Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball hosts UMSL in Thursday night exhibition
11/02/2016 | 9:07:00 | Men's Basketball
Saluki men's basketball coach Barry Hinson met with the media on Tuesday afternoon as the team prepares for its exhibition game vs. Missouri-St. Louis on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3, the Saluki Radio Network, and All-Access.
Read the 2016-17 Saluki Basketball Media Guide.
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How did the scrimmage vs. MTSU go?
I think the biggest thing we got out of it was that we weren't as good as we thought we were. What has a lot to do with it is when you have your starting point guard out. I think we got a lot out of it. I was certainly very impressed with Middle Tennessee State and their staff and the hospitality they showed us. It was really good for us. It's just like a road game. Our supper was late the night before. We got stuck in traffic for an hour. We didn't pull into the hotel until midnight. It was one of those deals where everything that could've gone wrong went wrong. It was good for us to go through that. I think it was a huge help for us.
With Mike Rodriguez out, does that create more of a reason to get some other guys some experience?
I learned this from Tom Landry a long time ago. Don't worry about the things that you can't control. I can't control injuries. When injuries like that happen I always look at it like a blessing in one form or another. I can just get overwhelmed with all of the woe is me. I look at it as a blessing that we can get someone else ready, i.e. Aaron Cook. He is just continually getting better. Mike stands on the sideline and mentors our coaches and advises Aaron. What we told Aaron in the recruiting process has come to fruition before the season's even started. We just kept telling him that with sickness, injury, whatever, you may have to be our point guard. Here we are looking at a Nostradamus prediction coming forth.
How is Mike progressing?
I talked to his doctor last night. It's the same as we talked about earlier, we will re-evaluate on election day. I say that because it's next Tuesday, but everyone knows when election day is. We're going to re-evaluate. We hope to have him in uniform for our first game. We won't put an emphasis on it. We're not going to bring Michael back until we know we can bring him back. I would think the chances of him playing in the first game would be 50-50.
Are you playing with four guards or three guards and two bigs?
We can't play with three guards. We can't play with three little guards. We know that. Coming out of the scrimmage we know there aren't very many scenarios where we can have Michael, Leo and Tyler on the floor at the same time. We have to have Armon Fletcher or Sean Lloyd in that three spot. We just get buried athletically and rebounding-wise. I think our guards will be Leo, Tyler and Aaron and Michael. Those four guard will alternate into two spots. Hopefully, and Sean Lloyd has played really good as of late, and so has Armon Fletcher, those guys will rotate into the forward spot. We'll see.
How has Jonathan Wiley been coming along?
Jonathan is getting better every day in practice. We've talked about it the last three days after the scrimmage. We feel like we can play 11 players. Jonathan is part of that rotation. We feel like Jonathan gives us a really good substitution for Sean O'Brien, or if O'Brien is sick or injured, we don't have a problem with Jonathan playing the four spot.Â
Is Gooch a redshirt candidate?
We don't even talk about that until right before we play Wright State. Right now, I don't have any candidates for a redshirt, so we'll see where we are after the exhibition game.
Who will start in the five spot?
Thik (Bol) will probably start. I plan on starting Thik on Thursday night. Thik gives us something that we haven't had. Then again, Thik can't play for an extended period of time right now. His gas tank holds about two gallons. Right now, we've got lots of guys who can play the five. Thik, Austin, Rudy and Sean O'Brien can play the five if we ever run into a lineup that we feel is a little bit slower.
What is the biggest thing you want to see Thursday night?
Shoot, I'm just ready to play. I'm kind of fired up. I'm really excited for our fans. I can't go anywhere in this community where people aren't fired up about Saluki basketball. We've waited a long time for this. People are telling me they've got their season tickets and they haven't had them for the last two or three years, they're fired up and they're ready to go. I'll tell you this, our guys are ready to see somebody else's face besides our guys. I promise you they're ready to see somebody else besides their selves. Today will be our 23rd practice. Add the scrimmage in there and you're looking at 24 times that we've been on the floor. That doesn't count any of the preseason. For lack of a better term, we're bored with ourselves and we're ready to see somebody new. On Friday or after the game Thursday you'll ask me and I'll just say man, we've got to get some work done, we're not very good. You go ahead and cut and paste that right now and be able to use that after the game, because I promise you that's going to be said.
How has Austin Weiher come along defensively?
I think he's gotten better. I like his effort. Austin is kind of stoic. He would be a great poker player when he gets out of here because you can't read him at all. He's not a rah-rah guy. I thought he had a good practice yesterday and I saw some good things in our scrimmage. Austin is going to get better and better as the season goes on. He's going to be in the rotation.
