Salukis picked fifth, Domask and Jones named preseason All-MVC

MVC Release

ST. LOUIS - The SIU men's basketball team was picked fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll of league head coaches, media members, and sports information directors, the conference announced on Wednesday. SIU juniors Marcus Domask and Lance Jones were named to the league's preseason All-Conference teams.

Domask, the 2020 MVC Freshman and Newcomer of the Year, was named to the preseason All-MVC Second Team. Domask has averaged 14.2 points in 42 career games over the last two seasons and shot 47% from the field and 37% from the 3-point line. Domask was a second-team All-MVC pick as a freshman in 2019-20 but was limited to 10 games last year due to injury.

Jones is coming off an outstanding sophomore season in which he earned a spot on the 2021 All-MVC Third Team. Jones averaged 13.4 points per game last year and led the MVC in 3-point field goal percentage (.426). In league games, Jones averaged 14.7 points per game, which ranked fifth in the MVC. He was also named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete Second Team was earned a spot on the MVC Academic Honor Roll.

SIU returns 97 percent of its scoring from last year's team and seven players who started 10 or more games a year ago. Single-game tickets and mini-plans are available at the SIU ticket office at Banterra Center during normal business hours and also by calling 877-SALUKIS or visiting SIUSalukis.com/Tickets. The first chance to see the Salukis is less than a week away; SIU hosts Henderson State for an exhibition game at Banterra Center at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 26. SIU Athletics is celebrating Community Appreciation Night, and tickets start at just $5.

MVC PRESEASON POLL

Drake
Loyola
UNI
Missouri State
SIU
Bradley
Valparaiso
Evansville
Indiana State
Illinois State

As a part of the MVC poll and preseason All-MVC teams being released, MVC head coaches met with the media to discuss the upcoming season. Below is a partial transcript of third-year SIU head coach Bryan Mullins...

OPENING STATEMENT

Practices are going great. I'm excited. The year is coming fast. It's crazy. We have an earlier-than-usual exhibition coming up on Tuesday. Guys are getting excited. Obviously, this summer and fall practices have been so much different than last year. It's been great to get a lot accomplished, to have the guys every single day. Our guys are so excited to have the community back at our games; they're such a big part of our program. There is a lot of momentum. Our football team is doing really well. It's a great time to be a Saluki.

Health-wise, our guys are doing well. Everyone is back on the court. Trent Brown is dealing with a little back issue right now, but hopefully he will be back for the start of the season. Everyone else has been healthy and been practicing. Practices have been competitive. This should be our deepest team that we've had in these three years. That will allow our guys to play as hard as they can for stretches because we will have more people and more depth to come in without a drop-off.

Besides rebounding, where will J.D. Muila help you?

Defensively, ball-screen coverage. He has great feet. He's versatile. You can do different things with him in terms of shell defense. He can cover a lot of ground. He can make up for guys if they get beat off the dribble. He has really good feet. I think he's going to be a big factor for us. Offensively, he runs the floor really well. He can sprint as well as anyone on the team. Also, he's a great screener. I do think he's going to give us a big boost on both sides of the ball.

What are some new wrinkles in Kyler Filewich's game?

Kyler has had a great spring, summer, and fall for us. He's been available every single day. He's one or two of the guys who hasn't missed a single workout. He's done a great job with his body, first and foremost. He's gotten stronger; he's gotten leaner; he's gotten quicker. He has a better core and a better base, which helps him with post-ups, defensively, ball screens. He's a lot more comfortable, one, making free throws, and two, maybe making one extra dribble on a post-up or a free-throw line catch where he can drive a closeout or maybe back someone down. He's a lot more comfortable, and I think that happens a lot, freshman to sophomore year. It's not as new to you. You get relaxed, and the game slows down a bit. We've been able to see that through practices.

How is different about Lance Jones's game?

We want Lance to be himself in terms of being aggressive. His paint-touch decision making is something we've stressed with him throughout his first two years here. As he continues to mature here, the game will slow down for him. The more decisions he makes, he will continue to improve on that. The thing he does best is play with complete confidence. He's fearless at times, and we don't want to reel that in. We just want to make sure we're getting the shots that we want to get, and he's getting the shots that are high-percentage shots for him. He's an elite shooter from three, and he does a great job finishing when it's a one-on-one finish. When he draws two guys, he can continue to develop that sense where he finds the open teammate. He's explosive; he's had a great summer and fall. He's another guy who has been on the court every single day, and that has been huge for him. I think what he did last year was impressive, but I think he has another jump that he can make this year.

People know about Marcus and Lance, but do you need a third to emerge to create a Big Three?

We need a Big Three, a Big Four, a Big Five, a Big Six. We need a lot of guys to step up and emerge. The Valley is such a deep league. Obviously, this year is unlike any other in our league, with the COVID aspect and all these teams returning so many players. Just the depth of the league — there are no bad teams or coaches. I think it's a credit to the coaches with all these kids coming back, speaking to their cultures. Kids know that they can go anywhere they want to go after college right here from this league. In order to win the Valley, you have to be deep. You can't just win it with one guy or two guys. You have to have a complete team. That's what we're trying to develop. That's why we're so excited about this year, like I mentioned, because our depth should be much greater than where it was the last two years.

Can you talk about Ben Coupet? What do you expect from him?

He brings a sense of maturity. He brings experience to us. He's different from our other guards or wings in terms of his length and athleticism. We have high hopes. He has worked extremely hard. I think he came in at 177 (pounds) and right now, he's 196. He got here in June, so in four months, he's put on almost 20 pounds of muscle. I think he's going to have a great season for us.

Verplancken started for you last year. What do you expect from him?

I think he'll have a big jump. He got a ton of valuable experience last year. He's one of the hardest workers in our program. He's in the gym in the mornings and at nights. He loves being here. He's going to be more comfortable handling the ball this year. I think the game will slow down for him. He understands our defense. He's a really good positional defender. In terms of having trust on the court, Steven has been able to earn that over the last year and a half.

To listen to the full segment, or to hear other MVC head coaches, click here.

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