SIU welcomes the Screaming Eagles to Carbondale for an Afternoon game on Saturday.
Meet the Screaming Eagles:
USI is in their 3rd year of D1 Basketball in the Ohio Valley Conference and took a giant step back in Year 2 after losing players like Isaiah Swope to Indiana State. In their first year of D1, Southern Indiana knocked off both SIU and Indiana State at home.
Stan Gouard is in his 5th year as head coach of Southern Indiana. Gouard is a former USI player that came over from DII Indianapolis.
Southern Indiana was picked 8th of 11 in the Ohio Valley Conference Preseason Coaches' poll. The Screaming Eagles currently sit at 4-4 on the season and have wins over #209 Indiana State at home and #227 South Dakota at home. They have a loss at home to #257 Bucknell in overtime.
On the offensive end, Southern Indiana is 10th in the country in 3 point % (40.8%) but are 343rd in the country in 3 point attempts per field goal attempts (30.6%) so they make but don't take many 3's. USI has a tendency to turn the ball over a lot, they're 214th in the country in turnover % (18.4%) and 292nd in the country in steal % on the offensive side (11.5%).
The leading scorer for Southern Indiana is 6-5 Junior Jayland Randall averaging 16.2 points per game. Randall spent his first 2 seasons at Alabama A&M where he started 2 of 56 games. This season, Randall is 55th in the country in 3 point % (13-26, 50%), 251st in the country in effective field goal % (58.4%), and 267th in the country in true shooting % (61.1%). Randall is also 377th in the country in steal % (3.1%) and leads the team with 1.6 steals per game.
The leader in rebounding and blocks for the Screaming Eagles is 6-8 Sophomore Stephen Olowoniyi averaging 6.8 rebounds per game and 0.8 blocks per game. Olowoniyi spent his Freshman season at VMI where he started 1 game. This season, Olowoniyi is 496th in the country in 2 point % (41-70, 58.6%), 247th in the country in effective field goal % (58.6%), and 318th in the country in true shooting % (60.0%). He's also 364th in the country in block % (3.6%) and 264th in the country in defensive rebounding % (20.1%).
The leader in assists on USI is 5-11 Junior Jack Campion averaging 5.5 assists per game (tied for 41st in the country). Campion is in his 3rd year at Southern Indiana and is currently 21st in the country in assist rate (37.7%).
Another player to watch on Southern Indiana is 6-5 Junior Damoni Harrison. Harrison comes over to USI after 2 years at Tallahassee Community College. This season, Harrison is 230th in the country in 3 point % (12-28, 42.9%), 431st in the country in effective field goal % (54.8%), and 437th in the country in true shooting % (57.8%).
Links:
Most interested in:
1. Overall intensity level after schellacking
2. How many open 3s they give up: a problem much of the season and certainly against Bradley
3. Any lineup changes to try and shake things up, personnel-wise
Enthusiasm for this team has tanked pretty fast, getting on a winning streak here with some winnable games may help bring back a little life (both here and to the Banterra Center).
It starts with this game.
The USI message board has an AI preview which uses our board and it's actually a pretty accurate look at our team:
https://sites.google.com/view/eagles-gameday/men-basketball#h.6e9m4neq8aif
Something like this makes me wonder when teams are gonna start using AI for scouting reports.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a close game or even a loss. We are not in a good place right now.
Here's my take on Nagy. From what I gathered from the pressers when he was first hired, Nagy is here for the long-term. He has had a good run as a coach, winning almost 600 games before he set one foot into the Banterra Center. He has been around the block so much that the squirrels leave snacks out for him. He has had an above average IQ and the experience of decades of assembling, training, and coaching 15 young men to form a respectable basketball team. His teams will not every game, but every game they play they will be playing the right way. Nagy could have stayed at Wright St. and rested on his laurels. They certainly did not want to see him go. But Nagy chose to leave, come to Carbondale and SIU and end his career as a Saluki. That says something about the people and the land of Southern Illinois, we are a proud and independent type of people bonded by small town friendliness living in an outdoorsman's paradise. Why would we want to be anywhere else? And why would Nagy? And I think Nagy was attracted by the Saluki tradition and ending his career at a D1 school. I'm rambling here, but they guy has got it figured out and to further the jigsaw analogies (all quite good btw), I think Nagy is the type of coach who can look at all the mixed-up pieces and figure out what kind of picture can they make. Nagy is the type of coach who puts that picture on a box. I think he knows very well how to do that. But one season, now really messed up with the loss of Elliot, will have to take a different direction. Shanon Sharpe has been a pleasant surprise. Not that he fills the void, but now we have a puzzle piece that we didn't know we had prior to Elliot's injury. How this team gets through this setback will tell me a lot about Nagy's coaching philosophy and how much the team is buying into what he is selling.
I think someone else mentioned this somewhere, but Sharp has been impressive enough that he probably should've been in the rotation as Elliott's clear backup, maybe even playing with him at times given the struggles taking care of the ball. What might've been had Elliott not gotten hurt and Sheridan been allowed to show his stuff from the start. Oh well.
As for this game and the rest of the season, if this team has any desire to hold/regain fan interest, they need to 180 flip things in the consistency of effort given department. SIU fans in good times and bad have always gotten behind their teams and players when we could clearly see everything was being left out on the court at the final buzzer. As a competitor, getting smacked the way they did by Bradley should be eating at each and every one of them. Losing happens, but if this problem isn't fixed, these guys had better get used to playing in an empty Banterra Center.
--Insert something witty here--
On the pregame they said USI’s starting point guard is out with a foot injury.
I don’t know how JH misses so many wide open 2 ft shots…it almost seems harder.
Sykes getting in much sooner today than last game. This is a good thing!
Aligbe did not look good. USI was going right after him.
