Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Wednesday, February 1
Carbondale, Ill.
7 PM
Southern Illinois University
vs
Bradley
Men's Basketball hosts Bradley on Wednesday night
01/31/2017 | 4:01:00 | Men's Basketball
Southern Illinois (12-11, 5-5) hosts Bradley (8-15, 3-7) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in a Missouri Valley Conference matchup on ESPN3. SIU has dominated the series between the schools since 2002 by a 23-12 margin, including a 12-3 mark at SIU Arena. The Salukis have won the last three meetings at home versus Bradley, all by double digits. When the teams met in Peoria on Dec. 29, however, Bradley prevailed, 60-51. The Salukis shot 27 percent from the field, including 2-for-26 from 3-point range in that contest.
Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media before Tuesday's practice.
What do you take away from your last meeting with Bradley?
When we go back and look at the film, we just missed shots in dramatic ways. We have to find ways to be able to score the basketball. We missed so many shots, not only 3-point shots, but we missed shots around the basket. I know they had a little bit to do with that, but after looking at the film, there were so many open opportunities that we didn't capitalize on. Certainly, it's going to be the same thing when we play these guys (tomorrow). We know they're going to make us shoot the ball from the perimeter, we know they're going to zone us and certainly we'll have to be prepared for that. We'll see if it works.
That's not been an aberration — they've been pretty good defensively.
Yeah, they have. They're good defensively because they have length. This is one of the larger basketball teams that we play, right next to Illinois State and Wichita State. They have some length and certainly that gave us some issues up there. It's given us issues all year long. We're going to have to counter that.Â
After the comeback win on Saturday, did you notice extra giddyup in your step?
To be quite frank, we gave them a day off on Sunday, and we had a less than average practice on Monday that I would expect to have. It's normally par for guys that have taken a weekend off. We're certainly going to have a great practice today. If you can't get ready for this game, I don't know which game you can get ready for.
You've mentioned the dog days of basketball season — does that make it more challenging?
When you go home at night and you're watching ESPN and you're looking at the ticker, and you watch all these scores, and they're all going down to the last 1-2 minutes of the game and they're all close. This is the time of year when there's not a lot of surprises. Everything goes down to the wire. The games are longer. Calls are more critical, plays are more critical. This is the time of year everybody has to hunker down.Â
With games coming down to the last 1-2 minutes, where do you feel your team is maturity-wise to close out games?
The thing about Missouri State — we executed down the stretch, we just didn't make shots. We executed to the T. We're just one open shot away from not even going into overtime. For me, execution is on both ends of the floor. I didn't think we did a good job executing defensively. When it came to overtime, we earned this victory. It wasn't given to us. We had to earn it hard-fashioned, being down at halftime, being down 13 points, come back take the lead, lose the lead, come back again. I think that speaks volumes about our kids character.
With seniors coming down the stretch, how do you balance having them play with urgency without pressing?
There's a fine line. I told our guys recently — hey you've got 35 days left — that's it. Can you fathom that when you started playing basketball, possibly for all three of those guys, in elementary, that you are quickly coming to a time in your life when your career may be over? We try to make them understand and acknowledge to not take for granted the opportunity to play every night you get a chance to go on the floor.
Coach Bill Parcells said you are what your record is. Do you feel like you're coaching a .500 team?
No, I don't. I think when you look, it depends, when you look at your record, we wouldn't be a .500 team had I not selected the non-conference schedule that I had. We come out of non-conference 7-6 and we could have certainly played a lesser schedule, but I think we'll see. I told everybody this, I'll make the acknowledgement at the end of the year when I look back on the season to see if the non-conference schedule helped us. I think right now that it has.
You're .500 in the conference, too.Â
I don't think I ever enter a day of practice where I think, let's go out and be .500. I hope that we anticipate we'll be better than .500.Â
Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media before Tuesday's practice.
What do you take away from your last meeting with Bradley?
When we go back and look at the film, we just missed shots in dramatic ways. We have to find ways to be able to score the basketball. We missed so many shots, not only 3-point shots, but we missed shots around the basket. I know they had a little bit to do with that, but after looking at the film, there were so many open opportunities that we didn't capitalize on. Certainly, it's going to be the same thing when we play these guys (tomorrow). We know they're going to make us shoot the ball from the perimeter, we know they're going to zone us and certainly we'll have to be prepared for that. We'll see if it works.
That's not been an aberration — they've been pretty good defensively.
Yeah, they have. They're good defensively because they have length. This is one of the larger basketball teams that we play, right next to Illinois State and Wichita State. They have some length and certainly that gave us some issues up there. It's given us issues all year long. We're going to have to counter that.Â
After the comeback win on Saturday, did you notice extra giddyup in your step?
To be quite frank, we gave them a day off on Sunday, and we had a less than average practice on Monday that I would expect to have. It's normally par for guys that have taken a weekend off. We're certainly going to have a great practice today. If you can't get ready for this game, I don't know which game you can get ready for.
You've mentioned the dog days of basketball season — does that make it more challenging?
When you go home at night and you're watching ESPN and you're looking at the ticker, and you watch all these scores, and they're all going down to the last 1-2 minutes of the game and they're all close. This is the time of year when there's not a lot of surprises. Everything goes down to the wire. The games are longer. Calls are more critical, plays are more critical. This is the time of year everybody has to hunker down.Â
With games coming down to the last 1-2 minutes, where do you feel your team is maturity-wise to close out games?
The thing about Missouri State — we executed down the stretch, we just didn't make shots. We executed to the T. We're just one open shot away from not even going into overtime. For me, execution is on both ends of the floor. I didn't think we did a good job executing defensively. When it came to overtime, we earned this victory. It wasn't given to us. We had to earn it hard-fashioned, being down at halftime, being down 13 points, come back take the lead, lose the lead, come back again. I think that speaks volumes about our kids character.
With seniors coming down the stretch, how do you balance having them play with urgency without pressing?
There's a fine line. I told our guys recently — hey you've got 35 days left — that's it. Can you fathom that when you started playing basketball, possibly for all three of those guys, in elementary, that you are quickly coming to a time in your life when your career may be over? We try to make them understand and acknowledge to not take for granted the opportunity to play every night you get a chance to go on the floor.
Coach Bill Parcells said you are what your record is. Do you feel like you're coaching a .500 team?
No, I don't. I think when you look, it depends, when you look at your record, we wouldn't be a .500 team had I not selected the non-conference schedule that I had. We come out of non-conference 7-6 and we could have certainly played a lesser schedule, but I think we'll see. I told everybody this, I'll make the acknowledgement at the end of the year when I look back on the season to see if the non-conference schedule helped us. I think right now that it has.
You're .500 in the conference, too.Â
I don't think I ever enter a day of practice where I think, let's go out and be .500. I hope that we anticipate we'll be better than .500.Â
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