Coach Cindy Stein’s opening remarks

We are so excited about the upcoming season. It seems like it has come so fast. It feel like I was just being hired and we were trying to get kicking. Things are off to a great start. The focus has been keeping it simple. We’ve got a young team, so we’ve got to keep it simple in many ways.

We are concentrated on our defense right now probably a little more than our offense. Hopefully we’ll have a few plays in before our exhibition on the 25th. But we are really concentrating on our defense, and keeping it simple — one play at time. Catching the ball with two hands. Taking care of the ball.

Cindy Stein

We do want to push the ball up the floor, but we want to do that under control. We want to be all over people defensively, but of course we want to do that without fouling. We want to keep people off the free throw line. From an offensive end, we are attacking. We want to get to the free throw line a lot. Defensively, we are attacking, but we want to keep people off the free throw line, and we’re getting the kids to understand what that takes.

We are going to start with probably seven kids. I think seven kids right now would be our rotation if we were to start right now. I think Rishonda Napier would probably start at point guard for us. She’s looking very good there and taking care of the ball. She’s a very good leader. We’re moving Cartaesha Macklin to the off guard, which is I think more of her natural position. I think Jordyn Courier is playing extremely well, and she is someone that we will look to play on the wing and inside for us. Inside, I think we’ve got some opportunities. Azia Washington is looking very good. Dyana Pierre is looking good. Alexus Patterson is looking good. We’ve got some room there.

The biggest surprise has been Mercedes Griffin, who I think could be an impact player because she can make so much happen defensively. She’s a very explosive athlete. She is an elite-level athlete, and our goal is to make her an elite-level basketball player.

Those seven really have started to embrace what we want to do. They are doing extremely well, and we are just trying to get the rest of them the confidence they need to do all the little things right. That has really been our focus.

Everyone wants to know where I would predict our team. I have no idea. I’d like to say that we are going to be at the top. That’s always what you want. That’s going to be our goal. We are going after everybody.

We open up these exhibitions, I’ve said this before, but I don’t care about the score in these exhibitions. Do I want to win? Absolutely. We’re competitors, we want to win. But I do want to work with different groups. I want to get different rotations in. I want to get different people at the point guard spot so that we have some consistency there. That is probably our most inconsistent area. Then we worry about Wright State, our first game. Then it is all out for that game. But our exhibitions will be more about what we need to do and focusing on us rather than what the other team does.

We may play around, and we are going to try to play everybody. But that’s not going to happen every game. You want to do it early and see what people have, then you go into that November 8 game against Wright State, and get a solid core that we can get a good rotation with and go after people. That’s our plan.

I’ve got a great staff. They are great teachers, and really that is all we’ve concentrated on. We have been doing a lot of teaching every day in practice and getting our system down. We are not as far along as we would’ve liked. We are probably not as far along as some teams in the conference that have returning staffs, but that’s OK. We’ll get them there.

Q: You say right now you are not putting in a lot of plays. When you get things together, will you run a lot of set plays, or motion or what?

We do run a motion offense, but we will run quite a few sets. We like to come down and go right into a secondary break into a motion offense where we can just get things rolling. If someone stops us from doing that, we will run a couple of quick hitters that always go into our motion.

Q: You said you have those seven players right now. Is there anyone else that you brought in or anyone else that is starting to make that progress?

I think that everybody at different times throughout our practice has good moments. Our freshmen are a little bit behind right now from where I want them to be. We’ve got a freshman post player, Kim Nebo, that is really explosive off the floor. I can’t get her to run a play right, but she can rebound like the Dickens and she can catch the ball and score. Now we’ve just got to get her to know where she is supposed to be. She can make a lot of things happen. The rest of them are kind of in that learning stage as well. I think we’ll be there. From the veterans’ standpoint, I think it is some kids that don’t play with a lot of confidence. That’s something we’ve got to continue to build. Taking over a team that has only won a few games throughout the year, the biggest thing is working on their confidence and getting them to understand the work ethic that will get you to that level where you are feeling confident in what you do.

Q: Until you get to games, how are you measuring progress right now?

We take stats every practice and try to monitor that. We give our Super Dawg shirts so everything is a competition. We are monitoring their work ethic. We monitor their toughness — diving for loose balls, taking charges. Everything that we are doing in practice every single day, every statistic is given to them so they know where they stand. With the Super Dawg shirts, we’ve got an overall leader and we have a daily one. They like to wear those shirts. Just little things like that provide us some kind of competition. It’s just monitoring from that standpoint and seeing how much better they are getting.

Q: What do you like about your schedule this year?

I don’t like anything about our schedule. We’ll play it. We want to win all of our games. We are just trying to get ready for Wright State. Is there anybody we look forward to? We always look forward to the Valley. I’m not sure how much we are going to get tested because we are so concentrated on our own team. There is nobody that stands out that we want any more than anybody else right now. The main thing is not to beat ourselves.

Q: Can you talk about the overall athleticism of the group?

I think we’ve got some great athletes. We’ve got kids that kids that can run hard, run fast and jump high. Now we’ve got to make them basketball players. That is the key — taking care of the ball, making two-handed passes, making two-handed catches, making layups and being consistent at that. That’s kind of what we are getting to. You can only go as fast as you can if you are under control. That’s what we emphasize, and I think you’ll see that.

By DeMario Phipps-Smith
SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois men’s basketball team held its annual Media Day in the Cook Club at SIU Arena on Tuesday. Head coach Barry Hinson fielded questions from the media, and all 15 players had one-on-one interviews with members of the local press. Afterward, the team held an open practice.

Coach Hinson Opening Statement

“If I were to tell you that Louisville, Kansas or Kentucky were coming to SIU Arena, do you think we would sell out the arena? I think everyone would say, yes. I say that because we have the No. 1 football team coming into our stadium on Saturday. It would blow my mind if you come into the stadium and can’t find a place to sit. I can’t tell you how excited I am about our football team right now. That place should be packed and sold out. People should come up to the ticket gates and be told that the only seats left are on the berm. I hope that’s what we are able to do.”

“The one thing that’s changed for the men is that we decided to practice like the women have been doing for the past few years. I think it has helped us a tremendous amount. Normally, today would be our first practice but we are heading into our 12th practice. We don’t have anyone injured; we don’t have fatigue, we don’t have sickness, because we were idiots when it came to practicing. We never took time off and we had everyone getting fatigued and sick. We weren’t smart enough to figure out how to avoid jamming everything into two weeks. I’m excited about this and I like it. We have a lot of coaches who don’t like it, which is unbelievable in my mind, but they can keep doing what they’ve been doing.”

Tyler Smithpeters answers questions at media day.

Q: Are you close to where you want to be as a team?

“You want to coach to perfection, and we are nowhere close to where we want to be. At the same time, I like that there are a few things we can introduce here. I think the transition for a lot of the players has been easier and smoother this year. I think the biggest thing that has changed this year is that I’m not dealing with the police, lawyers and academics. I actually get to coach basketball. Last year, we didn’t get to do that. We had a saying in our office, similar to construction site’s saying of ’25 days without an accident, 25 days without an incident.’ In our office, we just wanted to go two days without an accident. That didn’t happen until February when we went three solid days. This year we haven’t had many incidents or anything that could derail our program.”

Q: What do you expect from Desmar Jackson this season?

“I expect everything from our best player — and that’s what everyone is calling him on paper — our best player. Your best player always has to be your hardest worker and has to set an example on and off the floor. Desmar struggled with every one of those things last year. I think he has improved in all of these areas and has done everything that is expected of him. He still has major challenges that lay ahead of him. I expect him to handle those things in a mature manner and we coach him like we do any other player. I expect great things from him. When it becomes more important to me than it is to you, then it is time to move on. We got to that point last year after the Wichita State game. I think he understood that I got to that point with him and we have had a much better relationship since the summer.”

Q: What is the thing that has surprised you about this team?

“I think the biggest thing for us is that we are getting along. I think we have so many new guys that our biggest two challenges are the schedule and the new bodies. It’s a blender right now. I ought to representing Ninja Blenders because we are just throwing them in there, literally, and seeing what happens. For the most part, I’m kind of excited about it.”

Q: Do you feel that you will be a better perimeter shooting team this year?

“We better be. It can’t get worse, it’s impossible. It absolutely cannot get worse. My wife could shoot better from the 3-point line than we did last year and she is a horrible athlete.”

Q: Have you decided on a rotation?

“I have no idea. We play nine guys, every once in a while we’ll play 10. We are looking for those guys right now. We’ll settle in with about seven guys. There is a little competition for the eight, nine and 10 spots. I think we are pretty solid with seven. I think you guys have heard about this, but the rules have changed. In the first month of college basketball, officials have predicted 60-75 fouls per game. Games are going to be extended 15-30 minutes longer, 99 percent of charges will be called as fouls. The NCAA has seen the lowest scoring output in 30 years. They have sent out a mandate to all the officials that if you put your hands on a guy it’s an automatic foul. We are now doing the NBA continuation rule where if you hit a player who is going in an upward motion, it’s an automatic foul. The game for the fans is getting ready to change in a dramatic way. I talked to Jay Bilas about this last week. I think we need more offense and entertainment but I think when you take out the charge — where we can neutralize superior athletes by being a little more intelligent — I think that takes away from what this conference has always been about. I think this will be a big challenge for us and mid majors. We had a meeting with some officials and they said not to be shocked if your point guard fouls out in the first half. I think we’re getting ready to see much more points being scored — ironically, it’ll come from the free-throw line and not the game. I think you’ll see the scores go up dramatically.”

Q: You have a lot more regional teams on your schedule. Was that the plan?

“Yeah, it really was. We felt like our fans, when I first got here, we didn’t play regional games. We’ve always play Saint Louis, and of course, we’d love to keep that series going. We’ve got Western Kentucky, we started a new series with Austin Peay, and I don’t have a clue who started the series with Murray State. Whoever the head coach was who signed that deal is an absolute idiot. You’re talking about one of the top winning programs over the last 20 years. If you look at our schedule, we’re not jumping into the wading pool, we’re not jumping into a swimming pool, we’re not jumping into a pond, we’re just jumping into the ocean. It’s a little bold for me to do this, but I felt we needed to find out where we are and where we need to be.”

Q: How do you feel the style of play will change with the newcomers?

“One of the things you do when you take over a program, the guys that you recruit in better fit what you do. No one can point their finger at anybody but me. All the new guys are the guys we felt fit our style of play and what we want to do, specifically our hybrid spot and how we want our point guard to play, the ability to shoot from the perimeter, a little bit of size and athleticism. If you look at what we’ve done with our squad, you’ll be able to figure out it’s similar to what we did at Missouri State and what we did at Kansas when we started recruiting to a system.”