Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball meets with media in St. Louis
03/02/2006 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2006
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Prior to its practice at the Savvis Center on Thursday, Southern Illinois head coach Chris Lowery and guards Jamaal Tatum and Tony Young held a press conference to discuss the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
| Listen to a Podcast of the Saluki Press Conference |
The Salukis (19-10) will play Friday at 6 p.m. against the winner of tonight's game between Evansville and Illinois State. The game will be televised live on Fox Sports Midwest.
Missouri Valley Conference Pre-Tournament Press Conference No. 3 Southern Illinois Salukis - March 2, 1006
Chris Lowery: This is the first year not being the No. 1 seed, but we're looking forward to coming and playing. I think our kids are excited to be able to come to St. Louis and to get ready to play in this tournament. You know, the excitement and the level of intensity that we're expecting tonight is far greater than any we've ever experienced in the history of the Valley.
MEDIA: Jamaal, Coach Lowery had some success in the early `90s here in St. Louis. How much has he talked to the team about that?
Jamaal Tatum: Basically he hasn't said much about the past. I think he's more focused on the future and the present and what we need to do in this tournament to come out with the outcome that we want. So I don't think he's dwelling too much on what has been done in the past as far as what we've done or what he's done, but more, say, the present and what we need to do.
MEDIA: This question's also for Jamaal. Is it different this year for you coming into the tournament where in the last couple years, you know, the focus was on like Brooks or somebody else and you were able to be more of a defensive player and a complimentary player where this year there's a lot more pressure on your shoulder? Do you feel it? Is it different this year?
Jamaal Tatum: I wouldn't necessarily say it's different. We have plenty of players on this team that can score, and they're offensive threats so I think the teams to be worried about a lot of players on our team and not just me. So I mean, if they want to focus on just one player, if they want to focus on me, that's fine with us so a lot of other players will be open and there will be a lot of shots for other people.
MEDIA: Tony, have you noticed this year as you've gotten your offensive game going how much more attention have you gotten from the other team?
Tony Young: It's a lot different from people standing around watching you shoot the ball and people face guarding you and not letting you get shots. Me and coach were talking about that the other day. You have to prove yourself as having the ability to score, and people start focusing in on you and trying to stop you. That opened up a lot of stuff for a lot of other people. I'm like Jamaal. It really don't matter to me now. It was kind of hard and got kind of frustrating for a while, but now I'm used to it. Keep running and keep playing hard.
MEDIA: I didn't always ask the question. I only asked it I think once, but it's been asked of the other coaches, Chris. Do you pay attention to the RPI on any kind of a regular basis, and given where your team is at this point in time, how much work do you still think that this team needs to do to secure a spot in the tournament?
Chris Lowery: What I pay attention to the most is the league RPI, because I think the stronger the league is, the better off the whole as a group is. We have a decent RPI. I said earlier I don't ever want to set a number of games we have to win because it let's the committee set it and the national media set it. As long as we keep our league at the right level, I think it only helps as far as promoting when it comes time to selection Sunday.
MEDIA: This is for coach. St. Louis hasn't been a real favorable spot for your team over the past five years. How can you break that and come in here and get a couple wins?
Chris Lowery: You know, you've just got to play hard. We've been, you know, obviously No. 1 seeds. Everybody thinks you're going to win and lose and we're at the point now where we're underdogs, so you know, I don't think it's that we haven't had success. We've had failures. We got to the championship game twice and semifinal losses twice, so you know, we've just got to stay focused. We can't dwell on what has happened with the program in the past because you know, I could talk about my glory days, but it's not going to bring glory here right now. You have to focus on what's at hand and make sure we're mentally prepared to play.
MEDIA: This is for each of you, Chris first and then the players. In as much as you did not win the regular season title this year, does that put a different kind of an outlook on winning the tournament to -- to reestablish something or maintain the pride, so to speak?
Chris Lowery: I think the biggest in four years that hey, we're going to get in if we don't win it. With that comes arrogance and not putting your whole effort in winning a conference championship. Now it's different. We ended up getting second, and that's something we've never done, so now we've got to do something else we've never done and that's go out and have a stronger showing in the conference tournament.
Tony Young: I think from a player's standpoint, we're so used to winning the conference and having that as a fallback. Coming to St. Louis is making all of us more hungry. Before we've always had the cushion we've always won the conference, we'll be all right. But now it's like the level of intensity, you know what I'm saying. It's another level of hunger that each player has and the desire that each player has to come out and play at another level.
Jamaal Tatum: I agree with both Coach and Tony. It's a little bit more of a sense of urgency, I'd say, and everybody's going to come out hungry on the team, and you know, when you don't really know the -- what the outcomes going to be, you go out there and just fight and compete, and that's what we're going to go out there and do.
