Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball hosts SEMO on Wednesday night
12/07/2010 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2010
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois head coach Chris Lowery met with the media on Tuesday as the Salukis prepare to host SEMO at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday.
The game between SIU (4-4) and SEMO (0-9) will be the 113th meeting all-time between the two schools that are an easy one-hour drive apart.
Q: "Do you expect to use the same starting lineup?"
"When you look at what our front line did in rebounding and field goal percentage from those three guys, I think we'll definitely need to stay with that."
Q: "How desperate of a team is SEMO coming in, having lost 17-straight games dating back to last year?"
"They're a wounded animal. They're in the corner and they're going to come out and fight, and it's up to us to come in and play hard right away. When you look at a team like that who is struggling to find victories and seems to find every way to lose, I think it's important that we come out with a lot of energy and enthusiasm right away."
Q: "Is it important not only to get a win, but to make a statement and really blow them out?"
"We don't go into games thinking like that. We don't want to embarrass anybody, but we want to make sure that they understand that this is our gym, and hopefully that is what this group will continue to learn. We know that they're 0-8, but we don't expect them to lay down."
Q: "Do you feel you can exploit their defense?"
"They seem to give up a lot more points on the road, and they're a much different team on the road as opposed to being at home. They have some injuries -- I think their second-leading scorer is still out with a knee injury, so they've been down a man for the last three games, too."
Q: "For those who haven't seen (Leon) Powell play, is he a lot like Carl Montgomery?"
"He's a great athlete, he's 6-6. He's a tremendous player and he's a St. Louis kid, so we know a lot about him. Carl Montgomery has the freedom to take a lot of shots that Powell will obviously not have the opportunity to do. He presents a similar problem because he's a smaller five-man. They have a 7-footer, but he plays power forward for them."
Q: "Do you expect it to be a battle on the boards? They do rebound the ball well."
"They're huge. If you look at who they've played, their front line is 6-5, 6-6, and 7-0, and they're very active. I think they present a problem for anybody they play with their size, length and athleticism."
Q: "How has the play off the bench brought out the competition within the team at practice?"
"It's made practice better, and that's why we feel good about where we can go. We've struggled to find our niche as a team, but we've played some good enough teams to help us find where we need to go. As long as they keep working hard every day like they have been, then we think that we can get better."
Q: "What have the goals become these couple games of the non-conference season?"
"We want to finish up strong and we want to see improvement in these winnable games. We start here, then at Western Kentucky, and then back here for Northern Illinois, so we want to make sure that we continue to get better."
Q: "Is Mamadou (Seck) becoming a player that needs to touch the ball almost every time he gets down the court?"
"I don't know if you can do that. Any good player doesn't touch it every time. But Mamadou has made himself presentable for us offensively. Gene (Teague) is still the guy that needs to touch it every time, whether something good or bad happens -- he needs to continue to grow as a player."
Q: "Are you happy with the shot selection in the past couple games?"
"At times, especially at Chicago State when we had the lineup that we had to start the game. We took good shots, we rebounded the ball at a high clip. We just have to be sure when the bench comes in that they don't feel that they have to carry us. I think we were up 11 at the time when we shot some bad threes and we subbed."
Q: "Justin (Bocot) has gone 1-11 in his past two games -- have you stressed going to the basket more?"
"We stress to him to take good shots and play within the team concept. The biggest thing for him is him not feeling that he has to save the day. We don't have to have anybody save the day, we just have to be consistent and make sure that we get a lot of touches inside and out. And when we do that then we'll get the threes and the transition points. Until then, we have to continue to make sure the guys understand their roles and not take bad shots."
