Gameday: SIU at Wichita State

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Salukis try to continue longest winning streak of the season




Bola Olaniyan was a non-factor in SIU?s first men?s basketball game against Wichita State.

The Nigerian native grabbed one rebound in four minutes off the bench back on Jan. 2 when the undefeated Shockers rolled over the Salukis, 82-67, at SIU Arena.

Today, Wichita State (25-0, 12-0 Missouri Valley Conference) is still undefeated, and ranked in the top five in the nation. The Shockers remained No. 4 in The Associated Press top 25 poll on Monday and second in the USA Today coaches poll, and if they want to stay there, they?ll likely have to keep Olaniyan on the bench.

Since Olaniyan, a 6-foot-7 freshman from Lagos, Nigeria, joined classmates Sean O?Brien and Tyler Smithpeters in the starting lineup, SIU (10-15, 6-6 MVC) has gone 4-1 with its longest winning streak since the 2009-10 season.

Behind Olaniyan, the Valley?s leader in offensive rebounds per game in conference play (3.2 per game), the Salukis outrebounded four of their last five opponents. They tied Missouri State, 34-34, off the glass in Saturday?s 72-54 thrashing of the Bears despite Olaniyan playing only 15 minutes because of foul trouble.

?This is what happens to freshmen after they have a couple good games in a row. People start to focus on you, is usually what happens,? said SIU coach Barry Hinson. ?Tyler and Bola haven?t played as much as Sean. He?s gotta be smarter. He?s just gotta play through his defensive mistakes.?

Olaniyan still grabbed seven rebounds against Missouri State. It was his sixth straight game with at least seven boards, and SIU will need everything it can get off the glass against the Shockers, who are outrebounding opponents by an average of 8.2 caroms a game.

Wichita State is 22-0 this season when outrebounding its opponent.

The Salukis put their four-game surge on the line at 7 p.m. at Koch Arena (10,467) today against one of only two teams in the country still perfect (Syracuse is 23-0).

?There is no pressure on us,? Hinson said. ?The pressure, to me, the pressure is to do your best regardless of the situation in the moment.?

SIU hopes to win the battle of the boards (it lost that fight by six in its first meeting with the Shockers) and make Wichita State point guard Fred VanVleet work a bit harder than usual for his points. VanVleet had 17 points and a team-high seven assists with no turnovers in the first meeting against the Salukis.

?He?s the key. I think all the other guys on his team owe him some thanks, because he makes them all better,? Hinson said. ?He?s one of the best, if not the best, point guard in the country. And I?m biased being in the Missouri Valley, but I just think he?s the key to that team. You gotta know where he is at all times.?

SIU point guard Anthony Beane earned the Valley?s player of the week award by himself Monday.

Beane shared the honor with Evansville?s D.J. Balentine last week, but after scoring 20 points or more for the fourth straight game Saturday against Missouri State (he had a game-high 26), got it all to himself. Beane made 15-of-26 from the field, 7-of-13 from the 3-point line and all nine of his free-throw attempts in wins over Drake and Missouri State.

Beane became the first MVC player to win player of the week honors in back-to-back weeks since Doug McDermott of Creighton last year. He?s the first Saluki to do it since Darren Brooks in 2004.

 

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Shockers need Carter to stay mad and produce


Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall made Darius Carter mad, called him soft, and there aren?t many harsher words that can come from a coach.

?He was getting on me a lot and I was ready to prove him wrong,? Carter said. ?I was frustrated to the point where I wanted to shut him up.?

Carter did, much to Marshall?s delight.

Carter, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, caught Marshall?s glare and voice for losing the ball, with little defensive pressure, near the end of the first half during Saturday?s win at Northern Iowa. In the second half, he scored 12 of his 16 points and made all five of his shots. That is the Carter that Marshall is trying to pull out more often.

No. 4 WSU (25-0, 12-0 Missouri Valley Conference) returns to Koch Arena after a two-game road trip to face Southern Illinois (10-15, 6-6) on Tuesday. Conference play took some of the sizzle out of Carter?s season and he hopes Saturday?s game is the start of a rebirth.

So does Marshall, weary of his guards making good passes to Carter with no reward. After the turnover, he lit him up in the huddle and waited to see the response.

?He responded beautifully,? Marshall said. ?I was really, really proud of him. I got on him pretty hard, because I?m tired of them throwing the ball to him and losing the ball.?

While Marshall showed his displeasure, Carter?s teammates did their job. Ron Baker patted him on the chest after the play. During the huddle, teammates patted him on the shoulder and head and told him to move on to the next play. That is the way a huddle is supposed to work when a coach is angry. The coach motivates, in whatever fashion he sees fit, and the teammates provide unconditional support.

?That?s everybody?s role as a teammate,? Baker said. ?For Darius, it?s very important that we?re next to him.?

What Marshall wants to see next is Carter playing that way without an angry intervention. Carter wants to find something ? anything ? to get angry about before tip off against SIU.

?I?ll wake up mad about something, maybe the sun will be in my eyes,? he said. ?I play a lot better when I?m mad. I?ve got to learn to click that in my brain on my own instead of having a coach get on me.?

When Carter is playing with the proper level of aggression, he can score and rebound as well as any big man in the MVC. If the Shockers are going to follow this history-making path to an unbeaten season and beyond, Carter must perform. His array of post moves is growing and he shows shooting range out to 15 feet. Against UNI, he produced easy baskets by running the floor and beating the defense to the basket.

?We?re going to need him, big-time,? Baker said. ?We?ve seen what he?s capable of and we?re just trying to get that out of him every single game.?

Carter finished non-conference play with a series of strong games, scoring in double figures in four of the final five. He dented Tennessee for 11 points and 14 rebounds, scored nine points with seven rebounds at Alabama and scored 19 points against North Carolina Central. MVC play, as it often does to newcomers, proved a different beast.

Carter averages 8.0 points and 4.4 rebounds.

?The Valley?s kind of messed with him,? Marshall said. ?We don?t win Tennessee and Alabama without him. But the Valley, all this grabbing and pushing, it bothered him.?

Carter, who transferred to WSU from Vincennes (Ind.) University, reached double figures twice in 11 MVC games before Saturday.

?I wasn?t mentally prepared for that,? he said. ?It?s a lot more physical. I?m mentally prepared for guys grabbing you, and the ref can?t see it, you?ve just got to play through it.?

The Shockers are home for Tuesday?s game before another two-game road swing. They lead the MVC by three games with six to play. As usual, the two-month conference schedule manufactures challenges.

SIU is a different team than the one WSU defeated 82-67 on Jan. 2 at SIU Arena. After starting MVC play 1-4, it is 6-6 and in a four-way tie for third.

Freshman guard Tyler Smithpeters didn?t play on Jan. 2. He now starts. Freshman forward Bola Olaniyan played four minutes. He starts. Point guard Marcus Fillyaw has missed nine games with a broken bone in his left hand, although he is practicing and may return this week. Sophomore Anthony Beane took his job and is averaging 23.8 points the past four games while making 31 of 53 shots. In the first meeting, he didn?t score in 34 minutes.

 

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Southern Illinois (10-15, 6-6): The Salukis have won four in a row for the first time since the 2009-10 season and four MVC games for the first time since 2008. SIU started its revival with a 79-60 win over Indiana State, a game in which it limited the Sycamores to 39.2 percent shooting. SIU held Missouri State to 2 of 14 from three-point range in Saturday?s win. The Salukis play a 2-3 zone and Jackson is a disruptive force, grabbing six steals in wins over Drake and Loyola. SIU is 16 of 30 from three-point range the past two games after making 29.8 percent of its threes in its first 23 games.

Wichita State (25-0, 12-0): WSU can break its school record for consecutive MVC wins. The 1963-64 and 1964-65 teams won 12 straight over two seasons. The 1982-83 Shockers won 12 straight on their way to a 17-1 MVC record. Early scored 23 points in the Jan. 2 meeting, making 8 of 11 shots. VanVleet added 17 and F Nick Wiggins came off the bench to score 13. The Shockers made 30 of 50 shots and 9 of 20 threes. SIU shot 54.1 percent from the field, but the Shockers outscored SIU 38-18 in the lane and 15-2 on fast-breaks.

RPIs as of Monday: SIU 226, WSU 6.