Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball hosts Creighton on Tuesday night
02/13/2012 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 13, 2012
By Tyler Wooten
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois (8-18, 5-10) will host Creighton (21-5, 11-4) in a Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball matchup at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday.
Both teams enter the game in the midst of losing streaks. The Salukis have lost their last two, while the Bluejays have lost three-straight.
Fans are encouraged to bring a new toy to the game to donate to Anna-native Natalie Marshall's toy drive for children with cancer.
Saluki basketball coach Chris Lowery took questions from the media prior to Monday's practice
Q: "Do you think you're getting Creighton at a vulnerable time since they've lost three in a row?"
"They're a good team. Obviously, they're a little bit down with where they are and it doesn't help that the national media is killing them at this point about whether they're going to get in or not. Those are the pressures when you make a run like that -- you don't want your kids to feel it. Whether they can deflect that away from them and get them back focused is kinda up to them, but for us, it's a good time for us, and we need to play hard against them."
Q: "They could possibly be very hungry coming in and looking to take it out on somebody, too..."
"Right. The good thing is it's a short turnaround for us where they don't get to sit and stew and think about what just happened. For us it's good that they're coming right away and they don't have the time to really think about, 'Boy, what if we'd won those games?' I think we get them at a better time as opposed to have them really have time to prepare and think about it."
Q: "How have teams played them differently the last three games (Northern Iowa, Evansville and Wichita State)?"
"They're not, (Creighton)'s just missing shots. They're really struggling shooting the three but they're still shooting the same volume of threes, I think that's been the biggest difference. The two games prior to Wichita, they missed shots, the other team walked it up, ran stuff against them, and they missed a lot of threes in those two games against Evansville and Northern Iowa. Nothing's been different -- they just haven't made shots."
Q: "Defensively, after what happened with the 3-point game at Indiana State, can you apply that to Creighton since they shoot the three well?"
"Not really. I've never seen a team make that many threes, and only two of them were unguarded. We watched the tape and we were going to be mad at our guys for not being where they were supposed to be, but when you make shots like that, it's unrealistic at times of how they made them. Creighton is a better shooting team than that, and we'll have to guard them regardless of what their percentage is. Indiana State was last and really struggled. They missed those shots here and they missed a ton of shots at Bradley, so we were going to guard them a certain way, and obviously we had to change in the game. They only had four attempts in the second half, so we did keep them off the 3-point line as opposed to the first half."
Q: "Besides his size, what makes Greg Echenique such a good defender?"
"He's big, he's strong, he gets you off the block. Most people in our league allow you to post up on the block. He makes you post up 10-feet off, so you're already at a disadvantage at that point. And then, he has good timing and he doesn't foul. That's the one thing that they've done a really good job with him. He's not just big, but he's also smart and he doesn't foul."
Q: "Can you expect to be able to get the ball inside and have some success there?"
"I think we have to move our guys. We have to move Dantiel (Daniels) especially. He can't just be posting up on the block because (Echenique)will wear him out just trying to establish a post position, as opposed to moving around and trying to getEchenique in ball-screen situation and make him run."
Q: "Creighton had 34 free throw attempts in the first meeting -- how do you keep them off the line tomorrow?"
"You just can't foul and we fouled a lot in that game. We cut the lead, we wasted a lot of energy coming back, and then after that we began to grab and hold, and when you put a big comeback like that together you run out of gas and that's what happened to us."
Q: "Does that go with keeping (Antoine) Young in check, too?"
"Definitely. Right now, Young and (Doug) McDermott are the two that have stepped their games up in the scoring slumps of the other guys not making shots. Young's averaging 15 in the last three games, his percentages are all up. Doug is pushing and pressing to get everybody else to move forward. I think Young really understands what it means and what they need to do, considering being a part of the last championship team when he was a sophomore, and now having a chance to win the league and be two games behind Wichita."
Q: "You've said shot selection has been a key coaching point for you guys -- is there something that needs to be done differently to get through to them?"
"I think the number one thing is that you'd like to sit guys down who are inexperienced , and our experienced guys haven't lived up and done the things we've asked them, so we're playing guys that have never been through it before, and there's no excuse for that. I just think that they have to learn through continuously talking to them. And they'll tell you themselves that we have to learn what to do in clutch situations, don't shoot it, and that's where kids are today. They don't know, they just shoot it. And having them play together and come back and focus on and watching film was hard for them to see the shots we shot from three in the second half. There were some really bad situations where if we were just patient and go to Dantiel, he's going to pass it back, and that's the good thing about where he's at right now."
Q: "Who is the X-factor for your team?"
"We need our bench to be the X-factor, and whoever comes off the bench needs to have positive time, positive minutes for us and positive plays for us in the game."
Q: "Can you talk about Dantiel's development from his first day? Has he surprised you?"
"Before the injury he was really playing well, and we really missed him because we didn't have a post presence for so long when he was out. We knew how talented he was, we knew that he would be a good player for us early just because of how hard he worked. The best thing about him is the second time he's seen people, he's been really good."
Q: "What's your gameplan to contain McDermott?"
"You can't let him get in a comfort zone. I think the last three games people have really frustrated him, and I think he's felt the pressure of delivering, and he's only a sophomore. People forget he's just a true sophomore without a redshirt. He's starting to feel a little pressure of delivering every day, and he has."
Q: "Can you double-team him without it hurting you elsewhere?"
"He's been double-teamed and that's why they've struggled because they haven't made threes. He's doing his job, he's getting the ball out to guys. Him andEchenique both, everybody is doubling both because if you don't, they put up huge numbers on you. Them kicking it out has been the biggest issue. Early on they were making everything from three. Now, on those kickouts they've struggled."
Q: "Do you think Davante (Drinkard) will play again this season?"
"I have no idea. I would love to say yes, I would love to say yes for Josh (Swan), but at this point it doesn't look likely for either. I'm not going to predict or anything about it."
Q: "So it's the same for Swan, too?"
"Yeah, at this point. We're not going to injure them just to play in a game. As a parent I wouldn't do that."
