Thursday, November 1
Carbondale, Ill.
7:00 PM
Southern Illinois University
vs
East Central University
Photo by: Steve Buhman, University Communications
SIU hosts East Central in exhibition
10/31/2018 | 5:31:00 | Men's Basketball
The Southern Illinois men's basketball team faces East Central University (Okla.) on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in SIU Arena. The game is SIU's first public game of the 2018-19 season and final tune-up before the Nov. 9 season opener at No. 2 Kentucky. East Central assistant coach Lucas Hunter is a Carterville native and was an SIU team manager while earning his undergraduate degree.
Southern Illinois vs. East Central University (exhibition)
When: Thursday, November 1 // 7 p.m. CT // SIU Arena
Tickets: SIUSalukis.com/tickets or 877-SALUKIS
TV: None
Radio: Saluki Sports Network (Mike Reis play-by-play, Ray Giacoletti analysis)
Live Stats: SIUSalukis.com
Notes
SIU head coach Barry Hinson met with the media on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the game and the upcoming season. Below is a partial transcript. To view the entire 30-minute press conference, click here.
Are you excited for the season?
I'm always excited. I think I have reason to be extra-excited this year with our guys. On paper, there's a big reason to be excited. I love the maturity of this ball club. I love the leadership that we have collectively. We're still searching for that one guy that can be the verbal guy on the floor. We think we're developing that guy. We think he will come forward, and you will see it as the season matures. If I wasn't excited, I would be a liar. I told our staff in the staff meeting, I don't think I've been this excited to play an exhibition game in all my years of coaching. I give the credit for that to our staff and the players coming back. I'm anxious to see what we look like tomorrow. We're ready to play someone else.Â
Will everyone play?
We have some guys who will not play. Eric McGill has a foot injury. I'd like to tell you when he'll be back, but I can't answer that. He's literally right now, or was, getting an x-ray to see the healing process on his foot. Armon  Fletcher will not play tomorrow night's game. Armon suffered a concussion and is in the concussion protocol. David Swedura is out. He has a hamstring injury. We will play Thik (Bol), though. Actually, Thik is going to start. He's excited.Â
Who do you look to fill that sixth-man role that Smithpeters had last year?
It's interesting. You have Thik Bol. You have Eric McGill. Those are two pretty good candidates. They're bring a different game than Tyler did. We miss Tyler's perimeter shooting; we really do. But at the same time, when Eric McGill is healthy—I don't know if you remember this, but when Eric McGill broke his hand last year, he was second in the conference in steals, and out of first place by one. Eric McGill is one of our most explosive athletes on the floor. He's going to cause havoc defensively. He just does it naturally. It's not coaching; he just does it naturally. And Thik alters shots; he blocks shots; he gets rebounds. The thing that Thik does as well as he did (in 2016) is run the floor. He doesn't quite jump like he used to. He doesn't quite block shots like he used to; he doesn't quite have his timing right, but he will eventually get there with his timing. His timing is really off right now, but he hadn't played in a year and a half.
On the team goals
Our goal is to win a Missouri Valley Conference championship. Externally, it's not that great. They still picked us third. There were only four people that thought we would win it. How many votes are there? Forty votes? So 36 people didn't think we would be champions of the league; there were only four people, and one of those was me. The other three, I jokingly said my mom and dad were two of the other three. (Reporter: the Evansville writer said he voted for you). So we have the Evansville writer, me, and my mom and dad were the four that voted us to win the championship. We talk about it every day. Let's go win a championship. We challenge our guys. We did it with our non-conference schedule. It will be interesting to see how we adapt. We've made no bones about it. This is our goal; this is what we want to do. We want to put ourselves in a position to win a conference championship, however well that goes.Â
On Marcus Bartley…
Mike Reis and I did our first podcast together. During that, Mike informed me that he asked Sean Lloyd, 'What's the one thing you can tell me about a team member that we don't know?' Sean Lloyd, with the maturity he has, said, 'You haven't seen Marcus Bartley and how well he shoots.' I believe that. Marcus didn't shoot the ball well last year because he had a broken hand. His hand was fractured the entire season. It bothered him. He's healthy now, and he's shooting the ball better. I think there is a game this year that Marcus Bartley will have the opportunity to break Shane Hawkins game three-point makes record.
On coaching a team with six seniors...
It's really fun to coach a group of guys, when you call something and they know what we are doing. The young guys don't but it is see by example. But we are doing that now with our guys and it makes practice much easier. Our practices have been much more efficient because of the maturity of our players.
On dictating a game offensively or defensively...
I always like to dictate the game defensively. Whenever I look at a player, the first thing I am thinking about is who's he going to guard and how well is he going to guard. When I look at a game, we start about defense. I've always felt we could score, except our first year.
Do you feel with a veteran team that you have to play well against Kentucky and Buffalo in the first two games of the year?
I'm not going to add pressure to the guys. Just do your best. No conference championship is going to be won or lost in the first three or four games. If we don't play well at Kentucky and we get beat by Buffalo, we send it in? No. We won't do that. Just get better. That's one thing I learned from Coach (Bill) Self—and they just won 13 (Big 12 championships) in a row. We never talked about winning (consecutive championships) eight, nine and 10. We talked about winning a conference championship. We talked about it as we started the day, but the biggest thing we talked about was, just get better. I read this last night, and this is something we talk about with our players all the time. Pat Riley used to do this with the (Los Angeles) Lakers all the time, and then he took it to the heat. He says, "That's not a championship-style of practice today. That's not a championship-style of effort." I really liked reading that, because we've talked about that every single day in practice. 'That's not good enough to win a championship.' Whether that be an individual statement or a team statement. Inside peek: I've thrown the guys out of practice twice this year. We brought the back and said, 'That's not how you win a championship. We have to do better. Period.'Â
Â
Southern Illinois vs. East Central University (exhibition)
When: Thursday, November 1 // 7 p.m. CT // SIU Arena
Tickets: SIUSalukis.com/tickets or 877-SALUKIS
TV: None
Radio: Saluki Sports Network (Mike Reis play-by-play, Ray Giacoletti analysis)
Live Stats: SIUSalukis.com
Notes
- Southern Illinois is ranked No. 10 in the preseason mid-major top-25, released earlier today.Â
- Buffalo, SIU's opponent for the home opener on Nov. 12, was ranked No. 2 and the only team other than Gonzaga to receive a first-place vote. (Buy tickets to SIU vs. Buffalo here.)
- The Salukis have four games at SIU Arena against teams ranked in the mid-major top-25: No. 2 Buffalo (Nov. 12), No. 18 Murray State (Dec. 12), No. 3 Loyola (Feb. 24) and No. 14 Illinois State (March 2). (Buy season tickets here.)
- The Salukis return all five starters from last year's 20-win team that finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference. SIU is the only MVC team to return all five starters in 2018-19.
- SIU returns its top-four scorers from last season, led by Armon Fletcher (14.1 ppg), Sean Lloyd, Jr. (12.1 ppg), and Kavion Pippen (12.1 ppg). Aaron Cook (9.8 ppg) narrowly missed being SIU's fourth double-figure scorer in 2017-18.
- Fletcher (First Team) and Pippen (Second Team) were named to the preseason All-MVCÂ teams.
- Fletcher was named first-team All-District and second-team All-MVC last year.
- Pippen was third-team All-MVC and also a member of the MVC All-Newcomer team last year.
- Fletcher will enter the regular season just 52 points away from becoming SIU's 46th 1,000-point scorer.
SIU head coach Barry Hinson met with the media on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the game and the upcoming season. Below is a partial transcript. To view the entire 30-minute press conference, click here.
Are you excited for the season?
I'm always excited. I think I have reason to be extra-excited this year with our guys. On paper, there's a big reason to be excited. I love the maturity of this ball club. I love the leadership that we have collectively. We're still searching for that one guy that can be the verbal guy on the floor. We think we're developing that guy. We think he will come forward, and you will see it as the season matures. If I wasn't excited, I would be a liar. I told our staff in the staff meeting, I don't think I've been this excited to play an exhibition game in all my years of coaching. I give the credit for that to our staff and the players coming back. I'm anxious to see what we look like tomorrow. We're ready to play someone else.Â
Will everyone play?
We have some guys who will not play. Eric McGill has a foot injury. I'd like to tell you when he'll be back, but I can't answer that. He's literally right now, or was, getting an x-ray to see the healing process on his foot. Armon  Fletcher will not play tomorrow night's game. Armon suffered a concussion and is in the concussion protocol. David Swedura is out. He has a hamstring injury. We will play Thik (Bol), though. Actually, Thik is going to start. He's excited.Â
Who do you look to fill that sixth-man role that Smithpeters had last year?
It's interesting. You have Thik Bol. You have Eric McGill. Those are two pretty good candidates. They're bring a different game than Tyler did. We miss Tyler's perimeter shooting; we really do. But at the same time, when Eric McGill is healthy—I don't know if you remember this, but when Eric McGill broke his hand last year, he was second in the conference in steals, and out of first place by one. Eric McGill is one of our most explosive athletes on the floor. He's going to cause havoc defensively. He just does it naturally. It's not coaching; he just does it naturally. And Thik alters shots; he blocks shots; he gets rebounds. The thing that Thik does as well as he did (in 2016) is run the floor. He doesn't quite jump like he used to. He doesn't quite block shots like he used to; he doesn't quite have his timing right, but he will eventually get there with his timing. His timing is really off right now, but he hadn't played in a year and a half.
On the team goals
Our goal is to win a Missouri Valley Conference championship. Externally, it's not that great. They still picked us third. There were only four people that thought we would win it. How many votes are there? Forty votes? So 36 people didn't think we would be champions of the league; there were only four people, and one of those was me. The other three, I jokingly said my mom and dad were two of the other three. (Reporter: the Evansville writer said he voted for you). So we have the Evansville writer, me, and my mom and dad were the four that voted us to win the championship. We talk about it every day. Let's go win a championship. We challenge our guys. We did it with our non-conference schedule. It will be interesting to see how we adapt. We've made no bones about it. This is our goal; this is what we want to do. We want to put ourselves in a position to win a conference championship, however well that goes.Â
On Marcus Bartley…
Mike Reis and I did our first podcast together. During that, Mike informed me that he asked Sean Lloyd, 'What's the one thing you can tell me about a team member that we don't know?' Sean Lloyd, with the maturity he has, said, 'You haven't seen Marcus Bartley and how well he shoots.' I believe that. Marcus didn't shoot the ball well last year because he had a broken hand. His hand was fractured the entire season. It bothered him. He's healthy now, and he's shooting the ball better. I think there is a game this year that Marcus Bartley will have the opportunity to break Shane Hawkins game three-point makes record.
On coaching a team with six seniors...
It's really fun to coach a group of guys, when you call something and they know what we are doing. The young guys don't but it is see by example. But we are doing that now with our guys and it makes practice much easier. Our practices have been much more efficient because of the maturity of our players.
On dictating a game offensively or defensively...
I always like to dictate the game defensively. Whenever I look at a player, the first thing I am thinking about is who's he going to guard and how well is he going to guard. When I look at a game, we start about defense. I've always felt we could score, except our first year.
Do you feel with a veteran team that you have to play well against Kentucky and Buffalo in the first two games of the year?
I'm not going to add pressure to the guys. Just do your best. No conference championship is going to be won or lost in the first three or four games. If we don't play well at Kentucky and we get beat by Buffalo, we send it in? No. We won't do that. Just get better. That's one thing I learned from Coach (Bill) Self—and they just won 13 (Big 12 championships) in a row. We never talked about winning (consecutive championships) eight, nine and 10. We talked about winning a conference championship. We talked about it as we started the day, but the biggest thing we talked about was, just get better. I read this last night, and this is something we talk about with our players all the time. Pat Riley used to do this with the (Los Angeles) Lakers all the time, and then he took it to the heat. He says, "That's not a championship-style of practice today. That's not a championship-style of effort." I really liked reading that, because we've talked about that every single day in practice. 'That's not good enough to win a championship.' Whether that be an individual statement or a team statement. Inside peek: I've thrown the guys out of practice twice this year. We brought the back and said, 'That's not how you win a championship. We have to do better. Period.'Â
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Players Mentioned
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