โ
โEvansville is special for many reasons, but one thing I have learned is 95 percent of the people in our city want both teams to succeed. When we play each other, there is no doubt that people in the community have that competitive spirit,โ he says. โBut at the same time, I believe there is the desire of many to dream of both teams one day reaching the highest level of success at the DI level.โ
Like Ragland, Siegfried doesnโt think there is a lot of crossover in recruiting. โI am not saying it never happens, but right now it is not very common for us to be going against USI for a student-athlete,โ Siegfried says. โI also want to make it clear that I am not naiฬve to the fact that two Di- vision I programs are in the same city, and there will be times where we are going up against one another for top talent.โ
As for NIL, Siegfried says it will continue to play a significant role in collegiate athletics.
โI feel we are in a good spot with the changing landscape, but we have to continue to evolve,โ he says.
UE and USI have met five times, all in exhibitions. Because USI is now Division I, fans are clamoring for regular season matchups.
โBoth of us want to play each other,โ Siegfried says. โWe are having ongoing discussions as to exactly how that future partnership may look like.โ
โWe should play โ sooner rather than later,โ Gouard says.
How Have They Fared?
The teams have met in five exhibition games through the years:
โข 2004: UE 88, USI 75
โข 2006: UE 77, USI 75
โข 2008: UE 71, USI 67, 2OT
โข 2012: UE 73, USI 55
โข 2019: UE 71, USI 68, OT