Men's Basketball hosts regional rival Murray State

Tuesday, November 29

Carbondale, Ill.

7 PM

Southern Illinois University

Murray State

11/28/2016 | 4:13:00 | Men's Basketball

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Southern Illinois (3-3) hosts Ohio Valley Conference rival Murray State (3-3) on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at SIU Arena. The Salukis lead the series versus Murray State, which dates back to 1929, by a 17-16 margin. From 1950 to 1980, the teams did not play each other. Since 1981, SIU leads, 13-8. Since 2000, the Salukis have a 7-3 advantage in the series.

SIU won at Murray State last season, 88-73. The Salukis trailed by two points with eight minutes to go, but converted nine of their final 10 shots during a 31-14 run. Anthony Beane led all scorers with 22 points. This game will mark the 15th time Barry Hinson has faced an Ohio Valley Conference team since becoming head coach at SIU in 2012. He has a 9-5 record in previous games, including a 1-2 mark against Murray State.

Hinson met with the media before practice on Monday.

What kind of challenges does Murray State represent?
I think they're a lot like us when you look in the mirror. They have four guys that average in double figures. Their guard play is outstanding. They've got a hybrid position player that plays extremely well. [Jonathan] Stark is something that draws our attention. He reminds me a little bit of Anthony [Beane] because he can go out and get 20 points a game. He shoots 51 percent from three. I think this is the type of game that our fans will think will be really good. There's not a game left on our schedule that won't go down to the wire. Every game we will have a chance to compete, but no matter who we're playing, they'll have a chance to beat us, whether it be home or on the road. I think we have to mature as a ball club really quick.

Stark is not a big guard. Is that a reason you tried to get bigger guards in the off-season?
We always want to have the largest guards we can get. At our level it is hard to get guys that are big and have skill. Certainly, we think that Armon [Fletcher] can help us. He's the biggest guard we have. I don't consider Sean Lloyd a big guard. We don't have any big guards. We've got Armon. We just try to do the best job that we can defensively.

You limited Amir Coffey's shots well against Minnesota. Is Stark a similar player to Coffey?
I think Stark is more of a prolific scorer from what I can see. I do think Armon's defense has gotten a lot better. Obviously, it needs to continue to get better just like all of the team does. I thought we just saw our best defensive effort against Minnesota. I'll look to see if that transition takes place on the floor for us.

How do you continue to improve defensively?
A lot of that has to do with who we're playing. Minnesota, we would have to play really well. I think that the mentality coming into tomorrow's game is they're scoring 81 points a game. That's a lot of points. I anticipate that we will guard better. I think it will be a faster-paced game. It's more of a guard-oriented game tomorrow night based on what we dealt with at Minnesota, they have little but more size and length. At the same time I think the pace of the game will dictate that and I hope it will be in our favor.

They take almost two-thirds of their shots from the 3-point line. How does that change your defense?
Last year, we were one of the best 3-point defending teams not only in the conference, but in the country. We certainly have gotten better. We went back to our ways a little bit against Minnesota. Most of that comes down to, are you contesting the shot? That's what it comes down to. We contested shots against Minnesota. We had hands in faces. I think if we can just continue to contest shots we are eventually going to get better. It is going to be huge for us tomorrow night. Can we contest their shots? We can't give guys open looks. We can't just hope that they miss.

When you look at Leo Vincent's game and the shots he's taking, they look like the same ones as last year.
There's nothing wrong with Leo. The only thing wrong with him is between his ears. I've got a lot of confidence in Leo. We talked to Leo and Armon yesterday about their shooting. I don't give green lights to very many people. I've given seven or eight greens lights out as a head coach in 36 years. Every one of those guys is playing professional in the NBA or overseas. Armon and Leo both have green lights with this basketball team. I'm going to take those lights off if they don't start shooting better.

What can you tell us about Tyler Smithpeters?
I was hit with some bad news yesterday. (Trainer) Allen Mardis told me that he thought the progress wasn't going as fast as he thought it would. I talked about that on the radio show today. We were anticipating two weeks, but now it may be three. He's having little more pain than what we anticipated. That's not good news for us. We need to get Tyler back in the lineup as soon as possible. What Tyler does for us is that when Leo is off, Tyler usually isn't. We always have that buffer and we certainly miss that. We really don't have anyone coming off the bench right now that has Tyler's ability to shoot or pass the basketball. That's why we need him back as soon as possible.

How does having someone like Thik Bol help defensively, as far as funneling players to him?
I don't know about funneling players to him, but if you do gamble you've got a guy back there who can do something about it. Everyone wants to talk about his blocked shots. The biggest thing Thik is doing right now is altering shots. It's kind of like in the NFL when you hurry the quarterback. That makes a huge difference. He covers up a lot of our mistakes. We've had several mistakes in games this year when we've gotten beat on penetration and he's bailed us out because he has the ability to alter or block a shot.

What stands out about Murray's bigs?
They can score from their hybrid spot and their five is like how ours has been in the past — extremely aggressive, great defenders, good rebounders, maybe struggled a little bit scoring wise. They've got girth. They've got athleticism. I think their inside game is much like ours was prior to this year.

Has a regional rivalry developed between Murray State and SIU?
To have a rivalry you have to win the games. We're down a little bit in that department. They've dominated their side of the rivalry. We had a four-game series when I first got here. This will be the end of the series and they lead it 2-1 right now. In order to create a rivalry our group has to take care of their business. They came in here last time and beat us handily. That weighs heavily on my mind. Of all of our guys here none of those guys remember it. Hopefully, someone like Sean O'Brien or Tyler remember it because they are the only two that played in that last game.

How is Austin Weiher and Rudy Stradnieks progressing?
I think they've made great progress. Austin didn't get to play a lot during SIUE, but how could you play the guy when the guy out on the floor is one rebound and one assist away from a triple double? A lot of our substitutions have been because guys have played so well. With Mike at Minnesota we didn't get to play Aaron Cook as much as we wanted to because Mike had nine assists and three turnovers in a huge environment. I think the more Rudy plays the better he will get. That goes with how well Thik is playing. It's going to be hard now that Thik is getting a little bit of stamina and getting in shape. It is hard to keep Thik off the floor. What Thik can do Rudy can't do. What Rudy can do Thik can't do. Rudy can step out and make threes and make guys guard him to the 3-point line.