Men's Basketball summer update
07/25/2017 | 3:17:00 | Men's Basketball
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Saluki men's basketball head coach Barry Hinson offered the media a sneak peak at the 2017-18 men's basketball team by opening up a portion of Tuesday's summer practice session at SIU Arena.
Southern Illinois returns eight lettermen from last year's team that finished 17-16, including three starters — guard Armon Fletcher (11.1 points), center Thik Bol (9.1 points) and guard Sean Lloyd (7.6). Also expected to give the team a boost is the return of fifth-year senior Tyler Smithpeters, who missed all but one game last season with injuries. In 2015-16, he started 31 games and averaged 7.0 points. The other returnees are guard Aaron Cook (3.0 points), forward Jonathan Wiley (2.6 points), forward Austin Weiher (2.5 points) and center Rudy Stradnieks (2.2 points).
Eleven of the 12 scholarship players participated in practice, including three newcomers — Saint Louis transfer guard Marcus Bartley, redshirt freshman guard Brendon Gooch and junior college transfer center Kavion Pippen. Juco transfer guard Eric McGill did not practice due to an ankle injury.
The Salukis lost three players off last year's squad to graduation — point guard Mike Rodriguez (12.9 points), All-Conference forward Sean O'Brien (11.8 points) and sixth man Leo Vincent (8.0 points).
Hinson met with the media after practice.
Any surprises so far?
I think we've had some surprises on how much some guys have improved. I'm really impressed with Brendon Gooch and his improvement. Jonathan Wiley has made himself a really good offensive threat shooting the ball on the perimeter. As you saw today, Aaron Cook has improved dramatically on reading ball screens and kind of starting to understand the game a little bit. All of our guys have improved with their bodies and strength. Meade Smith and our strength and conditioning program, I have to give a big shoutout to them, I think they've done a great job. All of our guys have made improvements. We've had specific individual plans for each of these guys this summer and I think they've all improved.
I'm trying to do a lot of things different. One of those things is a lot of individual conversations, a lot of individual conferences, a lot of individual meetings. I try to do that either before or after every practice. My tone has changed. I'm about as low-key as I've ever been. My blood pressure is about as good as it's ever been and that has a lot to do with these young men. Our staff has done a phenomenal job. I bragged about Meade, but our coaching staff has done a great job this summer and our players have really responded.
Do you feel like you're coaching an older team?
I don't think we're quite the veteran team that I'd like to be, but I think that's a good observation, yes. You've got Marcus Bartley who has played Division I basketball, you have Eric McGill who has played Division I basketball, that people don't know. Certainly, I think that helps. You have all the other young men who have been a part. We talked with our guys — we had the best finish in our program in the last eight years in being in third place last year. That's not where we want to go. We start every practice with, "Let's go win a championship." I think every team in the Valley is saying that, because all 10 teams thinks they can go win a championship with Wichita State being out. We approach every day like that, and I do think we have some more maturity then we've had in quite some time.
How much better has the 3-point shooting been in practice?
That has been our number-one objective this summer. We were 10th in the league in 3-point field goal percentage and 3-point field goals made. As you guys very well know, all my teams have always shot the ball well. I've never had bad shooting teams, specifically from the perimeter, so it was really a slap in the face over the last couple years. We've made a conscientious effort to change that. I don't know how much it's going to change, but I do know it will be better. We will not be last place. I'm pulling a Jimmy Johnson on you, but we won't be last place in 3-point field goal percentage.
What have you seen from Tyler Smithpeters as a fifth-year senior?
I think the one thing that we've seen is the fifth-year senior. As much as we'd have like to have had Tyler on the floor last year, that's probably the best thing that ever happened to him. His body has changed. I think Tyler will tell you he's up 22 pounds since he arrived here. He's a lot stronger. His knee is a lot stronger. He's dunking it. You can see his strength and quickness has gotten a lot better. I anticipate he'll have a really good year.
You've criticized his defense in the past — is it improved?
Let's get one thing straight — I've criticized everyone defensively — it hasn't just been specifically limited to Tyler Smithpeters. I will criticize each one of these guys defensively as it goes along. Tyler is doing a lot better job of recognizing angles. Tyler doesn't like anybody telling him he can't do something. When you tell him he can't get out there that close to the guy, sometimes he's a little stubborn. It doesn't bother him anymore. Back up and understand the angles and keep the guy in front of you. He's gotten more mature with that.
What are you expecting from Armon Fletcher and Sean Lloyd?
I'm going to pull a (Gregg) Popovich on you. Somebody asked Popovich one time why Danny Green shot the ball so well and he said, "he's supposed to do that. That's what we pay him to do." Those two guys are supposed to be good players. We expect it. What do I expect? I expect great years. I thought Sean Lloyd turned the corner against Loyola in the Missouri Valley Tournament. I've never seen a transformation just like that. When that guy took off from the 3-point line and dove across half court for a loose ball, I knew at that time that we were back, getting back to what we really wanted to be as Saluki Basketball. Sean's never going to be what we consider a prolific shooter, he's going to be a much better shooter, but he's such a strong guard. He's so strong. I expect Armon Fletcher to shoot a tremendous amount better percentage. I expect him to be a better scorer. Armon was doing all those things until his injury came about, and that really kind of slowed him down. We had some guys in some sophomore slumps last year. People ask me if I believe in that stuff or not, I think you have slumps. Sometimes they appear in your junior year. The majority do appear when you're sophomores and we don't have a lot of sophomores next year, so we have a group that I don't think will have to go through that.
Are your plans to use both Thik Bol and Kavion Pippen at the five, or could you ever start both together?
Let's don't be in a box. Why not, depending on who we're playing, when we're playing? This is what excites me — we go from a 5-8 point guard to a 6-4 point guard. Our two guard is likely going to be 6-3 or 6-4. Our small forward is going to be 6-5 or 6-6. Our hybrid player is going to be 6-5, 6-6, 6-7. Then you're looking at our two bigs are 6-10, 6-9, and we have 6-7 and 6-8. We can run some length out there for the first time. When you looked at Illinois State and Wichita State last year, they had length. We didn't have that. We've got that now. Not only do we have length, we have some athleticism to go along with it. Now I want to curtail this a little bit. We're going to be picked 4th, 5th probably in the league, which is fine. Certainly not where we want to finish. We want to be first. I like this group. I think we can play big and I think we can play small.
How do you feel about your depth?
I think it's the best depth we've had since I've been here. One of those guards isn't going to play.
Can you talk bout Eric McGill?
He does have Division I experience. This is a kid who scored 23 against Murray State at Murray State as a freshman. He played in a national tournament. He was the leader of his team. We felt like we hit both sides of that. We're getting a kid who has an unbelievable personality and great work ethic. We've had more calls from campus security, and we've gone back to the old days when they used to talk about (Bryan) Mullins and (Jamaal) Tatum and (Darren) Brooks and kicking those guys out of the gym. They're kicking our guys out of this gym constantly — coach, they can't be in here past 11 o'clock at night. I just think that's a great correlation.
Thik had a great impact defensively last year — what has to happen for him to make a great impact offensively?
I think the off-season thing for Thik was strength and conditioning. Thik's added some weight. As a staff, we're going to adapt a little more with Thik and quit trying to make him a back to the basket player and let him face up. He had a move at Drake late in the season when he took it and went right down the lane. He did that against Illinois State, too. We made a decision as a staff that we're not going to force these guys to meet this, we're going to try to meet what our guys do best. I've already been asked this year if we can platoon? I'm not a platoon guy, I think you have one quarterback and that's it, but we have depth enough we can play some guys and get through sickness, get through suspensions, get through injuries. That certainly makes me excited.
What are you most excited about?
I'm easily excited. I think that's fairly obvious. I go into this year, just like I have in a lot of years, I think everybody in the league is excited because they see light at the end of the tunnel. We don't have a preseason Top 10 team in the league right now. I wish we did, but we don't. I think you're getting ready to witness one of the best Missouri Valley Conference races in quite a few years. There will be nobody that's going to run away with this conference. Every game is going to matter.
