By Elizabeth Robinson
SIUSalukis.com

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Leading into her final home weekend as a Saluki, senior Taylor Pippen was named MVC Defensive Player of the Week for strong performances against Wichita State and Evansville, the Valley announced Monday.

Pippen has continued to put up a strong front at the net, climbing her way up in conference rankings for blocks and leading the Salukis in solo blocks. In SIU’s major five-set victory over Wichita State last week, Pippen led the match with nine blocks, tying for a career high and her highest number this season. Three of Pippen’s nine blocks were solo, contributing to her team-leading 12 solo blocks this season.

Pippen currently ranks second in the MVC against conference opponents with an average of 1.18 blocks per set. Between SIU’s matches against Wichita State and Evansville last week, Pippen totaled 13 blocks for an average of 1.625 per set, 4 digs, 18 kills for an average of 2.25 per set, and hit at a .486 clip. Overall, Pippen has the third-most blocks on the team this season with 90 total. Earlier this season she claimed the top spot in SIU history for career block assists, currently totaling 400 overall.

This is the second straight week the Salukis have earned MVC Defensive Player of the Week after juniorMeg Viggars earned the title last week.

Opening Statement:
“I did dismiss Adam Brandt from the football team for a violation of team rules. He has some personal issues that he is going through. That’s just what we needed to do. Daquan Isom has been suspended indefinitely. He did not report a situation that occurred over a week ago. I just found out about it today. The players know that when something happens that shouldn’t be happening, the first people they need to tell are the coaches. That didn’t occur, so we’re dealing with that situation currently. Coming off the game from Saturday there are a few injuries … Fortunately, both Garret [Clark] and Jake [Notario] will return, so that’s encouraging. They are not season-ending injuries, but we will not have either one for this week coming up, and then we’ll see where we’re at the following week. Other than that, we’re excited for the opportunity to get ready for South Dakota. I think this conference race is getting interesting. You’ve got five teams that are 2-3 and two teams that are 3-2, so you’ve got seven teams right in the middle of everything. A lot of stuff can happen here down the stretch. There’s a lot of reason to play the game. It will be challenging, but that’s the Missouri Valley.”

With Daquan’s suspension, will he be allowed to practice? 
“He’ll practice. He’ll be working on the scout team. With coaching there’s always things that happening in the team when you have 105 football players there’s constant discipline. Sometimes you just don’t see it in the public. Unfortunately, this situation is something that warrants public attention. Daquan needs to learn the lesson, as do the other players. The trust factor is extremely important. Carbondale is a small enough community that it’s not if we find out; we will find out. We just got to communicate that right away so we can handle it in a proper fashion and make sure that it doesn’t become more that what it is. Unfortunately, it’s more than what it should be right now and that’s the consequence.”

How do the suspensions impact you offensively and defensively and how do you keep it from becoming a distraction? 
“You address it right away. We’ll address this to the team tomorrow. You have numbers in football. You’re always prepared for injuries and opportunities where guys need to step up and get ready to play. You would like to have those guys available to play. That’s not going to happen, so you move on to Plan B. At the running back core, that’s one of the reasons why we have the running backs we do. We have some good quality. Same thing on defense. Fortunately, we’re getting some people back on defense now that have been out for the last couple weeks. Calvin Belts will be back, so he becomes more of a factor. We’re hopeful Blake Mattson will be able to get back in the mix also. That’s where you absorb this.”

How would you describe the DakotaDome? 
“The DakotaDome is a different place to play. It’s like a miniature UNI-Dome. It’s nice. They put a lot of money in the upgrade of that facility. It’s also tight. You can be running out of bounds and run into a wall. Same thing catching a ball in the end zone; if you’re going full speed, you’ll probably run into the wall just a few yards in front of you. Everything is one top of you. The fans are on top of you. It can get very noisy. It’s a difficult place to go and play. When I was at North Dakota, we went a long time before we finally started winning at the DakotaDome. It’s a place you’ve got to respect, and I think USD plays a pretty good game there. It’s a fun place to play too, which will be our message, to enjoy it. I think playing inside in the dome is kind of exciting, so that’s the approach we’ll take.”

You guys gave up a lot of big plays Saturday. How do you correct that defensively? 
“That was the discouraging part of watching film. The main difference in our game was the explosive play. North Dakota State was able to establish the explosive play. Just watching that defensively, it is as simple as being out of place defensively. It’s frustrating to watch; sometimes you might have players trying to do too much. We’re always talking about eyes and doing your job. That’s what we need to do a better job on Saturday was not having that lapse where we were trying to do more than we should. That’s what North Dakota State will do to you. They’re trying to hammer you. You’ve still got to run to the support of your teammate, but still be disciplined enough to take care of your responsibilities. That’s where we got burned on the big play. South Dakota will run a very similar offense. They will do the power game; they like to establish the run. Some of the lessons we will hopefully learn from North Dakota State. Hopefully that will help us put together a more consistent defensive game plan. We just can’t be out of position. Offensively, we couldn’t get the big play. I’m proud that we extended drives. We had six scoring drives against North Dakota State, but three of them we settled for field goals; three were touchdowns. We were establishing these 13, 14, 16 play drives. That’s usually what North Dakota State does, and we’re the ones that usually score quick. The role was reversed on Saturday. With this type of offense, you still want that quick-score potential. We had some shots there too and just didn’t make the play when it was there. There were some missed reads there, so there’s enough to watch on the film from North Dakota State where we were in it. We had our opportunities and hopefully we learn from those situations.”

How have you seen the Coyotes’ run game change? 
“They’re still doing the same philosophy. It’s the old school I formation. They’ve got the good fullback. The offensive line is an experienced group, and they’ve got a lot of players returning. The quarterback is a big kid. He played against us last year. He’s 6-4, 220. He had a great game against North Dakota State; he’s what made that win possible when they went to North Dakota State. They’re going to be very deliberate in what they do. They have a great defense. I think they hand their hat on the defense. They kind of play that Dakota style football where they try to hammer you on offense and play great defense.”

What kind of player is Andrew Van Ginkel for them? 
“Defensively, they’re good. He is quick off the ball. He’s a guy you’ve got to be aware of. With our play calling, we can’t be in too many third-and-long or even second-and-long situations. Otherwise, you’ll be at risk. I always get asked why we have such low numbers on the sack total; that’s a big part of our passing game. With all the play action stuff that we’re doing off it, they have to be sharp on their reads. They can’t be firing up field. We need to be able to execute our offense at a high level.”

Are you concerned with all the hits Mark Ianotti is taking from all his touches? 
“I get that question quite a bit. Mark is an old-school style quarterback. If we were running the veer option or the Wing T, that would be normal. What Mark is doing is running those types of offense. A lot of the reads he get are the keep reads, and he’s taking the ball when he should be taking it. That’s where the throwback is. We’re using him as an option-type quarterback where a lot of the options are throw, but that’s the type of quarterback he is. We’re not afraid to run him because we’ve got a running quarterback.”

What’s your message to the team about how close the conference is?
“The message to the team is, you want to think you’re in control of your own destiny. We played two teams that are 2-3. That can help elevate us. We need a signature win. You’ve got Illinois State, the No. 1 team. You need that national attention where you raise some eyebrows and get people saying, ‘This is a good football team.’ Our three remaining games can allow us to get noticed. You have to look across the country. There are a lot of marquee teams that are at .500. You’re not seeing all these teams with 9-0 records. That’s why Northern Iowa can be ranked in the top-20 with a 2-4 record. It’s pretty balanced across the region. I don’t know how it’s going to work out. I just want to give us a chance to be considered.”