Men's Basketball hosts Valparaiso Saturday in Maroon Out

VALPARAISO (12-12, 3-8) at SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (15-9, 7-4)
Feb. 3, 2018 • 7 p.m. CT
Carbondale, Ill. • SIU Arena (8,284)
SIU trails series, 2-3 (H: 1-1, A: 1-2, N: 0-0)
TV: ESPN3

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois hosts Valparaiso on Saturday night in a special Maroon Out game at SIU Arena. The Salukis are aiming for their first five-game winning streak in two years (the 2015-16 squad won six straight). The last time SIU won five-straight conference games was when it won 10 in a row during the 2006-07 Sweet 16 season. During the current winning streak, SIU is shooting .539 from the field and .463 from 3-point, while averaging 75.8 points per game.

The Salukis are 2-3 all-time versus Valparaiso with wins in 1979 and 1980, and losses in 1929, 1956 and 2018. The teams met at Valparaiso on Jan. 6, a game the Crusaders won, 83-72. Valpo used a 23-2 run in the final eight minutes of the first half to take control of the game. SIU's Armon Fletcher had a career night with 32 points and 14 rebounds.

Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media prior to Thursday's practice.

Valpo's 7-footers gave you some problems the first game (Jan. 6) — what has to be different this time?
First of all, we have to play better. I specifically remember this game. Aaron (Cook) shouldn't have played, he had the flu. Rudy (Stradnieks) had the flu. We had what I would say was a despicable day of preparation the day before Valpo — so bad that I threw them out of practice. We didn't play hard. This wasn't a fluke. They just absolutely whipped our butts. Certainly they have size, they destroyed us on the interior, they destroyed on the exterior. If we don't play better the same result will happen. You can't look at places in this league. You can't look at records. We did everything we could do to beat Indiana State here, and Valpo beat them last night. Next game up, next play, here we go. That will continue to be our message.

Is there actually something you as coaches can do to improve the start of second halves? It's up to the players, right?
I'm going to tell you what I did at Drake. We'd had it two-straight games in a row. At halftime I made all the managers and all the coaches come into the coaches locker room, separate of our players. I said, 'when we walk out this door, I want nothing but positive energy. When we get out on the bench, I want you out on the floor, I want you tapping them, getting them going and all this stuff.' I really thought I was going to get these guys going, and then (Drake) started whooping our butts. To answer the question, we're going to do some different stuff with warmup and how we come back out on the floor as a group. Right now, we're doing what I call the NBA two-line layup warmup. We're more worried about how we look than getting our bodies ready. We're going to come out with an absolute organized warmup (on Saturday).

How much pressure has there been on (Kavion) Pippen to be a difference maker?
I think we're all dealing with pressure. We have no margin for error, none, zero. Even the guys coming off the bench, I hope they don't feel pressure. It's our responsibility as a staff to get these guys as comfortable to play as they can be on the floor, but they know, you're magnified. If you come in the game and you don't produce, and if you can't help us, you can't stay out there very long. Kavion hit the lull like most junior college players do. When we recruited Kavion, we recruited him to be the backup to Thik (Bol). Never once did he think he would be playing 30-plus minutes. Never once in junior college or high school did this young man play the amount of minutes that he's playing right now, nor did he have the workload of what a student-athlete does every day. When that hits you, there's going to be a period when that wears you down. I think we've gone through that lull period and he's getting his second wind, and we need him to play well for us to be successful, specifically on Saturday.

Is there a part of you that's afraid you peaked too early?
No. My experience has always been that the people that play well down the stretch play well in the last two weeks of January and the month of February. That's the key. If you look at a week before the halfway mark, I told you guys to relax, not foreseeing what we'd do, but I specifically said that. I've been in this a long time, been in this league when they wanted to send the trophy at the halfway mark to somebody. It's a long season, there's a lot of games to go, there's a lot of things that can happen on both sides. We feel like we've had some upsets. I don't feel like we've gone into any games where you would say people upset us. I think we're the underdog. Quite frankly, with the amount of guys we have, I think we're going to be the underdog in every game we play. I'm ok with that. I'll accept that role in a heartbeat.

What would win No. 300 in your career mean to you?
Hmm. First I've thought about it. I think it just tells you how fortunate I've been to have the amount of good players and great assistants. I think it speaks volumes with that right there. We have put ourselves in a position where you guys, I know you didn't think we'd be this time of the year. Let's just continue to do what we're doing.

Have you gotten any reports on ticket sales for Saturday?
I've talked to our ticket office, our marketing people, our administration, and they said the phones are ringing off the wall, which is great news. I go out to eat every day, every lunch, and everywhere I've been people are excited and said they can't wait to get to the game. We have special stuff planned for this game, specifically for our students, the dawg pound. I think it's going to be an exciting atmosphere. It would be nice in all honesty, you have Valpo, Bradley, Loyola on Senior Night, and you have Missouri State, I think we have four games coming up, I'll be disappointed if we don't start tapping the 7,000 mark. You guys can help us with that as much as anything, spread the word.

Dawg Bites
•With a lifetime record of 299-232, Barry Hinson needs one more win to reach the 300-win plateau in his career.
•SIU has shot better than 50 percent during the second half in six-straight games.
•Five of SIU's seven conference wins are by five points or less. The Salukis are 6-2 in games decided by five points or less this season.
•Barry Hinson (262) passed Gregg Marshall (261) on Saturday for fourth all-time among league coaches in wins.

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