Men's Basketball opens conference play at Drake on Wednesday
12/27/2010 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2010
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois (6-5) begins Missouri Valley Conference play at Drake (5-6) on Wednesday.
SIU holds a 51-24 edge in the all-time series versus Drake, but the Bulldogs swept all three meetings last season. The Salukis have a 14-5 record all-time at the Drake Knapp Center, which opened in 1992. Head coach Chris Lowery is 4-2 at Drake.
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
Lowery met with the media before Monday's practice in Carbondale.
Talk about the matchup with Drake's Seth VanDeest.
He's an inside threat. He probably needs the ball more. I think he's fourth in field goal attempts on their team. When they win, he gets the most attempts. He's obviously one of the better bigs in our league.
Do you think Rayvonte Rice's development has helped Drake's development as a team?
He's helped. They've had their ups and downs like everyone else in the middle of our league. VanDeest is the one. Whenever he plays well, they usually play well. Playing Chicago State at home gave them some confidence. They hit 15 threes. The whole team got going. Ben Simons hadn't been playing well, and I think he had 23 in that game, making seven threes.
What do you need from Gene Teague against Drake?
We have to make sure Gene is not in foul trouble and that we go at VanDeest. We have to make him guard. They're going to double-team Gene every catch, and he has to see the double-team quick, get it out quick and then other people have to make plays for us.
What's your impression of the league so far?
Anything can happen. Northern Iowa is the best team because they're the reigning champs. They have terrific leadership. They're older at the guard spot. They're still the team to beat, regardless of where Wichita State was picked.
Is Drake a good road test?
They beat us three times last year, and every one of them we led late. You should not be able to beat somebody three times. That didn't sit well with us and it shouldn't sit well with our players.
Do you feel Diamond Taylor can be a go-to guy somewhere down the line?
We're not going to put that much pressure on him. We just have to let him fit in right now. If he has big games, he does. Is he talented? Extremely. Hopefully, he can be a matchup problem off the bench, where we can bring in a guy who can get to the rim and score points in bunches and get fouls. That's what he really does.
Do you have some options in late-game situations?
I think we do. We have guys who we want to have the ball and be safe with. We understand who takes care of the ball in close situations and who doesn't.
Have you seen a big change from the guys going into the conference season?
Those 11 days we practiced were very good for us. We got better. Those two or three days off (over Christmas) throws you off a little bit, because they go home, they eat different and they lay around. Yesterday, we got them back mentally focused. Today, we need to have a really good practice, and tomorrow is total preparation for Drake.
Are they ok conditioning-wise?
Those 11 days got us in great shape. When you're a college athlete, it shouldn't drop off very much when you take a little bit of time off, but as a coach you want to keep that edge that we had before we left. We had them competitively where we wanted them on defense. We have to keep that same mentality.
What's the main hump you have to get over to win close games this year?
Not having turnovers at the end of the game is very important. We have to make sure we get good shots and are in the right spots. From the Western Kentucky to the Northern Illinois game we saw improvement in the angles for Gene. When everybody is cramped in there and we're in the wrong spaces on ball-screen situations, you don't have any driving lanes. That's what we did to ourselves against Western. You saw us 11 days late take advantage of some of those situations that we didn't against Western.
What are your thoughts on your 11-man rotation?
It makes your guards more cut-in. If you get a rip and you don't do what you're supposed to, someone else is going to take your rotation. We need that in the guard spot. We know our big rotation. Having competition at the guard, knowing that if you don't play hard, you're not going to play, that's great for us to get our guards better.
Is there any change in Drake's style?
They're man-to-man mostly. They played every possession in zone last year. They don't press as much. They haven't played a lot of zone this year, but we expect them to change that up. They played zone on makes against Chicago State and man on misses. They hadn't done that all year, so they're probably going to change things up. They're a better team because they can play man-to-man defense. They can play smashmouth basketball.
