Men's Basketball hosts regional rival Saint Louis on Wednesday

Southern Illinois (5-5) hosts Saint Louis (3-6) in a renewal of a regional rivalry on Wednesday night at SIU Arena. The Billikens lead the all-time series, 29-25. SIU has a 13-8 edge in games played at SIU Arena. Last year, Southern snapped a five-game losing skid in the series with a 65-52 win at Saint Louis. In that game, the Salukis rallied from a nine-point deficit. They shot 34 percent from the field, and the team's best player, Anthony Beane, was held to 7-of-22 shooting and 19 points. They overcame it by committing only four turnovers, grabbing 17 offensive rebounds and holding their opponent to just 21 second-half points.

Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media on Tuesday morning.

What do you see in SLU?
"I think every time you play Saint Louis, it's a rivalry game. Whatever the records are and whatever the outcome of the last game, none of that matters. Throw it out with the bathwater, as my grandma would say. It's a huge game for both teams. You've got local recruiting, you've got regional rivalry, and you've got a kid that transferred from Saint Louis to be in our program. This has all the making for a very good and competitive basketball game."

What's the talk in the locker room amongst the guys? How do you bounce back from two losses in a row?
"I think you'd have to ask the guys what the locker room talk is. But certainly, we met for the team meeting on Sunday. I brought the guys in here and talked about getting ready for academics but we also had a segment about what was going on with our basketball team. I wanted everyone to know that part of this is the byproduct of the schedule that we are playing. When you go off and play Louisville and you get jacked up to play with a top team in the country, you've got to come home and catch your emotions and be able to play another game. You're not playing the Power Five, you're not playing the major basketball tradition team and you've got to get yourself prepared for that. We did a really bad job at preparing for that, including the head coach. So, it's my job to get these guys ready, regardless of who we play or where we play, and I'm taking that as a personal challenge myself.

Where is Saint Louis progressing?
"I'm gonna shoot you straight — I don't know a lot about Saint Louis. I've been watching us because I am more worried about us right now. We are our biggest opponent right now. Our basketball teams biggest opponent is in between our ears and we've got to take care of that. Coach Autry gave an unbelievable detailed scout report against Sam Houston State, everything to the T. Even for (Chris) Galbreath to come off the bench, we weren't surprised by that. We were prepared. It comes down to focus, listening, and execution. We are not doing those three things right now. In order for us to be successful, regardless of who we are playing, we have to do those three items right now. So, my biggest emphasis this week has been us, not Saint Louis. We know everything there is to know on scouting report. We know sets, play calls, defense, and changes. They just changed it up against Chicago State, they played a majority of the game in zone and they also zone press and we have struggled with the press as of lately. We are certainly prepared for that part but my biggest emphasis right now is our team and players."

You've struggled against the zone as well, what has to get better with that?
"We struggled a little bit against Louisville zone. When Sean O'Brien is in the game we are very good at zone offense. I'm not overly concerned about our zone offense, knock on wood. I hope that continues to be the trend. I welcome anyone playing us as zone right now."

When there's a little bit of a disconnect, how much do you put that on your seniors and how much do you put that on yourself to get them to listen and do what you're saying?
"I told them the other day that I'm tired of yelling at them. That's all I've been doing is yelling and getting after them. I told them I'm not going to change, I'm going to continue to do that. I put a lot on our three seniors and I think it's time they step up and to hold everybody accountable. I had a great question yesterday on my radio show and it talked about how Kent Williams and Jamaal Tatum would get so mad during games, holler during games, and hold everybody accountable. No one is doing that right now except that coaches. The success of any team, no matter who it is and no matter where you're playing, always comes back to the seniors and the leadership and their position on holding each other accountable. This has been a huge topic in the last 72 hours."

You got Anthony to open up towards the end of his career, why do you think it has taken this long for someone to emerge here?
"I'll put everybody into the same category. I think we are raising a society of introverts. Print that. People do not know how to communicate anymore. The only way we can communicate is electronically through our computers and our phones. We have no desire as a society to teach our young people how to communicate. If you're a parent right now you should put your children in a position where they have to communicate with individuals on a daily basis. We recommend all of our athletes to take speech. To be able to get up and talk in front of people. Regardless of what happens in our future, whether it's robots or artificial intelligence, it's always going to come back to the people that have success are those that have the ability to communicate through good or bad times. Right now, we're doing a bad job of that."

The main kid to do that would be Mike Rodriguez?
"No. I think in all honesty that main candidate is Sean O'Brien. When he opens his mouth, he's got a little bit of E.F. Hutton, everyone listens. It can't fall on just Sean, it has to be Mike, Leo, and it's even have to be Tyler even though he's not playing right now. You're only as good as your seniors. I can promise you that we have a point guard in our program that everyday takes a scout team, and he's yelling at them, and getting them to play hard and that's Marcus (Bartley). Freshmen can't lead teams, it's not in their DNA, but I'm 100 percent convinced Aaron Cook will be one of our team leaders next year."

Talking line up changes, do you think Leo is the guy or have you decided yet?
"I haven't decided and there's no one particular individual. You could see me start five new guys, I don't think that will happen but you could very well see that. How we prepare here for this basketball game, not only in the mental aspect but in the physical aspect. I am going to pick a starting five guys out there that I know are going to be enthusiastic and will give us great, great energy. If they aren't going to do that then it may look like a hockey game for a while. We may have guys coming over the rail. We are going to play guys who want to play."

It's still fairly early but do you feel that all your issues are something you can adjust or are addressable?
"Yes. I'm going to pull an Aaron Rodgers here, but everybody needs to relax. Relax. When we play the third-toughest schedule in The Valley, that's all everybody wants to talk about. Nobody is talking about Wright State, UT-Martin and Sam Houston State, Murray State and Texas Southern. Mount Saint Mary's won at George Mason. Not only the high-major schools we've talked about, it's the other games that have really made our schedule extremely tough. I won't be able to evaluate what this schedule has done to us until the end of the year, but I am still confident that this will help us for Valley competition."

We've discovered that you signed an extension in September that goes to 2020, does that help you in recruiting?
Everyone says they want a dream job and I've got my dream job. I really, really like being here and love being a part of this community. I love being a part of this region. This is the place for me to coach. I'm extremely excited that I get to continue to do that."

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Men's Basketball hosts regional rival Saint Louis on Wednesday

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Players Mentioned

Anthony Beane

Aaron Cook Jr.

Sean O'Brien

Mike Rodriguez

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