As Indiana State comes to Lantz Arena Saturday, two similar teams will be looking to get their seasons back on track.

The border war between these two teams has been lopsided over the course of the rivalry with the Sycamores leading the all-time series 83-23.

Both teams, however, come into this year with youthful players and are in a transition process.

The Panthers (0-3) are still in search of their first victory of the young season, while the Sycamores (1-2) take on a Panther team that may be a welcome opponent because of the high level of competition they have had so far this year.

After its exhibition season, Indiana State entered into a tournament that was hosted by Michigan State. In their two games in the tournament, Indiana State lost to DePaul and Penn. Both games that Indiana State lost could have been victories, but the youth of the team caused problems in closing out games.

“It was disappointing that we lost both games at the tournament,” Indiana State head coach Royce Waltmen said. “Especially in the DePaul game because we had a 10-point lead with about 10 minutes left to go and broke down toward the end of the game.”

As DePaul came back, the weaknesses of Indiana State were shown. The team returns a few starters from last year, but has had trouble working in the new talent they have now.

That is much like the problems the Panthers have had, as they have gotten off to a slow start at the beginning of the year.

“I think the problems our team is having and they (Indiana State) are having are pretty similar,” Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said. “The new players they have raise chemistry issues, which has been a problem for us.”

The similarities between the two teams continue, as both of the squads only have two players who have reached double figures in points per game.

Eastern guards Josh Gomes and Derik Hollyfield each average around 11 points per game, while Sycamore players Marcus Howard and David Moss each are over 10 points per game. Moss averages close to 15 points per game and adds five assists and five rebounds a contest as well.

“These two teams are similar,” Samuels said. “But right now we shouldn’t concentrate on them because we need to focus on our own problems and figure that out.”

But Waltmen does see some things in the Panther’s play that he thinks have been positives so far this season.

The way Eastern always has run the ball is something that Indiana State will key on as an important aspect of the game.

“Coach Samuels always seems to have an athletic group of kids who like to run,” Waltman said. “We have good individual defenders who can match-up, but our team defense as a whole needs to improve.”

For both teams, this game is going to be a gauge to see where they are early on in the season.

“We can’t look past anyone right now,” Samuels said. “I hope to see a sense of urgency out of our players because our focus needs to be on playing as well as we can in this game.”