Bryan Mullins Press Conference
11/12/2020 | 2:41:00 | Men's Basketball
SIU men's basketball head coach Bryan Mullins held a virtual press conference with the media on Thursday. He talked about Wednesday's heralded signing class, Thursday's news that the program is pausing team activities and will not compete in Louisville's tip-off tournament, and updated the progress on the schedule. To view the complete press conference, visit SIUSalukis.TV. Below is a partial transcript.Â
Opening Statement: "Really excited about this class. To add three great young men in Scottie (Ebube), Troy (D'Amico) and Foster (Wonders), it means a lot. They come from great families, and they fit everything we're looking for. We'll never budge on character in this program, and we're going to continue to add more and more talent every single year. I think obviously with Scottie you're getting an upfront presence. He's a physical, dominate low-post guy who has a great motor. Troy and Foster are very versatile players. With us playing with four guards a lot of times, I think they can play multiple positions. They all come from great high school programs. I just think, especially over the last six months dealing with COVID and recruiting, to able to get those three guys and have them be a part of the family for the next four years means a lot to us."
Statement on Louisville: "I'm disappointed for our guys. They've done everything right and sacrificed a lot over the last four months. There are a lot of things happening over the last six or seven months in this country that you can't control. The things that happened with the test results, our guys couldn't control it. This university and athletic department have done an unbelievable job putting all of the student-athlete's health and well-being as our top priority. That's given all of these student-athletes here a chance to do the thing they love to do over the last four months since school has been in session. So, for our guys it's disappointing, but they understand it. They understand and see it happening all over in the NFL, college and everywhere. I think we're confident and they're confident that we'll get back together. We'll have team practices, and we'll be able to play games again. We have to make sure that we're always putting our kids in the safest possible environment first."
Did last season's success factor into being able to sign such highly rated players?
The community is such a huge piece of this program, this athletics department. and this university. When our guys got to play in front of those types of crowds, it shows how much support we have here. We're very fortunate. I think people understand how special SIU basketball is down here. I know kids want to come down here and experience that. They work so hard in high school and college so that they have the opportunity to play in front of crowds like that, in atmospheres like that. That's why this program is different from other programs across the country.Â
Will there be an MTE that you could join in December to make up for missing out on the Louisville trip?
We're definitely looking. I think there are things that will happen throughout December, in terms of the college basketball schedule, that will make things very fluid. There will be options, hopefully, but we're open to anything.Â
Are you confident that you will be able to open the season December 2 at SEMO?Â
I don't think anything is written in stone. That's what we're looking at right now, but things can change. There are still things that can happen that are outside of our control. Those are on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis. Again, our biggest thing is that our guys are physically and mentally ready to go to start the season.
Are you more inclined to hold back from scheduling every possible game right now, because there might be more hiccups like this elsewhere during the season? Where, maybe if someone else loses a game, you're able to schedule a quality opponent that way?
That's something we have been talking about over the last couple days. I think that's going to be the case across the country. I think there's going to be flexibility in everyone's schedule. I don't know if we will have a final schedule with the maximum amount of games that we're allowed to play in the next week or two, but we will always have some open dates; so if things happen, we can move some stuff around and be able to play against a really good program.
On the program's big men…
All of them have continued to get better, especially Anthony (D'Avanzo) and Kyler (Filewich). Where they started at in July to where they're at today, it's night and day. Obviously, we're going to be relying on those guys. We're going to make sure Sekou (Dembele) is healthy, but he has made a lot of progress in the last couple weeks of practice considering he hasn't done anything in the last eight months. Those three guys will be great for us this year, and they will continue to get better with experience.
How is the team doing mentally with the COVIDÂ news?
That's what I love about this group: their mental toughness. It's an extremely close group. Not being able to have normal team functions, I think this group is really close, and I'm proud of that. They're disappointed that they don't get to go to Louisville and face Louisville in the first game, but they're excited for the season. I think they can't wait to get back on the practice court. They understand that there will be ups and downs this year and obstacles they can't control. How they respond to those events will determine what kind of team we have, and I think they understand that. Even though we have a young group, we have a mature group in that sense.
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