Southern Illinois University
Sam Houston State
Men's Basketball hosts Sam Houston State at 1 p.m. on Saturday
12/09/2016 | 3:35:00 | Men's Basketball
Southern Illinois (5-4) hosts Sam Houston State (5-3) of the Southland Conference at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The Salukis and Bearkats have met twice before, with SIU winning both times. They met at SIU Arena in the season opener in 1967 on Dec. 1. It was the season after SIU's NIT title, and a crowd of 8,000 watched the Salukis win, 70-54. Four players scored in double figures for Southern, led by Bruce Butchko's 22 points. The teams met again last season in Huntsville, Texas. The Salukis trailed by 18 points in the first half, but Anthony Beane rallied SIU to an 86-81 overtime win. He had eight of the team's nine points in OT.
Head coach Barry Hinson press conference transcript:
Shooting percentages are low from free throw and three points shots.
So you noticed that, huh? I was hoping you guys didn't figure that out. I think this basketball team can shoot the basketball. I still believe that. I don't think we have a team full of bad shooters. We shot the ball a lot better last year because we had a strength of schedule in the 320s or 340s. Our strength of schedule is the second best in the Valley right now. I think our shooting deficiency has a lot to do with the length and athleticism that we're playing against. With that said, I think we're a much better shooting team than what we've shown in the last few weeks. I'm like a pitching coach in the bullpen. I believe in these kids. I believe in their ability to shoot the basketball. I don't think I've ever seen a guy more efficient in shooting than when I look at Leo Vincent every day. Right now Leo's issue is between his ears. A lot of that had to do with Armon as well. Free throw shooting, to me, is based on who is getting fouled. We're a really good free throw shooting team when Armon and Leo and Michael are getting fouled. Armon and Leo's shooting is affecting their free throw shooting. I think we've just got to get through that. I think it's all good news quite frankly. If you're going to have a slump, let's do it now and not in the middle of the season. Last year we had our slump after the Evansville game, specifically with Leo. I don't want to say I'm happy, but I'd rather a through the slump right now than in conference.
Are you thinking about putting Leo on the bench and starting Sean Lloyd?
If I make a change it won't be because of shooting. I don't make changes because of offense. We have several candidates that we can differentiate in the starting lineup based on their defense. When I make a change it will not be because of offense. It will be because of defense and how we play. I am definitely considering shaking up the lineup based on how we are practicing our defense.
The team isn't defending the 3-point shot well, what needs to change to fix that?
We're last in 3-point field goal percentage defense. We're not last anymore in field goal percentage defense, but I will say this, the last four games, three of them have been pretty impressive defensively, even at Louisville. I think at Louisville, with how many steals and turnovers we got, we made them turn the ball over 12 times. People say Louisville doesn't shoot well from the perimeter, but I thought we did a good job defending the 3-point shot. Here is the 11th-ranked team in the country that shot 43 percent on us, but they also shot 20 percent from the 3-point line. I think you've got to give our players credit for that.Â
Have you considered taking some of the ball handling off of Mike and playing Aaron Cook?
I always look at the side of that defensively. Certainly we can, but it wouldn't be Aaron for Mike it would be Aaron for Leo. You can't have Aaron, Mike and Leo in the game on the floor at the same time. That's kind of where we're in a position where we are alternating Sean Lloyd and Armon. That's our conundrum right now. It's hard to take Mike off of the floor. It is hard to play Mike with his minutes played. We can't play Mike 36 minutes. We just can't do that.Â
What does the team gain from the Louisville game?
I don't think you can look at gain right now. I think you can think about gain at the end of the year, or maybe during conference play You don't find out the interest that it's paid until after. I'm still a firm believer. I just told Mike Reis before our pregame show that I think this program needs to play a game like that every year for the shock and awe factor, so we're not scared to death. I thought we were really nervous at Louisville. I think it showed to start the game. At the same time what we did when we got down 13 to nothing, I thought that showed a lot of grit in how we settled down and relaxed. If you take away the first five minutes, we win by two in the next five minutes of that game. That's pretty impressive considering we were down 13 to nothing at the 15-minute mark. For those guys to do what they did is impressive. We went in at halftime and I was really encouraged. It was a different locker room than it was at Arkansas. It was completely different. We have a couple of anomalies. If you told me Thik Bol was going to miss dunks and get one rebound and have a defensive game like he did; I would have never predicted that. If you look at what Thik did prior to that, he was the best player at Arkansas and the best player in Minnesota. The way we shot the ball caught me off guard. I didn't think we'd shoot it that bad. Leo's stat line I couldn't have predicted that as long as I lived.Â
What does it say about how the team responded after big losses at Minnesota and Arkansas and not letting it carry over to the next game?
I think that says a lot. It didn't carry over in practice yesterday. I wasn't really happy about that. My staff reminded me that we got back at one o'clock in the morning and we didn't get to practice until late. I'm not particularly happy with how we practiced on Thursday, but I wasn't at full speed either because I didn't sleep on Wednesday, but I kind of get it. We've always responded. It will be interesting to see. The team coming in is predicted to win the Southland Conference with three all-conference players. They've been off for seven days so they're coming in with fresh legs. You never know what they've out in and I know they've put in things over the break. We're going to have to play well tomorrow to win this basketball game. It's our first afternoon game. This is our first early game.
Sam Houston is high-paced on offense. What kind of challenge does that provide?
I think the biggest challenge for us is they're forcing 17 turnovers a game. We just got out of a game where we turned it over 17 times. Hopefully, we'll do a better job of protecting the basketball. I think we can play fast. There's no question. I think we can play with anybody fast. If it's a missed bucket, I'll put our guys up against anybody in transition. When we're running and shooting the basketball as you saw in the first 15 minutes against Texas Southern, we're pretty efficient. I go back, 75 percent of our last four games have been very productive defensively. How do we continue that trend? That's what I'm getting ready to go ask them at practice. Are you ready to guard and ready to defend and rebound? I think the offense will take care of itself.Â
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