Southern Illinois coach to Arkansas fans: 'Get your butts back in this gym'

Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson watches from the sideline during a game against Arkansas on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Fayetteville.

— After watching his Southern Illinois team give up 13 3-pointers to Arkansas in the Razorbacks’ 90-65 win, Salukis coach Barry Hinson had a few things to say.

The former Oral Roberts and Missouri State coach praised Arkansas coach Mike Anderson for a being a class individual.

He then decided to throw down the gauntlet to Razorbacks fans, of which an announced crowd of 4,270 showed up Monday.

“You want me to be honest?” Hinson said. “That was not an Arkansas crowd. That is not a Razorback crowd. You want me to get on your crowd, because here is what I will tell you:...I have been here and you guys know when I have been in here, and I told our guys, 'When they bring that damn Arkansas flag out with three minutes left and you’re yelling your ass off and that can’t hear you, that is what it is all about.'

“But that is not the Razorback crowd that I know....You have got to get your butts back in this gym. That team deserves it, this university deserves it. Buy your tickets and get your butts in here.”

It was an impassioned plea from a coach whose team was down 56-25 at halftime and by 36 points less than four minutes into the second half.

“I want to first say this - Mike Anderson is an absolute class individual,” Hinson said. “I hope you understand what you have here. That could have been a lot worse than what it was.

“In this day and age in our business, you don’t find guys like that on other benches. That guy is a first-class guy and you are fortunate to have him. I mean that and I am proud to call him my friend.”

Hinson, who started his career a junior high coach in Stillwater, Okla., also knows Arkansas’ assistants well.

“Of course, I coached against Lee Mayberry in high school, I remember Scotty (Thurman) playing and TJ (Cleveland) playing and it was just good to see those guys, and it is almost like a homecoming every time I come back here,” Hinson said.

“I am really, really proud of what the Razorbacks did tonight and how they played. I thought they shared the ball extremely well. I thought they shot the ball.

"You could tell we wanted to make sure that they had to make threes in order to beat us and boy that was a heck of a game plan, wasn’t it, because they made threes and they beat us.”

Hinson said he was proud of how his team competed in the second half when it outscored the Razorbacks 40-34.

“I thought we could have laid down in the second half and we didn’t," Hinson said. "I thought we did a good job of continuing to fight and I think we found out a little bit about our guys.

"It is important to us and I think we found out some good things about us.”

Dusty Hannahs was 5 of 6 3-point attempts and led Arkansas with 19 points. Hinson said he knew Hannahs would bounce back from a poor shooting performance in the opener when he made 1 of 6 3-point attempts.

“I will tell you exactly what I said coming down the tunnel,” Hinson said. “One of our guys watched Dusty early in the pre-shoot. He shot for about 30 minutes and didn’t miss a shot and I told our coach that we are not going to ever try to dig off of him and make sure that we tried to guard him.

"I knew he would shoot the ball well tonight. There was no question in my mind. Good shooters come back after 1-of-6 and especially after a first-game jitter game.”

Hinson was also complimentary of Daryl Macon, who made 4 of 6 3-point attempts.

“He shot the piss out of it tonight,” Hinson said. “...I thought he played well.

“If those guards continue to develop like that and share the ball like that, I think you are getting ready to have a fun year.”

He also was impressed with Kingsley, who has blocked 12 shots in the first two games combined, and altered many others.

“I just think the intimidating factor of him being down there, we missed a lot of lay ups and dunks tonight and I think you have to give him credit for that. I don’t think it is one of those deals where you say that missed lay ups and dunks, but there is a reason why we did and I thought he had a lot to do with it," Hinson said.

Mike Rodriguez had 29 points in the first game for Southern Illinois - an 85-81 home loss to Wright State - but just 4 on Monday and was 0-of-7 from the field.

“I told our staff and I told our team that Michael Rodriguez going into this game would have a target on his back because I knew who Mike is and when a guy gets 29, you have a target the next time," Hinson said.

“He got sped up tonight. He played a little bit out of his zone and we are going to learn from this."