NORMAL, Ill. — Southern Illinois plays at Illinois State on Thursday night in a pivotal Missouri Valley Conference matchup between two teams near the top of the league standings. The Salukis have won five in a row and are currently in second place, one game ahead of the Redbirds, who have won three straight.
SIU Coach Barry Hinson said in his pregame comments that Jonathan Wiley could be back before the MVC Tournament maybe sooner, even though far from 100%. This will provide much needed depth inside for the Salukis.
In the first meeting on Jan. 13, SIU trailed by as many as 14 points before rallying to beat Illinois State, 74-70. It was the biggest comeback since rallying from 18 points down to beat Sam Houston State on Nov. 21, 2015. In the recent series between the schools, SIU has lost its last 10 games at Redbird Arena. The last victory in Normal came during the 2006-07 Sweet 16 season.
Southern Illinois is aiming for its first six-game winning streak since the 2015-16 season. The last time SIU won six-straight conference games was when it won 10 in a row during the 2006-07 Sweet 16 season. During the current winning streak, SIU is shooting .529 from the field and .415 from 3-point, while averaging 73.6 points per game.
Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media after Wednesday’s practice.
Madison Williams didn’t play the last time you faced Illinois State — what does he bring to the table?
He’s extremely athletic, he’s a threat on offense by the way he penetrates and he’s a threat on defense on the way he gets steals. I would suspect he’ll be really up for this game. I think they’ll all be up for this game. The thing that we tried to express to our team today, if (Illinois State) wins this game, they’re in second place and trying to win a conference championship. Our focus is literally one game at a time. We don’t talk about where we are or what we’re doing, we just want to beat Illinois State. We’ve watched an enormous amount of film on Williams because we didn’t see him last time, to try to get our guys ready for him.
Phil Fayne was 11-of-12 from the field last time. Is Armon Fletcher‘s size enough to defend him or does he need help?
Armon can’t guard Fayne and that’s no disrespect to Armon, you have to have a bigger, stronger guy. This is going to be a huge game for Kavion (Pippen). We have to do a good job on (Fayne). Our leading offensive rebounder has 21 rebounds, Fayne has 41. This guy’s a man. He certainly gave us problems when he was here and he’s giving everybody problems in the league. He certainly has our attention.
Is the five-game winning streak a huge advantage going into Illinois State?
No. I think it helps us confidence-wise, but I don’t think there’s been anything that’s given us any advantage going into Illinois State — we’ve proven that the last 10 years. Our whole deal is we understand the streak, we understand what’s happened up there in the past, but our focus is far past that. We want to focus on what we do defending, what we do rebounding-wise and execution on offense. We didn’t play really well against Valpo, and give them a lot of credit for the way they played us, but we have to get back to playing much like we did at Drake and like we did at Missouri State.
Illinois State will be without Keyshawn Evans. How does that affect the gameplan?
It bothers me. I don’t mind telling you, I don’t like playing against any team when there’s an injury and you’re the first team they play. I don’t like it, never have. Whenever we lose somebody, next game, everybody steps up. We’ve always played well the next game directly after a loss, so I don’t like it at all. There’s a sense of urgency, there’s an alarm that goes off that everybody has to step up their game. If you catch that team on the second or third game it’s a little bit different, but not the third game. I don’t think it’s an advantage, I think it’s a disadvantage.
Comment on Illinois State’s three-headed monster being down to two (Fayne and Yarbrough).
We understand what we have to do against Fayne. We know that (Milik) Yarbrough can easily go for 30 at any time. He didn’t have one of his best games here, so we know we’re going to get his best shot tomorrow night.
Why is your team playing better?
I think there’s several variables. Because of our limited rotation, guys know they’re going to play. Guys have confidence. We get along. I think we have as high-character a group as we’ve had in quite some time. I think they’re buying in to what we’re doing. If you notice how we come out of timeouts, whether it be offensively or defensively, these guys are focused and are executing to a T. I give the credit to the players. They really like each other. They challenge each other. I don’t think you can have a good season or a good team unless your veterans are playing like veterans.
Is it possible we’ll see Jonathan Wiley at the MVC Tournament?
Yes. I hope earlier. He is rehabbing on land right now, on a hard-court surface. This has the story to be almost shy of a miracle. He is not healthy, he won’t be healthy, but he wants to play, there is no quality of life issue. We don’t think he can do anymore damage because he’s torn it pretty much up. It will be limited to how much pain he can play with, but he wants to play, and who am I or who is anyone to deny him this opportunity? My biggest question is quality of life, and there is no quality of life issue at this point, so we hope to put him in a uniform as soon as possible.
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