Barry Hinson press conference transcript
11/15/2018 | 6:48:00 | Men's Basketball
Southern Illinois men's basketball head coach Barry Hinson met with the media on Thursday to discuss the upcoming games against Arkansas Pine Bluff and Howard. Below is a partial transcript. To view the full press conference, click here.
NOTES: The Soul Phonics will play a live concert before SIU's Saturday game against Arkansas Pine Bluff. The Soul Phonics will play from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Charles Helleny Pavillion ahead of the 7 p.m. tip-off ... Special $10 tickets are available for Monday's 7 p.m. game against Howard at SIU Arena. Call 877-SALUKIS or visit SIUSalukis.com/tickets ... Monday's game vs. Howard is also the Kids Club game. Members of the Kids Club will receive free admission. For more information on the Kids Club, visit SIUSalukis.com/kidsclub.
On injuries and depth…
It's definitely a challenge for us. Not only on the floor and our competitors, but it's really a challenge in how we divide up and practice. Now we're not even close to last year, when we had seven (healthy) guys. At least we're able to go 5-on-5. That's a counted blessing. Right now, we know for a fact we're not going to play Armon (Fletcher) or Eric (McGill) on Saturday. They've been removed from the game for Saturday and most likely will be removed from the game on Monday. We do not know about the first-round game in Vegas. The conundrum is, if we play these guys, then we lose them for conference. We're just going to have to take our medicine while we're at it. I'm not going to put these guys at jeopardy, nor am I going to put the club in jeopardy, of keeping these guys out of conference play. Both of these young men are in jeopardy of not playing the entire season, if we don't do what the medical staff tells us to do. We're going to follow them to the T.
On how the team adjusts…
Right now, that's our issue. You've noticed during the games we've had substitution issues. Right now, you need someone to come off the bench and immediately contribute. If they don't immediately contribute, then you go to the next guy. Our faltering point right now is someone needs to pick up the slack. We have some guys who can do that; they just need to do it. I can't answer the question definitively; I can just say collectively, it needs to be somebody. We will look at different lineups. I certainly won't be as conservative with fouls, especially with the big guys, as I have been. Losing two perimeter players, we need to be a little more conservative with our guards. We will try to do a better job of rotation. It will look like a hockey game for a little while. We're going to try to keep our guys as fresh as we can.Â
On rebounding…
Our guards have to rebound. I can give you stat right now. Three guards had 40 blockout opportunities. One missed 27; one missed 23; and one missed 21 out of 40 opportunities. You can imagine what we've done the last two days, what we'll do today, do tomorrow, and do on gameday. We're going to block out.
On defense…
I've really been impressed with our defense. We're guarding our tails off. We just held (Buffalo) to a three-year low. And at Kentucky, for the most part, I thought we did a good job. We collectively held their best player (Buffalo's CJ Massinburg) to seven points. We're about to find out who can stop guys because (Pine Bluff guard Martaveous) McKnight can play. He's averaging 35 points; he's shooting 50 percent from the 3 and 91 percent from the free-throw line. We're going to figure out how good we are defensively on Saturday night against McKnight, for sure.Â
What's the biggest gain from playing two ranked teams to start the season?
I'm going to pull a page out of Coach Kill's book. Coach Kill has always said, and I heard him say this after we played Ole Miss in football, that you make your most gains in your first two, three or four games. In football, it's your first two. In basketball, it's your first four. The best thing about playing this schedule, and playing two top-25 opponents, is you find where your faults are. You wouldn't find those faults if you were playing a lesser opponent. I look at that as a good thing. It's a hidden blessing. The bottom line is that we scheduled these games to get us prepared to win a conference championship.Â
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NOTES: The Soul Phonics will play a live concert before SIU's Saturday game against Arkansas Pine Bluff. The Soul Phonics will play from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Charles Helleny Pavillion ahead of the 7 p.m. tip-off ... Special $10 tickets are available for Monday's 7 p.m. game against Howard at SIU Arena. Call 877-SALUKIS or visit SIUSalukis.com/tickets ... Monday's game vs. Howard is also the Kids Club game. Members of the Kids Club will receive free admission. For more information on the Kids Club, visit SIUSalukis.com/kidsclub.
On injuries and depth…
It's definitely a challenge for us. Not only on the floor and our competitors, but it's really a challenge in how we divide up and practice. Now we're not even close to last year, when we had seven (healthy) guys. At least we're able to go 5-on-5. That's a counted blessing. Right now, we know for a fact we're not going to play Armon (Fletcher) or Eric (McGill) on Saturday. They've been removed from the game for Saturday and most likely will be removed from the game on Monday. We do not know about the first-round game in Vegas. The conundrum is, if we play these guys, then we lose them for conference. We're just going to have to take our medicine while we're at it. I'm not going to put these guys at jeopardy, nor am I going to put the club in jeopardy, of keeping these guys out of conference play. Both of these young men are in jeopardy of not playing the entire season, if we don't do what the medical staff tells us to do. We're going to follow them to the T.
On how the team adjusts…
Right now, that's our issue. You've noticed during the games we've had substitution issues. Right now, you need someone to come off the bench and immediately contribute. If they don't immediately contribute, then you go to the next guy. Our faltering point right now is someone needs to pick up the slack. We have some guys who can do that; they just need to do it. I can't answer the question definitively; I can just say collectively, it needs to be somebody. We will look at different lineups. I certainly won't be as conservative with fouls, especially with the big guys, as I have been. Losing two perimeter players, we need to be a little more conservative with our guards. We will try to do a better job of rotation. It will look like a hockey game for a little while. We're going to try to keep our guys as fresh as we can.Â
On rebounding…
Our guards have to rebound. I can give you stat right now. Three guards had 40 blockout opportunities. One missed 27; one missed 23; and one missed 21 out of 40 opportunities. You can imagine what we've done the last two days, what we'll do today, do tomorrow, and do on gameday. We're going to block out.
On defense…
I've really been impressed with our defense. We're guarding our tails off. We just held (Buffalo) to a three-year low. And at Kentucky, for the most part, I thought we did a good job. We collectively held their best player (Buffalo's CJ Massinburg) to seven points. We're about to find out who can stop guys because (Pine Bluff guard Martaveous) McKnight can play. He's averaging 35 points; he's shooting 50 percent from the 3 and 91 percent from the free-throw line. We're going to figure out how good we are defensively on Saturday night against McKnight, for sure.Â
What's the biggest gain from playing two ranked teams to start the season?
I'm going to pull a page out of Coach Kill's book. Coach Kill has always said, and I heard him say this after we played Ole Miss in football, that you make your most gains in your first two, three or four games. In football, it's your first two. In basketball, it's your first four. The best thing about playing this schedule, and playing two top-25 opponents, is you find where your faults are. You wouldn't find those faults if you were playing a lesser opponent. I look at that as a good thing. It's a hidden blessing. The bottom line is that we scheduled these games to get us prepared to win a conference championship.Â
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