Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball hosts Evansville on Tuesday night
01/17/2011 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2011
By Tim McCaughan
SIUSalukis.com
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Southern Illinois (9-9, 3-4) will host Evansville (9-8, 3-4) at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday at SIU Arena. Head coach Chris Lowery met with the media before Monday's practice.
Was Saturday one of those games that you completely put behind you as a club, or do you go back and take things from it?
"It was one of the few where we were not ready at all. The biggest problem for us was everything they did, we defended well here. It wasn't like they did new stuff against us. It was like we had never watched film or looked at the scouting report. That was a complete mental letdown. Like I told the guys, that's my fault for not getting them ready to play. You have some games like that. It's always a tough place for us to play, and those guys were playing well since they left our building. We moved on, threw it away once we got in the locker room and had to concentrate on the next opponent."
Evansville is a team you played well against in both games last year. How different do they look this year?
"They are missing a few of their key guys, but they still have their nucleus back. Colt Ryan is their best player and Kenny Harris has kind of moved in to the power forward for them, which is completely different to what he is used to doing as a guard. He'll be a tough matchup for us, and he's a tough matchup for our league, because he's out there handling the ball and screening like a guard, but he's playing the 4 spot for them defensively."
What do you have to do to capitalize on home games?
"It's good to be home. We have a lot more time between this game and our next one, so we'll be able to practice and go over things and get better at things instead of just having one day to prepare for our next opponent."
What is the current status of Teague?
"He hasn't practiced still, so at this point, we are preparing like he isn't going to play again. We can't do anything about it. He still has pain in it. I want him to play, the player's want him to play, but as a parent, if he is hurt, he's hurt and you can't play him."
Is there a timetable for when he could play?
"There is no timetable for an ankle injury. He had a high ankle sprain. He's a big guy. We don't know. That's all I can say."
With the guard play, what are your biggest concerns coming out of the UNI game?
"The way we guarded them the first half, there was a mental letdown at those positions. Carlton and Seck were good enough, and we had some good guard play from Kendal and Mykel, but everybody else that played struggled considerably. We need to have faith in them and tell them that you believe in them. That's what we've done all year, but the consistency has to show up at some point. We're playing too many guards because they've been so inconsistent. We don't want to play 7-8 guards, and we don't want to play Seck at the 3 the whole time. Seck has proven that he can do it, but we haven't had a guard prove that they can do it at a consistent level yet.
Has playing so many different lineups hurt your team's chemistry at all?
"What has hurt us most has been Gene being out. Once we decided to play Seck at the 3, with Gene and Carlton, we were completely annihilating people on the boards, and we said we know how our rotation is, who is going to play each game. That hurt us a ton. It hurt Seck more than anybody. His head is spinning from guarding the 2, 3 and 4 in games. Mentally, he's doing things as a guard when he is a big, and he is struggling a bit mentally right now, and it's our fault. He can do it, but it's a situation where next year he'll be able to do it better. It's not fair for him, six months in, to be playing all these positions, and remembering all the sets for all the positions. We really have to keep him at one or two positions right now defensively, and that will help us more.
Do you feel like you have two winnable games this week?
"We're not even looking at that. If we tell them we can win both, then that takes away from being prepared to win the games. They are both very scrappy. Evansville plays very hard, and we have the same record, so there is no sense in us to overlook them and say Illinois State hasn't won a game, if we get this one, and get these two. We can't talk like that to this group. We don't have everybody. It's different when you can gameplan, and have an inside presence the whole time. We have to throw the ball to Davante because no one is guarding him, we have to take advantage of when he's in, to get him a catch around the rim, because people are completely ignoring him and really helping on Carlton and Seck.
Have you challenged your guards offensively?
"We have challenged them all year. This is an issue about being consistent as a guard. Every game they have been good, we have won. When they are not, we have struggled. You have to understand that your value is not measured in your playing time, it's measured by what you actually do for the team, and that is what we have to continue to get across to them.
Do you think this team is better then last year's?
"They're a better team, but what is frustrating is we don't have all our parts. When we had those three in there at the same time, we felt really good. That was a tough matchup for anyone to have to deal with us with those three in there. Then you take away one and put a freshman in there. At least now he is going to be a good backup because he has played so much and he has seen the older guys who have kicked his butt, and tricked him, but that is part of being a freshman. He's going to get that when he goes against seniors. He is going to be a good player because he's playing right now. It's unfortunate that we don't have Gene, but we have not made excuses. Carlton has been fantastic, he's our best guy and we have to find a way to continue to get him the ball, but the other guys have to do their share, too.
What have you emphasized to Drinkard since Teague has been out?
"Really, just play and don't get caught up in the hoopla. Everybody is going at him initially every game. It's hard for you to tell somebody to be consistent who has never been through it. He just has to learn to not get his head down. He's fine, he's going to continue to get better, but because they are picking on you, don't look at it like you're a bad player, you're a young player.
Have you seen and injury last this long as it has with Gene?
"Yeah, when it's bad. They said it would have been best if he broke it, then we would have a timetable. Because he did it so bad and stretched everything out in there, it's day to day. Obviously for us, if he would had broke his foot, then we say we know when he's coming back, we know the timetable, and we can move forward. At this point we have no idea."
