Men's Basketball hosts Missouri State on Hall of Fame weekend

Saturday, January 28

Carbondale, Ill.

7 PM

Southern Illinois University

Missouri State

Photo by: Tom Weber

01/27/2017 | 3:00:00 | Men's Basketball

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By: By Tom Weber, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois (11-11, 4-5) hosts Missouri State (14-8, 5-4) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at SIU Arena. It's Hall of Fame weekend at SIU, and the Class of 2017 — Gwen Berry (Track & Field), Hubie Dunn (Gymnastics), Jason Frasor (Baseball), Alexis Moreland (Football), Bianca Stuart (Track & Field) and Ray Tabacchi (Baseball) — will be introduced at halftime of the game.

Saturday's telecast will be cleared live on FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports Indiana and FOX Sports Kansas City (combined 5.8 million homes), Comcast SportsNet Chicago (4.9 million homes), ESPN3 (outside the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska), DirecTV (FOX Sports Midwest – Channel 671; Comcast SportsNet Chicago – Channel 665), Dish Network (FOX Sports Midwest – Channel 418; Comcast SportsNet Chicago – Channel 429) and AT&T U-verse (FOX Sports Midwest -- Channels 748 and 1748; Comcast SportsNet Chicago – Channels 740 and 1740).

Saluki head coach Barry Hinson met with the media prior to Friday's practice:

You get Sean Lloyd and Leo Vincent back. Do you feel like the team's confidence is back as well?
I think it puts us on a level playing field, certainly that's a big plus for us. I thought yesterday was a very emotional day for our basketball team as well as our program. The guys were excited. We were excited needless to say. I think the biggest thing right now is, let's get everything behind us and let's start getting ready for the second half of the season. That's been our focus. The second half of the season starts tomorrow night.

Were you concerned that you might lose those two for the whole year?
I think the best way to say it is I was just very concerned.

What is the biggest thing the team is trying to correct coming out of this losing streak to get back to winning?
When I got back and looked at the losing streak, you're talking about just making a few plays down the stretch against Drake. I do think that, including the head coach, we've been a little overdramatic about a few things. The Wichita loss, we put ourselves in a position where we didn't have a chance. When I look at Drake and Northern Iowa, we did have chances. I think that's the biggest thing we've got to explain to our players. I think we've got a pretty good basketball team. We've just got to prove it. We've just got to show it. This will be an interesting game. Both teams have to win this game if they want to be in the top tier of the league. These are have-to wins if you want to stay in the top tier. We're to the point in the second half of the season where tie breakers start to take effect. When sweeps are positive and things like that. Certainly for us, this game has a lot of variables. It gets us out of a slump. You get a win - you're one game out of third place. You get a sweep. The most urgent thing is to try to find a way to get a win. That's the Band-Aid that we need right now.

Do you think the team will come out angry tomorrow?
I know there are a lot of schools that use that term. For lack of better words, we've used it on occasion. I'm going to ask our guys to get back to the basics. Play as hard as you can play. Play together and just be smart. We've had combinations of two of the three, specifically at Northern Iowa and Drake, but we didn't go three-for-three. We have to go three-for-three in order for us to be successful. Whether that happens Saturday or not, it will happen in the future. I know we'll get things back.

At this point in the season, is there much game planning done after you've seen them once?
Take us for example. We've put in some new stuff. Missouri State has put in some new stuff. It's a chess match. We're searching for Bobby Fischer. All conference teams across the country are. I'm watching one of my best friend's teams play the other night and they came out in a 1-3-1. This is a guy that said I don't know anything about a 1-3-1 defense. This time of year it's really a chess match. I think you see different things.

You played Missouri State hours after they lost Ronnie Rousseau III for an indefinite amount of time. They've had some time to adjust, what have you seen them do different?
I think its Alize Johnson. You've got two games in a row where he went 26 and 20. You've got the last game 17 and 17. Alize Johnson. Wow. That's phenomenal. They've out rebounded their opponents in the last 10 games. Dequon Miller just has the freedom to score. He causes us issues every time we play him. We need to be able to guard in transition. We need to be able to rebound, but we need to find a way to guard Johnson.

What have you talked about when you've struggled form the 3-point line?
I think for us, If you're not scoring form the perimeter, and you try to get the ball inside and you're not scoring at the basket, the next area is what we refer to as the logo area. You've got to be able to make 15-foot jump shots. Right now, if you're playing us people are not going to guard us on the perimeter. They'll let us have the 3-point shot, and I hope they'll continue to do that because I stick with my guns. I think these guys can shoot the basketball. We haven't. I know it. I know the stats prove it, but doggone it, I'm an old stubborn mule and I'm digging in. I think we can shoot the basketball. We just haven't done it yet, but I think we can. We have to be able to attack the basket from 15 feet. Mike is too small. He's too little to attack the basket, but especially against team that have length and size. Speaking of stubborn mules, there's a little stubborn mule, too, because he won't pull up. When he does he's very successful. And we like that if we can do that.

Mike has developed a little floater if he can get by his man.
Yeah, I agree with you. We constantly talk about that in practice and I don't think he takes it enough. We don't have a problem with Mike Rodriguez shooting the ball. We have a problem with Mike Rodriguez's geography of where he's shooting the ball, especially against teams with size and length. But that's a good observation. I think when you shoot it with little pull-ups in the logos, I think he can really be a positive.

Sean O'Brien looks like he is getting the same shots, but isn't making as many. How important is it to try to open up him the chance to get off to a good start?
If we go back and look at the film from Wichita State, Sean O'Brien played pretty good. He's one guy that played pretty good and it was against length. I think he's one of the best players in the conference. I believe in this kid. He's a heck of a player. We're going to continue to get him the ball and we're going to continue to play through him. That's how much confidence I have in him.

Do you need more offensively form Thik Bol right now?
We do. I think that's Thik's fault as much as it is our fault of getting him the basketball. Give credit to everybody in the conference because they understand. They're not going to let him roll to the basket because they know. Thik's ability to score right now will most likely come in transition and off of set plays. Certainly we want to get him the ball more if we can.

Sean O'Brien said you have to treat every game like a game seven because the team has a chance to finish in third, fourth or fifth.
I agree with that. That's what I just told our players. We were picked fifth. We've got a chance to finish better than where we were selected to finish. This team has played the fourth-toughest and sometimes the third-toughest conference schedule. We're at the halfway point. We're okay. We're going to get through this. I agree with Sean. I like that analogy. It just shows you once again how smart these kids are and I do think you have to treat it that way. I talk to my buddies all the time in coaching. If you watch the ticker each night, every game is close with the exception of a few, and then there's a blowout here and there and you're like wow, how did that happen? Well, it happens all over the country. I looked at the Louisville and Pitt score the other night and I thought holy Moses, 106 to 51. How does that happen? Well, I know how it happens. I've witnessed it. I've been there.