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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2015Anthony BeaneBarry HinsonJalen PendletonST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Southern Illinois – 55 THE MODERATOR: Victorious coach of Game 1 is here, Barry Hinson. We're going to start with him with a statement on the game. COACH HINSON: We haven't said "victorious coach" takes the podium in quite a while. So I kind of like that. I thought this was a simple game. I said this Monday in the conference call, I said it on my radio show, and I said it on the pregame show. I felt like the team that really wanted to be here today, that really had the most enthusiasm and would have an opportunity to win this game. Now, with that being said, I thought you just saw two teams that really played with a lot of enthusiasm and effort. We went up 11, and I tell you what, such a characteristic of Paul's teams, but they just came roaring back and did a great job. This game was unusual for a play‑in game because, in most circumstances, one team doesn't play very hard, and that certainly wasn't the case today. This was two teams that just acted like they wanted to be here today, and I think that's a testament to the Valley. I'll let you guys ask questions. THE MODERATOR: We're going to go to questions for the student‑athletes. Jalen Pendleton and Anthony Beane are here. We've had opening statements, so we'll have questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Jalen, this one's for you. In the second half, like Coach said, the Bears started making their comeback, you had five straight points and a couple steals. Just talk about what you think your intensity did for the rest of your teammates. JALEN PENDLETON: Coach has told me all along that my energy is what gets our guys going. So I just try to make sure that I bring energy to the team and do whatever I can do to spark the team. I think that it helped a lot. We kind of got a little slump for a minute, and when I came in, I got those couple steals, and we picked it back up. I see my guys' face, and they looked real hungry. So it helped us a lot. Q. Jalen, can you just talk about the overall defensive efforts, forcing them into 16 turnovers. JALEN PENDLETON: We just really wanted to play defense tonight. You could tell everybody on the floor, all five guys on the floor, you just look at our faces, we were hogging for stops. We wanted to get stops today. That's what we came out and said we wanted to do is try to shut them down, and I think we did a great job of that. Q. Anthony, you guys don't get very long to enjoy this. Do you go back tonight and start studying your games against Wichita State? How does that work? ANTHONY BEANE: Yeah, that's the main thing. We're celebrating in the locker room, but as soon as we get back to the hotel, it's all business. Coach is going to go over our game plan for tomorrow and get ready for Wichita State. THE MODERATOR: Jalen, same question. Are you going to study? JALEN PENDLETON: Yeah, for sure. I mean, we're happy we got this win, but we can't be satisfied. We know that we have a great team that we have to play tomorrow. So we just have to make sure that we enjoy this win, but we have to be focused for tomorrow. Q. Anthony, could you just talk about Ruder hit a couple of threes there to get him close again and you came in and hit a couple more. Is it like a duel at the end there and you stepping in to get them on top? ANTHONY BEANE: That was just J.P. When he came in, like you said, he gave us energy, and Jalen is the one who kicked it to me. When he created it for me, I was able to knock it down. Q. Guys, I'm just curious about tomorrow's game with the shockers, kind of your thoughts on them, and what you guys think you need to do during this go around to beat them. JALEN PENDLETON: This go round, we have to play a great game. They're a great team. You can't make a lot of mistakes. It's a very, very small margin for error. So we have to make sure that we don't turn the ball over and we just play as a team like we did tonight, and I think we'll be fine. ANTHONY BEANE: Just the exact same thing Jalen said, just come in focused and bring energy. No matter what, keep your head up and stay positive and just keep doing what we're doing, having fun. Q. Anthony, 10 points. How hard were those 10 points? They had two guys watching you for most of the last six minutes, didn't want to give you a shot. ANTHONY BEANE: They were okay. Like I said, it was just‑‑ it was a credit to Shawn and Jalen because that's who got it to me. So I give credit to them. Q. Guys, Lavender hitting big free throws in the last minute. How happy were you to see those? Is someone else you wanted to see take those in the last minute? JALEN PENDLETON: Deion went to the free‑throw line, and I was confident he could make them. Deion is a great player, and he can score the ball better than a lot of players in this league. Even though he's a freshman, Deion is very confident in his game. As soon as he got fouled, I felt good about him going to the free‑throw line because I knew he was going to make him. If anybody else could have the ball in their hands, I expect for them to make them too. I have confidence in my teammates. Whether it was Shawn or Anthony had the ball, whoever had it, I knew they were going to step up and make the shots. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, we will dismiss you two and stay with Coach Hinson. Q. Barry, how much of a key was it to disrupt Dorrian Williams tonight? COACH HINSON: We changed the way we played them. It's amazing, when you get your butt beat twice, you try to figure out what you did wrong the first two times. We guarded Dorrian different than we did in the past. We guarded ball screens differently. We never pressed. We pressed. We haven't played that much zone. We played sporadically, off and on zone. We played different, how we played out of bounds underneath the basket because they destroyed us at their place. So I think, quite frankly, I'm an old stubborn mule, sometimes it takes me a little while. We knew we'd have to play a little different against these guys in order to beat them. Q. Coach, you had great fan support out there today. Walking down here, one of those fans kind of shouted out, tomorrow Wichita State is going to run into a buzz saw. Do you guys feel you picked up enough momentum, maybe have enough electricity, good showing tonight where that statement might be true? COACH HINSON: I'm going to answer this question for you. I'd lay 25 to 1 odds that fan was inebriated. Q. Last time we talked to you, one of your biggest concerns was having such a young roster. You were worried they were going to come into this game and the excitement of March Madness was going to get to them, and they weren't going to play as well.  Obviously, that wasn't the case tonight. Anything you talked to them before the game started? Anything specifically you worked on with them before the game? COACH HINSON: First of all, I think that's a great question. I think the thing that we try to do, as soon as we beat Drake on Saturday, we met with our guys after the game. We beat Drake, and we went in the locker room, and our guys all had their heads down. We lost five games in a row and just busted a streak, and we didn't have any fun at all. We won Senior Night, and our guys were in the locker room like it just didn't mean a lot. So I got with my staff, and I said, we're doing something wrong here. We've got to start having fun. We've got to get back to being kids, including me. We did that every day in practice in everything that we did. Yesterday while our guys were waiting for the bus to come in the parking lot‑‑ because we were getting a lot of snow. I was doing doughnuts in my car and got pulled over by the police. And our players really enjoyed that‑‑ not the doughnut part, someone else being in control‑‑ but they were laughing. And I knew at that time, okay, we're starting to relax a little bit. I relaxed a little bit, and I think that's the whole key. I thought we had fun today. We'll see if we have fun tomorrow. I'm going to tell you, you guys want to ask me about tomorrow, here are my thoughts. You've got two different choices when you play today's game. You can get on a bus and go home right now and get your good chicken fried steak on the way home, or you get an opportunity to play on national television against the eighth ranked team in the country. I love chicken fried steak, but I'd rather play the eighth ranked team in the country. It's a privilege and an honor to do that. We have to play virtually a perfect game. We know that. We get it. But I'd rather do that than the option. We're going to come here tomorrow. I just told our players in the locker room, the only thing I'm going to ask them is they play so hard they feel like or they throw up on the floor. That's all I'm going to ask them to do, seriously. And that's the same thing that I'm going to ask of our fans. You're right, we did have great crowd support, and that's one thing I love about Southern Illinois. Q. We talked about Deion the other day, and you put him in the starting lineup, and he had a great start early. And then the great finish late. Talk about him. COACH HINSON: I've got a lot of confidence in Deion shooting the basketball. We're calling plays for him when it's a three‑point game. I was very confident that he had the ball in his hands for free throws. We had him shoot the technicals. He just goes brain dead. He's like every other freshman. There comes a point in time when the aliens come and get him and take him away for a little bit and bring him back. He's a typical freshman. We started two freshmen and two sophomores today, guys. There's only 26 teams younger than us in NCAA. I was pretty impressed with our guys today. You've heard me all year long, I like our guys. I like them. They drive me nuts. They're a bunch of goobers and knuckleheads, but they're my guys. We're getting better. Q. Coach, tonight is obviously about your team and your win, but you're obviously familiar with the Bears as well. From what you saw tonight, the attention you paid from afar to take on where they're at right now after going through one of the most difficult years they've had in quite a few years. COACH HINSON: I'd be a liar if I told you I didn't follow Missouri State basketball because, even though they fired my ass, it's still very dear to me in that community, and my mom and dad still live there, and my mom and dad report to me on every move that Paul makes. If Paul goes to Hy‑Vee, I know it. I think what they've just gone through this year is absolutely incredible. If we'd have gone through the same thing with injuries and defections, we wouldn't have had as good a record as what they've done. I thought that guy did a hell of a job this year. You look at today, and they came out and played their butts off. They gave us everything we could handle, and quite frankly, I was proud of them. I really wanted to win the game, though. I thought what Paul and his staff have done, the adversity they've gone through this year was really impressive with what they did. Q. Coach, how important was it this evening to get contributions from a variety of players as you did? And how important might that be leading into the matchup with Wichita State tomorrow? COACH HINSON: First of all, if we ever do interpretation, you and my voice, we're going to be right there next together. You're my man. You've already got the favorite voice here. If you learn how to say y'all, you're going to be okay. When you get to this tournament, the teams that have been successful are the teams that do exactly as you said. Sean O'Brien, 10 and 6. Deion Lavender, 12 and 5. Jalen Pendleton, the steals that he had today. You go down the line. Bola had a big basket, big rebound. Everybody made a big play today. We didn't shoot the ball very well at all, but like you said, we kind of spaced out the contributions, and that's what you have to do to be successful in this tournament. Q.  Coach, it seems like you kept it pretty close with Wichita State back in January at Koch Arena. I guess, what do you take from that game going into tomorrow? What do you guys need to do to emulate that and possibly pull off the victory like you mentioned earlier? COACH HINSON: We always find it a privilege to play at Wichita State because it's going to be 10‑5, 7‑5, no matter when you play them, doesn't matter who they play. But quite frankly, it was close because Gregg allowed it to be close. Just point blank, that's the way it was. Quite frankly, I think we played better at our place and got beat by 25. That's how well they're playing right now. They're playing as good, if not better, than anyone in the country right now. We're playing, in my opinion, the hottest team in the country right now. We know what our chore is. We know what our task is. But doggone it, at least we get an opportunity to be part of it. Thanks, guys, for coming. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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