• INDIANA STATE (10-10, 5-3) at SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (12-9, 4-4)  
• Jan. 24, 2018 • 7 p.m. CT
• Carbondale, Ill. • SIU Arena (8,284)
• Salukis lead series, 84-47 (H: 50-10, A: 29-33, N: 5-4)

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois continues its two-game homestand on Wednesday night when the Salukis host Indiana State at 7 p.m. The game will be televised live on ESPN3.

The Salukis have a four-game winning streak against Indiana State, having swept the season series from the Sycamores the last two seasons. Southern is 42-8 all-time against Indiana State at SIU Arena. Head coach Barry Hinson is 20-7 lifetime against ISU, including 6-5 while at Southern Illinois.

Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media before Tuesday’s practice.

How deep is your 4-5 positions compared to Indiana State’s?
I think we’re very similar. I’d like to think they probably have the advantage right now with the way we’re playing with our backup five. I do have confidence our backup five can play much better than he has. We’re going to be a much better basketball team if we can get, as I told you last week — seven and eight have to give us productive minutes. We have not had that at all during the conference season. I think that’s one of the things that’s holding us back. If we can get to that point, I think we can be a team that can challenge people night-in and night-out. 

Have you considered playing some zone to rest your team?
It’s certainly something we’ve talked about and has to do with the ebb and flow of the game. Going back and looking at the Loyola game, we didn’t want to go (to zone). I fought it tooth and nail. I decided there at the end, they’re shooting layups, we might as well just go zone. We didn’t have great success — they just missed shots. I kept the stats in my head and I think they were 1-for-4, but the three that they missed, we fouled on one and they hit a wide-open shot. I don’t think we kept them from scoring, but yes, I think that’s an opportunity. I don’t want to go that route, I’d rather not. I don’t ever want to use a defense to rest. If we’re going to rest, I’d probably walk the ball up the floor instead of run it, and we’ll rest on offense instead of defense.

This is a big game tomorrow heading into the midway point of the conference season.
I think they’re all huge games. There’s not going to be a game from this time on, and because of the parity, there wasn’t a game from night one that they weren’t huge games. There’s nobody on our schedule where you look at and say, those guys are a win. There’s none of that, whether you’re at home or on the road. If you don’t think both teams are coming in here with a sense of urgency — I know one team is. I hope our team is. I know Indiana State will come in here with a sense of urgency, I just hope we will, too. We’ve played well to win a game and then we’ve lacked the intensity, no sustainabilty. This has certainly been the challenge to our players — can you go win two games in a row, especially after a game in which you really played well. 

What have you seen in practice that indicates they can sustain the effort?
I’m predicting that today’s practice will be much better. Yesterday was a little sluggish, off and on, it was a rollercoaster practice. We normally don’t practice great after a game day because we always let those guys get some rest and rehab, but because of three games in a week, you have to pick and choose your battles. We decided to take the day off after Indiana State going into the last game. We tried to take the NBA approach to it.

Sean Lloyd is first or second in many categories on his team. Is that because he plays so hard?
I think the biggest thing that’s added to his game is maturity. I think that’s what happens when you play the amount of minutes he’s played. Let’s look at Tyler’s stats in conference now — fifth year senior, Sean O’Brien last year same, exact scenario, Anthony Beane his junior year and senior year. I certainly hope that will be the factor with a lot of those guys next year and, hopefully, toward the end of this year that the experience will start buckling up.

How do you stop Jordan Barnes?
They have two guys in Barnes and Brenton Scott. I personally recruited Jordan. I really like his game. We offered him a scholarship here. Indiana State did a great job. They got him to commit the third week in July. I saw all the potential that he had. What do you have to do to stop these guys? I just watched a round of film from the last two days that the majority of his shots are coming from above the free throw line and a lot of them are contested. You’ll notice that when he shoots, he kicks his legs out and he’s got a step-back. It’s almost impossible to keep him from getting his shot off. We haven’t done a great job of contesting shots in our last two games. Even as well as we played defensively against Northern Iowa, we did a poor job of contesting shots. So the emphasis will be to get a hand in their face and contest shots.

Is there any reason Rudy Stradnieks is having so much foul trouble?
He’s stubborn as a mule and won’t listen. I think that’s the best way I can explain it. His fouls are fouls that we work on. We tell him when you hold a guy and you seal and you don’t show all 10 fingers, when you do a dribble handoff or you set a screen, it’s not Europe. He’s got 16 years of European basketball which that’s just a given how they play. He’s got to get out of that mode. He’s got to adapt. 

Are you surprised how well Armon Fletcher has rebounded since moving to forward?
I think anybody would be crazy to question us on the move (to the hybrid) on what he’s done point-wise and rebound-wise. I think even defensively he’s done a great job (at the forward). He’s getting better and better defensively. We’d like to keep him as close to that basket as possible. We know in transition he can get loose on the perimeter. His numbers have escalated ever since we made that move.