Men's Basketball welcomes Austin Peay on Saturday night

Dec. 5, 2014

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University men's basketball team will play Austin Peay State at 7:35 p.m. on Saturday at SIU Arena. The Salukis (4-3) are in the midst of a three-game winning streak, while the Governors (2-5) have lost four of five.

Austin Peay State at Southern Illinois
Date	Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014
Time	7:35 p.m. CT
Location	Carbondale, Ill. SIU Arena (8,339)
Game Notes	Southern Illinois
Radio	Saluki Sports Network
TV	None
Live Video	Saluki All-Access
Live Audio	Stretch Internet
Live Stats
Social Media	@SIU_Basketball

Head coach Barry Hinson Q&A

Opening statement

"I lost a really dear friend this week to cancer in Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In this profession it is hard to get close to media guys. Not only did I get close to him, but he was a very dear friend of mine. All of our prayers go to his wife and his daughter. He has been one of the most comforting and professional media members that I ever dealt with in my 34 years of coaching. I am deeply saddened by his loss. I am greatly appreciative of the friendship we've had over the last 20 years."

Q: Minus the coasting in the second half, was the game against SIUE the best played so far?

"I think the first half was definitely the best. Let's talk about the coasting part because I think that is important for our fans to know. I'm too nice of a guy and I'm not going to change that. I don't want to beat the dog out of anybody. I want to play as many guys as we can. I don't know if I should apologize or not. It is a conundrum. Lennox (Forrester) is a really good friend of mine and I have nothing but the utmost respect for that program. It doesn't do us any good to win by 30 or 12. To me, the most important thing is to win the game. I was disappointed how our substitutions didn't take the seriousness of the game. I think that is one of the things that we need to improve on. That is also a by-product of those guys being young. We certainly will grow by that."

Q: Is this an easy team to coach?

"I don't think that this is an easy team to coach because of our immaturity. They are a great team to coach. I love them. I absolutely love them. They are a sponge, they want to learn and are getting to the point where they are acknowledging their mistakes in front of their peers without us bringing it forward. They are challenging each other and they are getting to the point in practice where a guy doesn't do something right, the team challenges them. That is my favorite part. The games are the least fun to me. The most fun I have is getting to do what I do every day, go down on the practice floor and teach. I am not a coach, I am a teacher. I have said that a thousand times and I love teaching. Right now I love my classroom."

Q: Can Chaz Glotta's shooting help you if he plays a couple minutes shooting that well?

"I don't think that there is any question that Chaz can shoot the ball like that. When Chaz shoots the basketball in the natural flow of the game where he doesn't try to force it or not sped up, the players are right that we can't stop in in practice. He is really a good little offensive player. What is keeping Chaz off the floor right now is his ability to guard somebody. He has to understand angles. I am not asking him to be more athletic than what he is. What i'm asking him to do is focus on angles and being able to keep somebody in front of him of him. Until he does that, his playing will be spotted."

Q: How prepared do you think you are to rebound against Austin Peay?

"We have not done a good job. Our interior defense has not been really great. We have go to be a lot better there. I am encouraged by how Sean (O'Brien) guards. Jordan (Caroline) has been all over the board right now defensively. Bola (Olaniyan) has not been himself defensively or rebound-wise. This game right here will be a challenge for our big guys. Will they step up to the plate right now, we will soon find out."

Q: What can you say about the play of Anthony Beane the last three games?

"The runs that he has been in the last three games have all been runs where has not forced any shots. In the last three games I can honestly tell you after looking at film, out of 46 shots he has taken, two of those shots would be ill-advised. Consequently, that is why he is scoring points. He is taking good shots and taking them in the flow of the offense. You have to give credit to his teammates, they are starting to find him. Another reason why Anthony is open is because a guy like Chaz Glotta, Sean O'Brien, or Jordan Caroline are scoring, which enables him to be open. We work on box-and-one's all the time. People are telling me that we are going to see that. Fantastic. We welcome it. You're gonna have to stop Sean O'Brien, Jordan Chaz, Tyler (Smithpeters), and Jalen (Pendleton). That is the whole deal when we talked about recruiting. You guys asked me if we were going to sign any shooters. We have got guys that can shoot the basketball. Our numbers don't show it yet, but I promise as the season goes on, you will see the offensive numbers go up with those guys surrounding Anthony and Sean."

Q: What do the Governors do well?

"They block shots and it is hard to score on them inside. Everything we do is inside-orientated. They do a great job on offense in the sense of going and getting offensive rebounds. They use their size, athleticism, and they are great in transition. All of the areas they are good in, we are really struggling in right now. We have got to make improvement in less than 24 hours because we took yesterday off. That was a big decision whether we do that or not. I felt like we needed it. We have worn some guys out. We really have gone hard since we came back from Kent State. Yesterday really was our first true major day off. We wanted to get our guys' feet underneath academically before finals came in."

Q: Defensively, how happy have you been with Beane's performance?

"He has been better, but he still is not to the level where I think he can play defensively. He is not one of our better perimeter defenders right now and he needs to be. He can be our best perimeter defender is he decided he want to be that. He is getting better offensively, but he needs to match that on the defensive end. My job is to make him the very best player that I can. I am not going to rest on our laurels and be satisfied. We want to make him the best player that he can be. He has got to improve dramatically for us defensively."

Q: Has Deion Lavender practiced better lately?

"I think he has. That is the sad thing about this game. When you take time off, pouting, upset, or in an injury, whatever the variables are that you are not playing or practicing good, someone else is practicing and trying to take your minutes. That is a great lesson for life for all of us. There is a salesman out there that is working his tail off a little more. If you're not crossing I's and crossing your T's, someone else on the workforce is. When you look up one day for that promotion, that guys takes it and it is the same way in basketball."