Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Wright State
Men's Basketball opens regular season versus Wright State on Friday
11/09/2016 | 3:26:00 | Men's Basketball
Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media on Wednesday as the team prepares for its season opener versus Wright State on Friday at SIU Arena at 7 p.m. Southern Illinois has won all three previous meetings versus Wright State and is 24-12 all-time against current members of the Horizon League, including a 14-3 mark at home. The last Horizon League school to win at SIU Arena was Green Bay  on Mar. 15, 1990 in the first round of the NIT.
Coach Hinson press conference transcript.
Wright State played four guards in the exhibition. What do you expect from them?
What I saw was they scored 58 points in one half. If you guys remember, in previous years we had games where we didn't score 58 points in a game. That's an alarming factor for me. The way they run, they are as fast of a basketball team as I've seen in a long time. I'll give you a funny story. I watched film on them, and I asked the guys doing the film if they sped it up a little bit. They said no coach, this is real speed. It really caught me off guard how fast they play. When they get the rebound, no matter who gets it, they're bringing it. A lot of times they play what we consider four guards, but it's a four-guard and a hybrid. All five guys can pass dribble, shoot and handle a basketball. Right now, defensively, that has given us some issues.
How will you guys limit foul trouble?
I think in this time of year everybody is fouling. The officials are trying to send a message. There's a new cylinder now where you can't get in a guy's cylinder. If he's got his hands up you can't invade his space. You can't get close to the cylinder now. It's a little bit different. There will be a lot of fouls early on. We will see teams all across the country in foul trouble because they want to send a message early.
What does Jonathan Wiley have to do to get more playing time?
Jonathan has worked with our first unit the last few days. I don't think it's anything about increasing playing time except for the exception of maybe for Jonathan to do what he does best. The guy played and was perfect from the field (vs. UMSL). For us, it would be nice if he could rebound and defend a little bit better. He is going to help us a bunch. I can already see it. I can see the contributions that he's going to make in the future. We're really excited about him.
Mike Rodriguez is back at practice. How is he looking and how is he feeling?
Mike practiced on election day. You can't get a full report from Michael because he could go out there with five toes bleeding and tell you that everything was okay. We can't listen to Mike. We have to listen to our trainer and to our doctor. That is a day-to-day evaluation. We have every intention of playing Michael on Friday. When I say we, that does not include the trainer, nor does it include our doctor. That decision will be made by our medical staff and we will stick to that decision. This is not my decision nor is it Michael's.
Has his knee responded well today from yesterday's practice?
He feels good right now. I love the kid to death, but he's not going to give us the truth. I told Mike, "I don't need a martyr, I need you to be completely up-front with me.' This is a kid that (basketball) has been his life. His life. This is all he does. He's in this gym. He lives in this gym. This is his life. When you take away a commodity that is held at such a high esteem for him he's not going to tell you the truth. Bless his heart. We want him back, but we want to make sure we get him back healthy. This cannot be a nagging injury all year long. We don't want that.
Do you want to know before game time since he changes the way you play?
It doesn't change how we play, but it definitely changes our rotation and the way we substitute. You looked up the other night and Sean Lloyd is playing the point guard for us and that's not something he's accustomed to. To answer your question, we've prepared for this in the last nine weeks. If Michael isn't going to play, we're going to start a freshman point guard. You know how comfortable it is to start a freshman point guard in Division I basketball against a really good team that just scored 58 points in a half. I have confidence if we have to do that. He was one of our better players in the scrimmage against Middle Tennessee State and I thought he played exceptionally well the other night in the game against UMSL. If we're forced to start Aaron Cook at the point guard I'll be okay with it.
What was the biggest emphasis after the exhibition win for you guys?
I really tried to make the exhibition as hard as we could on our guys. We didn't run one set play. We didn't run any type of offense. We didn't run an out-of-bound play. We just threw it in. We didn't run any type of defenses. We didn't show any defenses. We didn't do anything that we've worked on all year long. The emphasis went back to this is how we'll play this season. Fans will see how we intend to play. I think you'll see a team that tries to play faster. I think as far as emphasis goes, we didn't play hard enough the other night. I think we've got their attention in the next few days.
How do you take advantage of defensive length with how Wright State plays?
We don't have an issue with our length except with Thik Bol. Thik had four blocks the other night after going back and looking at the film. We got four blocks. When you've got a seven-foot wing span you're going to be able to do some things. Armon (Fletcher) has been our leading rebounder every day in our practices. We think Armon's length can be a huge part of this. Sean O'Brien doesn't look like he has length, but he does. I think those guys right now have given us a little bit of an option. When we go tiny, that's when we have issues. When we have Michael, Tyler and Leo in the game that's when we're going to struggle a little bit because we're not as athletic, we don't have length, we don't have girth, we don't have size. We've really tried to adapt to that in our practices. I think you'll find out that we'll play 11 guys in solid minutes throughout the season.Â
Do you have the capability of being a good rebounding team?
Well, of course. Certainly. I think we can be much better than we were. I think we got in a panic mode the other night when we got rebounded by five by UMSL. Kansas got out-rebounded by one in their first exhibition game. It happens.Â
What is different about Armon this year?
I can't answer that right now. I know what he's capable of doing. I don't want Armon to be the what if. Armon Fletcher has as much raw ability as anyone on the basketball team. He's got length. He's got athleticism. He can shoot the tar out of that thing. But at the same time, he's the only one holding himself back. With Armon, when you look down there you see a prototype guy that can be paid to play basketball one day. You look at him and say that's what that looks like. He's got the frame. He's got to add weight. He's got to add strength. His ball handling skills have to get better. Defensively, he's got to improve. I think he's made strides. I think he's made great strides. I think you need to ask me that question in five or six weeks and I'll be able to tell you a lot more.Â
You were concerned with Thik's conditioning. There are four games in a week starting Friday. How many minutes do you see him playing?
I don't know about minutes. I'm always concerned with conditioning with all of our players. We've got 11 guys and a good rotation. I'm comfortable with Rudy playing. I'm comfortable with Austin playing. I'm even comfortable with Sean O'Brien playing some at the five. Especially with this game because they play four guards. I'm okay. He can play the five if needed. Certainly, he's gotten better, there's no question. His fatigue factor has lessened over the last week. I think Michael has added to that because Michael is always looking for Thik. I think you'll learn after a few games, that kid loves to dunk. We're going to have some guys that can dunk this year, which really is exciting. Before now we've only had guys that could touch the net. Now we're going to have guys that can dunk.Â
Brendon Gooch didn't play. Have you decided if you'll redshirt him?
We will make that decision before our game on Friday. I've had a conversation with Brendon and we'll wait to see what happens. When we redshirt a young man, it is always up to that individual. We had a conversation and the decision has not yet been made. The only reason he didn't play because we didn't have the opportunity to. I like to play everybody in an exhibition but we can't. That's another by-product of going scrimmaging. When you play in a close exhibition game you don't get a chance to play everybody, which is really disappointing, and I was hurt because I would have liked to play everybody.Â
Is it difficult in early games when you don't have film on everyone?
We're close to the Mississippi Flyway here. It's kind of like a duck flying in a snow blizzard. Sometimes you've just got to honk loud enough where the guys follow you. We'll be honking on Friday night. We don't know everything they're going to do. We don't know everything that we're going to do. Thank goodness we don't have to take a test this week because I don't know if we could pass most of our classes in basketball. Early on in the season some crazy things happen and we will be a part of that. We'll be in the mix of crazy.
