Whitley chooses Indiana State

The list goes on and on for Taylor Whitley when it comes time to explaining why she chose Indiana State for her future college.

The star guard on the Geneva girls basketball team verbally committed to the Missouri Valley Conference school earlier this week, and was more than willing to reel off a list of reasons why she chose to be a Sycamore over other Division-I programs such as Northern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Cleveland State and Bradley.

"I loved the coaches, and the head coach is really intense," said Whitley, who also factored in academics for one of the main reasons. "I got the chance to meet the team and they were really cool. They were all about basketball. (The Sycamore fans) get a lot of people at their games. They love the women's basketball team."

Indiana State is getting a quality player in Whitley, who has been on the All-Area team since her freshman year. She was the All-Area captain as a sophomore and averaged 18 points, 3.3 assists and 3.7 steals a game for the Vikings. She is the school's all-time scorer with 1,441 points.

Now, finally a senior, the 5-foot-8 Whitley doesn't have to worry about the big decision.

"It's so nice," she said. 'I can just go out and play. I'm really excited."