2019–20 Southern Illinois University Women’s Basketball Preview
The Salukis return bulk of their rotation, look to depth and focus on detail as keys to success
The Southern Illinois University women’s basketball team began practicing only two weeks ago, but the Salukis are already looking different from last season. During an early practice, junior guard Makenzie Silvey elbowed junior transfer Gabby Walker while hustling for a rebound. Walker had to get stitches.
“That’s kind of the style of play [this season],” head coach Cindy Stein said. “Not that we’re trying to hurt anybody, but we want them to go out and play physically and keep playing until the whistle.”
That constant, wire-to-wire effort was an issue for SIU last season, when the Salukis lost 11 games by single digits, including in the first round of Hoops in the Heartland. Headed into the 2019–20 college basketball season, SIU will look to bring a much different intensity to the Missouri Valley Conference.
“When you have that many close games and you’ve lost them, that is usually [because of] a lack of detail somewhere along that stretch,” Stein said. “I kicked their butts all summer and in the preseason. We’re going to be tougher, stronger and faster.”
On paper, the Salukis haven’t changed all that much. They return nine of 10 players who averaged at least 10 minutes per game last season, effectively bringing back the same core rotation of players. Among the standouts are 2019 All-MVC Honorable Mention Silvey and senior forward Nicole Martin, who averaged 14.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game and was named to the all-conference first team last season.
Their two offseason losses, Kezia Martin and Celina VanHyfte, combined for an average of only 12.9 minutes per game. And it’s that familiarity that’s given SIU reasons to be excited.
“Having almost the exact same lineup, [there’s] confidence,” Martin said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t dominate this year.”
“When you’re younger … you don’t know the mentality of the team,” senior guard Brittney Patrick said. “I think a lot of us know it now, and we’re able to maintain and sustain that during the games and practices.”
Reinforcing the confidence are new additions forward Walker from Division II Lindenwood-St. Charles, and junior forward Awa Keita from Cochise College (JUCO). SIU also added two freshmen, Frankie Kokkines and Allea Potter.
Walker averaged 13.4 points and 6.3 rebounds in 21.7 minutes per game in 2017–18 before transferring and redshirting last season. Keita is a defensive juggernaut who averaged 3.1 steals and 1.7 blocks per game in her final season at Cochise College, where she was named the 2018 ACCAC Division I Player of the Year.
“I don’t think you can win our conference without great depth,” Stein said. “If someone’s having a bad game, we should have someone that can step in and get the job done.”
Another focus this season is conditioning, Patrick said. “I think we’ve tried to be a running team,” she said, citing that style of play from the Valley’s top teams. “[Last year,] we just hadn’t put all the details together to be a running team. I think now we’re putting that together, and we’re gonna get things done.”
So where did all these changes begin? Chop Wood, Carry Water.
It’s perhaps unconventional to assign summer readings to collegiate athletes, but there’s good reason Stein turned to a book to impart this year’s focus to the team.
“Everybody wants to be great, but who wants to put in the work to be great?” Stein said of the book’s message. “The fun part is enjoying the fruits of your labor — of working hard and doing the little things right. And you’re doing the little things right over and over and over again to perfection. That’s how you succeed.”
“I talked to our softball coaches who had used that book, and they actually won a Valley championship that year,” Stein added. “I liked that obviously.”
The book won’t guarantee SIU any championships, but players have already taken that message to heart. Patrick said what she learned from the book just might translate onto the basketball court.
“The one that meant the most to me is that life is a climb,” Patrick said. “On your way up the mountain, you have to go through obstacles, and it’s always an uphill climb. Once you get to the top, it’s easy from there.”
“All the stuff that we do [during] preseason and in the summer — I think that’s our journey,” Patrick added. “Once we get to the season … we want to keep going and going until we get to the top. And from there, it should be easy if we [take care of] the details.”
There will be a lot of details to take care of in order for SIU to be successful in the Valley this year, but Patrick believes the Salukis are ready.
“We’re hungry,” she said. “We’re starving and ready to eat.”
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