“Last year, we won eight games. Right now, we haven’t won a game yet,” Forrester said. “You can’t get overly confident but I like the pieces we have put together and that’s probably what excites me the most.”
The Cougars were picked to finish last in the OVC by league coaches and sports information directors. It does not bother Forrester. He said his team has to earn it.
“Those things are expected,” Forrester said. “If we need to be picked last to be motivated, we aren’t as true of a competitor as we think we are. Our guys are motivated no matter where we are picked and are working hard on the basketball floor to improve on a daily basis.”
Yelovich returns
The Cougars have pieced together a team they feel is more athletic and cohesive than in years past. While Chatt, who averaged 15.8 points per game last season, is not back, SIUE returns junior Mark Yelovich. The two-time NCAA Preseason All-Independent pick missed all of last season with a broken metatarsal shaft in his right foot he suffered during the team’s season-opening 70-58 loss to IPFW at the Vadalabene Center, but not before scoring 15 points.
So, how is the foot?
“It’s not bad actually,” Yelovich said. “I did tweak it a little bit during preseason but it has been getting better and I should be released by my doctor for next Thursday’s game [against MacMurray].”
The injury has been a point of frustration for the junior, who was granted a medical redshirt by the NCAA and is eligible to play next season as well, SIUE’s first as a fully-certified Division I program.
“Out of all the frustration of what happened, that’s the only good news that can come from this,” Yelovich said. “I am glad it happened when it did in order to save my year and hopefully I get healthy and stay healthy so next year when we get to play with the conference, we can compete to win and do a full Division I tournament.”
The team is not rushing its star, but Forrester knows how dynamic he can be when healthy. Yelovich averaged 16 points per game his sophomore year.
“Mark still hasn’t practiced yet with the team, but we are taking the right steps to get him for the year, not just for one or two games,” Forrester said. “We are working hard in practice and I’m liking the way they are coming along and hopefully it is a very successful year and we are making progress.”
Battling down low
SIUE’s focus for now is on the present with the team’s first exhibition game scheduled for Thursday against Division III Blackburn College. Even with the season looming, Forrester said there are still questions.
“Our defense is getting better but is not close to where it needs to be,” Forrester said. “Guys need to buy in and play hard to where we are not giving up offensive boards and we can’t keep turning the ball over and expect to win. Those are the areas we have to get better in and guys are doing a good job and continue to get hungrier and hungrier.”
Offense was not the team’s problem last season. SIUE averaged 66 points per game, but their opponents averaged 77. The Cougars allowed an average of 38 rebounds per game compared to just 30 (319th in the nation) in their favor and turned the ball over 17 times per contest. Without the 6-foot-10 Bundalo, who led the team with six rebounds per game in 2010-11, winning the battle of the boards would seem to be one that is uphill.
Forrester hopes the team’s athleticism, beginning with Derian Shaffer, a 6-foot-7 transfer from Kilgore College (Texas) can make up for it. Shaffer weighed Division I offers from Northern Illinois, Stephen F. Austin and Central Michigan before settling at SIUE. Shaffer said he is ready to assume the role.
“I think I bring energy and leadership,” Shaffer said. “I just try to keep everyone playing hard even when we aren’t doing so good in practice.”
After Shaffer, the Cougars have 6-foot-9 junior Zeke Schneider, who has averaged 0.5 points and 0.9 rebounds in limited action and 6-foot-6 Jerome Jones, a transfer from Indian Hills Community College who started his collegiate career at Missouri State. Jones may be small for a center and will see more time at forward, but he had a breakout year at Indian Hills after playing sparsely as a freshman for Cuonzo Martin at Missouri State.
“As far as our depth at the five, we don’t have a lot,” Forrester said. “We need to stay out of foul trouble and defend well and will get a great benefit if we do those things.”
Both senior guard Kevin Stineman and Yelovich said Shaffer is not a prototypical center, but his skill set can play in the Cougars’ favor.
“Derian is a five, but plays more like a four,” Stineman said. “He is more mobile than Nikola and can move around, block shots and move end to end and it works to our advantage on fast breaks.”
Guard play
Without Chatt, a combo guard with the ability to play the point, the Cougars have one less option. Still, guard play is the team’s strength. Senior Corey Wickware, who transferred to SIUE along with Chatt from Wabash Valley Community College, returns after an impressive season where he averaged 11.6 points per game and was second on the team with 2.8 assists. Wickware scored in double figures 19 times and had 26 in a game against South Dakota. Sophomore Michael Messer was third on the team in scoring, averaging 8.7 points per game. He scored 24 in SIUE’s first home win against a Division I opponent Dec. 11 against Kennesaw State.
“Losing Chatt will hurt us. He was our leading scorer last year, but no one has seen the new guys play,” Stineman said. “[Michael] Messer is better than he was last year, [Jerome] Jones is going to play really well for us and put up points and we have Mark coming back. You lose some, but you gain some.”
Some of the point guard duties may fall on Stineman, who is not a flashy scorer, but in his fourth year knows the system and led the team in assists last season. Stineman has been consistent as he averaged 5.5 assists per game and cracked the top 100 on SIUE’s all-time scoring list in 2010. Recruit Charles Joy (O’Fallon) averaged 12 points per game for a 30-5 high school team last season while Kris Davis (Detroit) averaged 19 points and six rebounds for Cass Tech.
“I think [fans] should watch out for our whole team,” Forrester said. “I don’t care who scores the most points. It’s about are we playing as a team. When our fans come out to watch us play, I want us to give them our best performance.”
The Cougars’ depth at guard is something keeping Forrester from naming a starting five before the season begins.
“I’m not quite set as far as our starting five,” Forrester said. “Kevin is doing good and our young guys are competing hard on a daily basis.”
SIUE’s recent recruiting class also brought two Division I transfers, who will not be eligible this season but could contribute next year. Maurice Wiltz comes to SIUE from Colorado State after a successful 21 point-per-game high school career, which garnered him national attention as a McDonalds All-America nominee. Tim Johnson signed on at SIUE after starting his college career at George Washington.
The schedule
After beginning the year with two home exhibition games, the Cougars face a tough test traveling up I-55 to battle an up-and-coming Illinois team in Champaign to open the Cancun Challenge. Two seasons ago, the Cougars opened up against the Illini and lost 96-69. With all the confidence SIUE has going into the season, Stineman said Illinois has the potential to wipe it away pretty quickly.
“You want to be confident with yourself,” Stineman said. “It’s hard to open at U of I and you know that’s a game where you can lose some confidence. Looking at our schedule, we have a team that can be .500 or a couple games over if everything goes according to plan.”
Last year, Illinois lost to Kansas in the third round of the NCAA tournament.
“Our players from Illinois, they understand Illinois,” Forrester said. “They grew up watching them so that will be good to play in Assembly Hall and I think it is an honor. It is something that when you grow up you want to play for Illinois, so it is an exciting game.”
SIUE travels to Illinois State to wrap up the U.S. portion of the Challenge before heading to Cancun to face Lipscomb and either Sacred Heart or Hampton, an NCAA tournament team from 2011. The Cougars also play at SIU Carbondale Dec. 19 for the first time since 1987.
“That will be an exciting game and I am excited for that atmosphere,” Stineman said. “We have never been rivals with them but we are rivals with them on paper and we will be ready to compete.”
Last season, the Salukis finished 13-19 and were picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference this year.
“That is a tough place to play. Although they have struggled the last few years, they will get it together,” Forrester said. “They are more talented than last year so that’s going to be a tough game for us.”
At home, the Cougars play non-conference games against Cal State Fullerton, Ball State, Hannibal LaGrange of the NAIA and participate in the ESPN Bracketbuster series against an opponent to be determined at a later date. The OVC schedule though, is generating the most buzz despite the team’s recent struggles against future conference foes.
“Going 0-9 last year was a way for us to get better and get prepared for this year when we are in the OVC,” Forrester said. “We would have liked to have won those games, but can certainly use it as a stepping stone to get a chance to feel what it is like to play night in, night out in the OVC.”
It also gives the team a chance to find who its real rivals are.
“Murray [State] is always a fun game, [Southeast Missouri State] is becoming a rival with us and Eastern [Illinois] should kind of be a rival school,” Yelovich said. “It’s going to be really exciting to play rival schools, be in the conference and maybe make a name for ourselves.”
For Shaffer, the name on the front of the other team’s jersey does not matter.
“I’m excited about all the games on the schedule. I’m just ready to play,” Shaffer said.
Teamwork
Stineman said the Cougars are a close group off the court, unselfish and ready to prove those who picked the team to finish last in the OVC wrong.
“Everyone, one to 15 on the roster, is close,” Stineman said. “Everyone hangs out. There are no cliques and it actually feels like one united team with the same goals and the same mindset. That is nice.”
Yelovich said there is a difference in the team morale.
“People want to work to get better and people want to win games,” Yelovich said. “The intensity is better and those things have changed.”
Forrester has noticed the difference in practice.
“They are doing a good job buying into what we are saying and are a very unselfish group,” Forrester said. “They make the extra plays and help out their teammates and if they can continue to do those things hopefully we will be successful.”
Games, of course, are very different from practice.
“I really like these guys. They are very coachable and have been working hard,” Forrester said. “I’m excited to watch them play on Thursday and kind of see them on a different side when the lights are turned on as to what they have been doing in practice.”
Nerves, after all, are to be expected.
“You just don’t know until Thursday night and the first exhibition game,” Stineman said. “I know I will be OK but I don’t know about the other guys. If you are a new guy, a freshman or a transfer it will be a little shaky the first few games. We have good personalities on the team though so you never know.”
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