Southern Illinoise University Athletics
MVC Men's Basketball summer update
09/16/2013 | 12:00:00 | DawgTracker
June 13, 2012
By Tom Weber
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, IL - Since the Missouri Valley Conference voted not to have its annual preseason Media Day this fall for men's basketball, there will be a series of conference calls for the media to get regular updates on the programs. The first call took place this morning, and here's a recap. Note that Saluki head coach Barry Hinson had a previous commitment that prevented him from joining the conference call, and Anthony Beane subbed in.
Geno Ford, Bradley
Team must get better at shooting, we were the worst in the league last year. Shooting fundamentals and repetitions will be emphasis of summer workouts. We were one of the softest teams in the league and will work on toughness and competitiveness. Don't have guys in the locker room who have experienced winning. Team is healthy. Wonders if there will be more summer injuries in college basketball with more practice time. Senior C Will Egolf is close to 100 percent after two major ACL injuries. His explosiveness is coming back. He looks pretty similar to where he was last year at this time. Ka'Darryl Bell is a freshman guard from Chicago who the staff is very high on. Recent NCAA changes requiring higher academic standards are not a recruiting issue for Bradley, which has a team GPA of 3.3. Guys we are recruiting aren't kids close to those numbers. Non-conference schedule is complete. Michigan will come to Peoria this year and Braves will start a home-and-home series with USF. We need to do our job and help our conference stay in the 6-7 range of the RPI so the league can get multiple teams in post-season.
Greg McDermott, Creighton
F Doug McDermott is working on his "in-between" game this summer. He's an accomplished shooter and post-up player, now he's working on his ability to face the basket and score off the dribble. Want him to have a different mindset defensively and be a team leader on that end of court. G Austin Chapman will replace Antoine Young at point guard. They are very different players, and we are pleased with his development. G Grant Gibbs plays like a point guard, but his knee history precludes him from playing there full-time. We shut him down 4-6 weeks after the season to let his knee recover. He has to listen to his body. Still looking for last non-conference opponent.
Mark Phelps, Drake
Team has eight new scholarship players, including five freshmen, two JUCOs and G Chris Hines from Utah. Hines brings toughness, scoring and leadership at the two-guard spot. He's a great kid and a hard worker. Really fortunate that he chose Drake, because he had a lot of options. Extra practice time is perfect for program with so many new players. Doing individual and small-group workouts. Twelve of the 13 scholarship guys are on campus and 13th will be there in 1.5 weeks. C Seth VanDeest had another surgery on other shoulder eight weeks ago, but not as serious as right shoulder. Right shoulder is 100 percent. He's looking really good and will be cleared full-go on Sept. 1. Looks really good in workouts, size and strength is up. Playing weight should be 260-to-265. Newcomer update -- G Richard Carter is really fast with the ball in his hands at the point. Kori Babineaux has college-ready body and skill set. Same for Gary Ricks. Ricks transferred from Indian Hills and is an excellent shooter, leader, glue guy and huge upgrade in locker room. Overall skill of team has really increased. Need two games for the non-conference schedule. Team will be at Detroit, at Nevada, with Iowa State, IPFW, Eastern Illinois at home. Play in a super-tough MTE at Anaheim Classic. We want to play good teams. If you take a chance and wait it out, you can get an opponent that you love, rather than like. MVC Commissioner Doug Elgin does terrific job helping schools set up good schedules.
Marty Simmons, Evansville
Purple Aces have one more game to schedule. Philosophy is to have some balance in the strength of opponents. League has done terrific job of helping all the coaches and programs reach out to other leagues and opponents in scheduling. UE will host Coaches Versus Cancer first-round games. Team is concentrating on skill work this summer -- reads, cuts, ball-handlng, shooting. All 12 scholarship players are on campus. Team still has one scholarship open. Scouting report on new players -- freshman G D.J. Valentine is an Indiana All-Star who is a great scorer and athlete. Freshman G Adam Wayne of Kentucky All-Star team is tough, hard-nosed player who is super competitive. David Howard is a 6-9 freshman forward from Nashville, Tenn., with great length, who can score either hand and runs floor well. Senior G Colt Ryan has gotten better every year and this is his team. We want Colt to get team to play at his level of desire. Ryan is a gym rat and one of the most driven individuals and want others to share his passion and intensity.
Dan Muller, Illinois State
Scheduling philosophy is to prepare the team for conference and post-season play and get the program exposure. Looking for two more games -- one is almost done. He arrived needing to schedule four games and there was a conscious effort to beef up this year's schedule. People in the community were frustrated with quality of schedule in the past. Want to play higher profile opponents. Scheduling is key component for growth of the program. Chicago freshman point guard Aaron Simpson is not with the program. He is going to Lincoln Junior College and has academic work to do. One more scholarship available. Workouts haven't started yet. Watched a lot of film of ISU team preparing for the job interview and have a good feel for the team. Want team to get feel for him and his staff this summer. Will work hard on skill development. Will play a lot of 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 to see what they can do. Freshman PG Kaza Keane is great talent with interesting situation why he was available. He was the one we went after and lucky we got him. Skilled, gifted passer who is very capable of playing right away. He's playing with Under-18 Canadian National team right now.
Greg Lansing, Indiana State
Scheduling philosophy is to play a bunch of competitive teams, play in MTEs and give guys opportunities to play in great environments on the road. Have a couple more games to schedule this year. Elgin has transformed scheduling process and helps the league in post-season. We have lowest budget, so have to play buy games. We will play at UCLA on the road this year. Roster has nine new players who haven't played a minute. Team is going to the Bahamas in August and will get 10 extra days of practice. Jake Odum has recovered from plantar fasciitis injury. As soon as the season was over, he stayed off it for four weeks. He looks like the old Jake, has his springs and quickness back, can actually keep a player in front of him on defense. He went through a tough situation and gave himself up to help the team last year. Team didn't handle expectations well last year. We won't have high expectations this year having lost so many points and minutes off last year's team, but it's exciting and competitive.
Paul Lusk, Missouri State
Kyle Weems did not make Chicago pre-draft camp. He's had good workouts. Played well in Portsmouth. He has his degree and can make a living at basketball, but has degree to fall back on. Haven't started workouts yet. Had a productive spring. Need to become a more skilled team. We need guys who can put the ball in the basket. No secret to becoming good shooter, you have to work hard and put in reps. Redshirt freshmen update -- F Drew Wilson is a high-level athlete who is raw. He defends, runs and rebounds. Dorrian Williams is a 6-2 point guard with an old-school game -- a cerebral player who can make a shot. Going on summer trip to Costa Rica. One of the first things I talked to AD about when I got here was that MSU had never been on a foreign trip. It's a bonding thing and a way to grow as a program. We'll do a community outreach event while we're there. Team has five new players -- four freshmen and one JUCO. Likes the whole group and what they bring to the table in this league. Still have two games to get on non-conference schedule, but have a lot of irons in the fire. Will play at Oklahoma State as part of a 2-for-1 deal. Renewed our series with Tulsa, a 4-year deal. Will play San Diego State and Valparaiso at home. Looking for another 2-for-1 deal. We have a very tough schedule with more home games than last year. Both Jamar Gulley and Anthony Downing -- I didn't think they'd be as good as they were early on. No doubt Gulley can drive the basketball. He's not far from being a consistent shooter. He's a dominant right-handed kid, and I told him this summer he doesn't need to work on driving with the right hand.
Anthony Beane, Southern Illinois
(Only one question asked.) We just started summer school on Monday and met with the team on Sunday night. We've talked to our guys about culture change and building a foundation. They are our guys, even though we didn't recruit them. We have three seniors who have been through the wars and are hungry.
Ben Jacobson, UNI
Freshman of the Year F Seth Tuttle knows he has to get stronger and put some weight on. Sometimes, a guy's body isn't ready to put weight on. We're working with him on shooting and driving the basketball. G Deon Mitchell working on getting in better shape. Conditioning was a factor for him last year, his weight is down some and he's worked really hard this summer. No injury problems. Redshirt freshman update -- G Matt Bohannon really shoots basketball well and has enough size to do other things. F Nate Buss must improve ball handling and strength but is a natural scorer. F Chris Olivier is a big-bodied left handed center who has a lot of skill and length, can help us defensively, but he has to really work on his conditioning. Practices so far have been with small groups -- skill stuff, ball-handling, attacking basket and a little bit of shooting. Schedule is complete, though we need to find out which team will play here for the Battle for Atlantis exempt event. It's the strongest non-conference schedule we've played since I've been here. We're going to have to be ready early. We try to find home-and-homes with teams within driving distance. Prime Time league has been very beneficial for UNI players in past summers, but they won't participate this summer with new practice rule.
Gregg Marshall, Wichita State
We have a talented but very inexperienced team. They are a minimally accomplished group. Four guys who have been a part of success in the past, and the rest have to prove it for the first time. Waiting on one signed contract to complete non-conference schedule. We have a home-and-home with Tennessee, series with Tulsa and VCU. We've lost nine scholarship seniors in the last two years and other coaches probably realize it's a good time to play the Shockers.
