 "Photo: Edyta Blaszczyk ~ Daily Egyptian")
With the first exhibition game, the Salukis are ready to start the regular season.
The SIU men’s and women’s basketball teams met with media members Monday at Stadium Grille to discuss the season ahead.
Men’s basketball head coach Chris Lowery said the key to this season is defense.
“The thing about our program is we want to get back to where we can intimidate defensively and where we can take people out of the stuff that they are trying to do,” Lowery said.
Lowery said the Salukis did a good job of setting up that defensive tone in the first exhibition game of the season against Henderson State.
The Salukis forced Henderson State to turn the ball over 22 times while only turning the ball over 10 times themselves.
Lowery said it was important for the team this year to focus on ball control.
“We had 10 turnovers in the game,” Lowery said. “I don’t know if we had a game last year where we didn’t have more turnovers than assists. It was good to see that we do have guys capable of taking care of the ball.”
SIU had 16 assists in the game to Henderson State’s six.
Lowery said he is more confident in his team’s ability.
“It was good to see that we do have guys capable of taking care of the ball.” Lowery said. “Kevin Dillard, Kendall Brown, Justin Boot, Tony Freeman — we have four good ball-handlers, and if one of those guys is out, we feel that we have guys who can run our basketball team, as opposed to the last couple of years where if Bryan (Mullins) didn’t have it, we were a little bit nervous.”
This marked the first win at home for SIU on the season; something Lowery said he wants to see more of this year after the team lost six home games last season.
On the women’s side, head coach Missy Tiber said the beginning of the season has been a little tough.
“I have been the head coach for just over six months to the day, and I have been just working with these girls as an entire unit for just over two weeks,” Tiber said. “We are really trying to dedicate time to the fast-break offense put into place, and we are facing struggles — a lot of it is coming from the fact that we don’t have a true point guard at this time.”
Tiber said freshman Katerina Garcia was the projected point guard at the start of the season, but suffered an injury and would miss four to six weeks.
In Garcia’s place, Tiber is using seniors Christine Presswood and Stephanie Neptune.
Tiber said it is difficult for players to just go in and play the point guard position.
“We have two young ladies who have done a phenomenal job at that role, but at the same time, we are trying to teach them in a two-week period how to run the point guard position,” Tiber said. “In this system, where it takes so much pressure to run the position, it’s a difficult process for them, but they are learning, and they are picking it up. I have confidence that we will get things worked out.”
Tiber also said senior guard Katie Wagner could be a starter on opening day.
“She gives us an aspect that a lot of kids are not willing to do,” Tiber said. “It is to go in there and do all the dirty work. She has no ego about anything she does. She doesn’t have to take the shots. She is a great screener. She understands the game, and she is just as hard-nosed as it comes.”
Wagner was 6-for-8 at the free throw line and finished with 12 points, the third most on the team.
With her first game out of the way, Tiber said her long term goal was to make SIU a team that can compete in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s some exciting times for our program, and we are looking forward to building this program to be consistent on a daily basis,” Tiber said. “If we can do that, then we can look ahead, and at some point it is our goal to make the Saluki women’s basketball program one that can make the NCAA basketball tournament.”
