Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball hosts annual Media Day
10/13/2010 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 13, 2010
By Tyler Wooten
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Saluki Basketball had its annual Media Day on Wednesday inside its new locker room. Here is a transcript of Coach Lowery's press conference.
Q: "Comment on the game at Illinois and the rest of the non-conference schedule."
"This game (at Illinois) has been in the works for a lot of years and now we're finally playing it. It's probably more refreshing for Coach (Weber) to get it done than us because he's the one that promised it. We're excited about it and excited about our schedule. We're going to have good teams come here, too. Obviously, the tournament we're playing in Chicago has good teams with Purdue, Richmond and Wright State. We have a very tough schedule, but I think at the same time it gives us a chance to grow up."
Q: "Is there an extra sense of urgency because of the schedule?"
"No, the thing about us is that we want to get back to playing how we play -- the urgency is in that, not who we play. We're more focused on getting us back to playing a certain way."
Q: "Are you confident you're going to get back to playing the way you want to play?"
"I'm definitely confident. How we put this team together was in the image of some of our other teams -- guys that defend, guys that come from tough coaches, guys that come from places where they won a lot and where the coaches are teachers. We felt good about who we got from those places, but we also feel good about the spirits of the people who stayed, and that is more important than anything because their work ethic now has been much better."
Q: "Could you specifically talk about some of those guys who stayed and what you're looking for out of them?"
"It starts with Carlton Fay and Justin Bocot. They're the older guys. They were here when the other guys that were good for us -- Randal (Falker), Matt (Shaw), and Bryan (Mullins) -- were here. Those guys (Fay and Bocot) have done a great job as far as leadership is concerned. We were definitely much more committed in the weight room. Our bodies have changed a lot -- we've been very frail, skinny, slim, slender, and we were pushed around quite a bit the last two years. Now, we felt that we have addressed that."
Q: "(Gene) Teague has certainly built his body up some more..."
"Well, built down, we don't want it up anymore. He had to get in shape. He still at times struggles with his energy, but it's much less often than it was in the past. If you see him he looks totally different. His commitment level and everybody's commitment level seemed to be much greater. Not because of who left, but because of who's here and because of the tradition. And we had to do a much better job of force-feeding them our tradition and our culture, which had changed. We went from allowing 56 points to giving up about 67-68 in the last two years, and the difference in the culture changed that. That is where we have to get back to -- ball-control and some of the things we do really well."
Q: "From what you've seen on the court so far how would you define how they look?"
"That would be committing a violation -- I haven't seen anything yet, we start practice Friday (laughs). What we have seen is that their chemistry is very good -- there is no questioning. We used to beat people with our system sometimes. It didn't always depend on our players. We had guys get hurt and had guys be suspended for games, but our system won out. I think these guys have embraced that again. It's not about style of play, it's about winning.
You really can't gauge it off of preseason, you have to gauge it off of when you get them on the court. We have individual workouts, but we've only had four players at a time. You don't have to watch them play to know, you can tell in their behavior and their work ethic. Nobody missed conditioning this year -- that was the first time in two years that we didn't have anybody miss, and that's obviously a terrific start. Those are some of the small things we look at and say, 'Okay, this is the start of something good again,' instead of when we had guys that couldn't go or couldn't finish or stepped out of drills."
Q: "Can you talk about the new facilities? You've been here as a player and obviously as a coach, and you've seen everything come full-circle. What does this mean to you?"
"It means a lot because Coach (Rich) Herrin promised me a new floor and I played on that really hard floor (laughs). The biggest thing is that this has changed everybody's perception around here, and that is the number one thing we needed to change. Being able to see Walt Frazier on those walls with the championship teams in there is very important for our guys to see. They needed to see that more so than anybody else. They needed to see the championship years up in graphics with who played here. It has obviously helped us in recruiting because it's shiny, it's new, and it's maroon. When you went into the old place it was different colors. Now, it feels like it's your gym because everything in there is maroon."
Q: "Do you feel that helped in turning the page from last season and giving everything a new feel?"
"It helped, but it doesn't have anything to do with the team. It's helped from the standpoint that it is very nice and we are extremely proud of it. As an alum, it is shocking everyday that I work here. But, their work ethic was totally based on wanting to win whether it was in the old place or in this place."
Q: "Are Fay and Bocot automatic starters or are all five spots up for grabs?"
"We have really made it about competition -- there is no 'starter' here anymore because we need to change. They're going to be in, I'm not stupid enough to say they won't start, but they understand that we expect a level of standard to be back here again, and if you don't uphold that then you're not going to play."
Q: "Are you going to have to play for awhile to be good, or can you be good at the start of the season?"
"I think that we could be competitive. As long as we're playing hard and learning from it, that is fine. But we obviously want to win. I can't remember the last time we started on the road, but I think that our kids have already learned how to get through things. That is what our conditioning has done for our teams in the past. When they go through something that hard together, it helps them overcome certain parts of the game. That's where this preseason and offseason has been great because we've gone through stuff together. We worked out with the football team, we lifted with them this summer. It improved us because they saw how hard those guys work to win in the weight room we saw how important it is. Those guys (the football team) were talking about not wining the conference title, but a national championship. That was impressive to them because they saw work ethic in there that they hadn't seen."
Q: "With all of the new faces how much of a transition phase is there going to be?"
"It's going to be interesting to see because they all want to do what's right and they all understand the history of what's been here. We asked them, if you just do the system, good things will happen. They have embraced it, and that has been a good thing about this group of kids. There is no complaining, there is no asking, 'Why do we have to do this?' There's none of that. That lets us know that they can obviously be taught things and pick things up at a much quicker rate."
Q: "From last year to this year, where do you think this team will make its biggest improvements?"
"Defensively and being able to guard people. The toughness that it took to be able to get on the floor for a loose ball won't be an issue anymore. We watched over plays a lot the past two years. We watched people do tough things while we complained, and now it's not that way."
Q: "What offseason adjustments did you guys make as a coaching staff?"
"We really tried to talk about the culture as much as possible. In these two years we were almost ashamed of it because we didn't have the personnel that wanted to do it. It's very difficult to convince people that what they're doing can win -- which, is kind of crazy since that is why they come here in the first place. But, that's what we went through. We have no hard feelings or wish ill on anybody who's not here. Our thing is to move on and get guys who want to be here and want to wear our jersey. When we have guys that want to wear our jersey we've been good."
Q: "Is going after junior college players something you're going to continue to do?"
"I think the biggest thing for us is getting tougher players and guys that have played some games. The junior college kids we brought in this year are proven winners. They've played for defensive-oriented coaches that are tough and hard-nosed, and that was very important to us."
Q: "What's the biggest question you have about your team?"
"The biggest question I have is who's going to say the tough stuff in the locker room. Right now, they're not saying anything negative, which is good. It's going to be interesting to see who's willing to speak up. We've had great leadership by example, but we haven't had the type of vocal leadership that we've had with some of the other players in the past. We've preached so much on doing right, I don't think I've preached enough of vocal leadership. That's something we obviously have to work on once we start practicing."
Q: "What is the biggest question you have on the court?"
"How are we going to play and who are we going to play in certain situations? We have some utility guys that could really do some different things, and finding out how to use them is going to be a challenge -- which is a good thing. We don't know what to do with Mamadou (Seck). He can do a lot of different things. John Freeman is another guy who can also do a lot of different things. We just need to find ways to make them successful in our system. The number one thing is that they're going to guard, and that's going to decide playing time. We do have a big guy in there that can score a basket, and that always helps when you have a guy that can force double-teams like Eugene is going to see this year. It will give some other guys confidence right away."
Q: "Do you expect to use a pretty heavy rotation?"
"If we're going to guard how we guard, we have to play nine or 10. We can't pick up and half-court anymore."
Q: "Can you talk about the maturation of Gene? He's dropped a lot of weight -- he looks like a different player."
"He's been great. The biggest thing was letting him know that he can be really good and have consistent levels of play. He's never done it before, and he's embraced us challenging him to get better physically. He's done a terrific job in the weight room, he's done a great job so far in conditioning. His mile time is almost four minutes down what it was last year, and last year at this time he was 310 (pounds). Now, I think 288 is what we measured him at a couple days ago. Being able to wipe four minutes off of your mile means he is trying. He's still not where I would like him to be, but he is really doing much better than what he did in the past, and what he's ever done in his life."
Q: "Do you expect him to be more vocal this year?"
"I think he will be. First of all, he doesn't look like he sounds -- he's very quiet and soft-spoken. When he does speak, he says some very insightful things, and guys do listen. His deal will be on the court where he'll show them. He'll do the tough stuff that the other guys don't have to do."
Q: "Can you talk about chemistry a little bit? How much of a hand do the coaches have in that and how much of that develops in the team?"
"We can already tell the chemistry is better because when I talk to Carlton, he said nobody is talking about what they want their average to be, or when they want to leave school. He said everybody is talking about a conference championship. Our main focus was to get it back to always being about that and not about individuals."
Q; "Gene had a really good last quarter of the season last year -- do you think he could be a dominant center this year?"
"He definitely has an opportunity to be a great player. His domination depends on everybody else, though. Early on he's going to see a lot of double-teams, so him being patient when people do come with the double is going to allow him to get better as the season progresses. And the other guys have to make shots for him to open things up."
Q: "What do you see for Davante Drinkard? Do you think he's going to redshirt?"
"I don't know at this point. Davante has made tremendous strides. We've talked about redshirting Davante, but he's been very good at things that freshmen haven't. Davante has been very good because he's played post defense, he makes Gene work to where nothing is easy and Gene can't bully him, which is impressive for a kid who is still 17 -- he won't be 18 until April. You look at him physically and his body is very mature."
Q: "Talk about who is going to be able to knock down the three this year. Obviously Carlton is out there..."
"Well Troy Long is a very good shooter, he can shoot the basketball. Scoring isn't our problem, it's going to be defending. That was our problem last year. I don't care about that, we have to get back to defending first, getting our points from that, and ball control -- we do that and we're going to be fine. I'm not concerned with who scores the ball for us, because that has been an issue and the only thing we've worried about in the last two years, and it can't be that way anymore. Everybody has to get better and contribute so that whenever it's your turn, it happens. They've allowed us to coach them, they've allowed us to try and get them better, and they've allowed us to re-teach our system, and they have embraced it."
Q: "Are you going to be doing anything drastically different from seasons past?"
"We're not going to run a lot of sets like we had to the last couple years. We don't plan on doing that with this group because we have guys that can handle the ball and do some different things. We have slashers and we have different people and different pieces that can help. There are lineups where we're going to play Carlton as a five and then Mamadou as a four, which is very helpful for us because I don't think very many fives can chase Carlton. We have the ability to do that because we know that Seck can really guard and he's going to embrace that side of it and allow Carlton to do his thing. We're excited about who we have."
