(pleasant music) (energetic music) - Welcome to a special edition of WSIU InFocus as we preview the upcoming Saluki basketball seasons.

I'm Brad Palmer.

First up is new Women's Head Coach Kelly Bond-White.

She's a native of Chicago.

She played her college ball at the University of Illinois.

She comes to Southern from a very successful Texas A&M program where she was an assistant for 19 years, the last 15 as the associate head coach.

The Aggies won a national title back in 2011 while she was there, and she steps into Southern succeeding Cindy Stein, who retired at the end of this past season with a regular season conference title.

Kelly Bond-White, thanks for joining us.

Welcome.

- Thank you, glad to be here.

- This is your first head coaching job.

Tell us why Southern was a good spot for you.

- You know, just the opportunity to come home.

There were a lot of opportunities out there, and at the time, Chancellor Lane came down with Matt Kupec and I was being courted by a couple other people, and when they sat in my living room, they ignored me originally, and they spent a lot of time with my family, and I think they were wise enough to know that everything about me is about family.

So having the opportunity to come home, having the opportunity for my family to grow up and my daughter to grow up in a community, a smaller community, which is what I wanted, and then the allure of the Missouri Valley.

I knew Southern Illinois had success with Cindy Stein last year, but the Missouri Valley just being a basketball conference, I knew we could make some waves here.

- You almost said Cindy Scott there, because when Cindy Scott was the coach here at SIU, she's a Saluki and Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Famer.

She recruited you out of high school, SIU, right?

- She did, she did.

When I was young, I was in middle school and I was already playing with my high school team in the summer, and my parents didn't keep very few letters.

The only letters that they have were my first one, which was Cindy Scott, and Harvard.

I think those are the only two letters that they kept.

I've begged my aunt to hand it over and she's gonna make me a copy of it because they want to keep it in their little shrine of all the grandkids.

- You have a connection to your predecessor, Cindy Stein.

She was on the Illinois staff that recruited you where you obviously eventually went to play your college ball.

- Definitely.

Cindy was on that first staff and we laughed about it.

My first day in town, she took me to lunch and kind of gave me the inside out to the place and actually drove me around town, showed me some real estate, so it was a full circle moment.

Everything was connected, the path was lining up, so I figured this was definitely meant to be.

- The Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll recently came out.

Now the Salukis lost a lot of great players to graduation from last season's regular season championship team, and this year's team was picked seventh in the preseason poll.

Is that fair?

How would you assess that?

- You know, I think that's a credit to what you had last year.

You had the coach of the year, you had the player of the year, you had a first teamer, you had honorable mentions, a second teamer, so I think what had been established, basketball sometimes happens in cycles.

Cindy had the cycle last year of having a veteran group, some of those COVID kids that had the extra year.

Now we have some teams in conference that are just like Southern Illinois last year.

They're the veterans, they have everybody back.

I think we have about three or four teams that bring up to 60 points back a game, and we return six.

So I think from that, on paper, I think the coaches picked us about right.

- There are several players back from last year's team.

A lot of them didn't play a lot last year, but one who did is Quierra Love.

She was a starter for most of last season.

Are you really leaning on her heavily to help you get into things here?

- Definitely.

The transition this summer, we couldn't have done it without Q. Q was somebody that stepped in as a vocal leader.

Cindy had a great culture already in place, so Q kind of stepped in, and then naturally her being a point guard, I put a lot of weight on my point guards because they have to be not only an extension of me but my staff on the floor, and Q kind of accepted that early on.

She ran with it.

She helped recruit the class that we had coming in, so she's been invaluable to us, not just on the floor but just in her communication skills and the love she has for Southern Illinois to attract some other players here.

- Do you see some of these other returning players stepping up and having bigger roles for you this year?

- I do.

AJ Katcher was a young lady that was voted captain by the team, and she was playing really well.

She's got sidetracked a little bit by some injuries that she'll battle back from, but she's one that has stepped up.

Laniah Randall is a young lady that is learning our system, but while she's learning it, honey, go get the ball, and that's something that she can go do.

She'll go rebound it and she makes plays.

She adds to possessions for us.

- Let me ask you about the transfer portal.

You've hit that hard as you take over the Saluki program here.

I know one player in particular that caught the fan's eyes was six-foot-five-inch Promise Taylor.

That size around here, we're not used to seeing in the women's program.

Tell us a little bit about her.

- Promise is a young lady that I've known for a long time.

I used to recruit the west coast in particular, Seattle, Portland area.

I stumbled on Promise when she was young.

I lost her to a coach that's gonna roll in here for our first game with Middle Tennessee, but Promise is a young lady that can change the game just because of her size.

She had been out, she had battled through some injuries and she came in and was committed.

Our strength coach Zach took her through.

She's dropped some weight, she wanted to change her body, she wanted to be able to compete in the up and down tempo that we're playing.

We had a scrimmage this weekend and I think she blocked about eight shots this weekend.

Just her presence down low changes things defensively, and once she gets it down low, it's hard to move her on offense.

Our young ladies have been really excited about playing with her, and she's just the gentle giant off the floor, because she's a sweet kid, very mature young lady that's been through a lot, so she's a calming presence for our team.

- Somebody else who has very good size is six-foot-two-inch Tamara Nard.

She's a junior college transfer.

What does she bring to your program with that size?

- Man, athleticism.

Her and Laniah, they could go over to Coach Jones' track team right now.

When they want to run the floor, and I use that word right now, want to, until we get them consistent.

But when they run that dog on floor, they look good.

They look good, and that's where Tamara is right now.

Again, another young lady that's been through a couple different systems, so now we're speaking a different language and she's trying to learn our language and bring it all together, but the universal language of sprinting the floor, she can do that, and that's gonna give us some easy possessions.

- I think another thing that caught fans' eyes is the fact that a lot of these transfers are from major Power Five programs.

You've got Mississippi State, you've got TCU, you've got USC.

Why did you feel like that was a need to go out and go to these major schools and attract players here?

- Well I think one, it was the relationships of me, that's where I've been, that's where my Associate Head Coach Chester Nichols has been primarily being in the Big 12, in the Big 10.

I think that's what the relationships with the coaches that were in this area, they knew us, and then it's universal.

I mean, when you've worked this long, you find people that believe in you.

Some of these kids have seen the glitter and gold and they're like, you know what?

I just want to play.

I want to play for somebody that cares about me.

I think that's why we were able to attract them.

It's just our relationships we had with the AAU coaches, with high school coaches and the success we've had in development of our young ladies.

- Do you feel that all of the transfers will probably see playing time this year?

Are they in your rotation at this point, do you think?

- They're the same as our returners.

Everybody has to work for it.

When I sat in their homes, when they came on campus, I didn't promise any of them one thing.

I just told them they would have the opportunity to work, and most of them are, most of them are, but I think you guys will see this coming week in our exhibition game what we've been really working towards.

I'm looking to build a good mix of those transfers and returners coming in.

They all have to contribute for us in some kind of way.

- And real quick, we have the transfers, you have the returning players, you have one true freshman on the squad from the Kansas City area, Jayden Mason.

What's she like?

- Y'all are gonna love her.

She's the baby of the bunch, and she's fearless right now because she knows she has 13 other people literally taking care of her.

They pick her up from the Thompson Point, they bring her to practice, they drop her off.

So she is the spoiled baby right now, but she works her butt off.

She's probably the most consistent in terms of coming in for film, and the fans are gonna see a lot of her.

She's lightning quick with the ball.

She has good lateral speed where she can hound some opponents in the start of the offense or defense.

Jayden's gonna be special.

She's special and she really is diehard Saluki already, so that makes it even better, but I believe she'll be a fan favorite.

- Let's talk schedule.

You have an impressive non-conference schedule.

You start with Middle Tennessee State on November 12th, a very good program.

So you jump right into the deep water, don't you?

- Right into the fire, but they'll get us ready.

The thing that I love about our non-conference is every team that was selected, some were already, we were under contract with, but every one of them will prepare us for one of those Missouri Valley games, and that's what I'm stressing to our young ladies right now is it's not about November, December.

We're playing these games to prepare us for what's coming in January, February, March and hopefully some April as well.

- Conference play, wow coach, six of your first eight conference games are on the road.

That is a rugged start to your first Valley season.

- You know, I want to tell the Missouri Valley, I'm not the only rookie, I'm not the only rookie coach here.

So yeah, we got a tough stretch, but we've tried to throw adversity towards our kids already.

We'll pop up different things for them when they walk in, just trying to create some adversity because we know it's coming.

So if we can create it early for them, then hopefully we'll be ready.

We got some tough road trips early on that'll also help prepare us, and the non-conference will help prepare us for that slate, because it is a tough one, jumping right into the fire.

- You've touched a little bit on it, but what's your coaching style?

What type of team do you want to have?

- I want folks to look at us and say God, they work hard, man, they work hard.

I don't know what's coming next, but they work their butts off.

They're together, they compete as a unit, they pick each other up.

But when you look at style of play, we're gonna run some secondary stuff.

We're gonna run primary transition breaks.

When we get out, we're looking to advance the ball quickly.

We're looking for some drag screens to open up the floor for kids that can get down hill, and then we have shooters on both sides, so it keeps it honest for the big girl in the middle.

It's gonna be tough for folks to double team us because we're trying to stretch the floor with shooters and we have kids that can turn that corner and get down hill.

Defensively, we're still building our identity there, but we want to be hard-nosed.

We want to be up the line a little bit and not make it easy for folks to come into Banterra and run their offense.

- Let's talk about fan attendance as we wrap things up here.

Historically, fan attendance has been low for women's games here.

What do you hope to see fan attendance-wise this year?

- I tell you what, my SID department just told me we're probably about 10 tickets away from breaking the all-time season ticket record in program history, so we want to double that.

We want to get out.

I've been out in the community, I got our players coming out, we're going trick-or-treating.

Last week we went out to get some stuff done.

We want to be in the community of Southern Illinois.

We want people to know that this is their team, that we're entrenched in this community so they'll come back out.

I want them to get to know Q as you mentioned, Promise.

And then when they come back, oh yeah, that's Zero, that's 55, those kids can ball.

But I want them to know our young ladies first and they become a member of the community and then they come out and support their neighbor.

- Well coach, it was great to meet you.

Welcome to Southern Illinois, and we look forward to the upcoming season.

Again, you start November 12th against Middle Tennessee State at Banterra Center, and we look forward to a great season.

Thanks for joining us.

- Awesome, thanks, Brad.

- All right, that's Women's Head Coach Kelly Bond-White.

When we return, we'll visit with Men's Head Coach Bryan Mullins right after this.

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- Welcome back to this special edition of WSIU InFocus, a Saluki basketball preview.

It's time to turn our attention to the men's program as head coach Bryan Mullins is set to join us.

Coach is entering his fourth season as the head coach of his alma mater.

He's already had some signature moments in his first three seasons, seven straight Valley wins, 10 straight home wins in his first season, a seven and oh start to his second campaign, and last season, a win over a Power Five team in Colorado.

Coach Mullins, welcome to the program.

Good to see you.

- Great to see you.

Thanks for having me.

- Let's start off, the Valley preseason poll is out, and you guys are picked third behind Drake and Bradley.

Is that a fair assessment of your team, do you think?

- I don't know what to take from preseason polls a lot.

They're preseason, you haven't played, all the teams are new, they got new guys.

But in terms of our roster, I love this team.

I think it's our deepest roster that I've had in these first couple years, I think.

We got a lot of talent I think we can play a lot of different ways, and just in terms of the student athletes in the program, they've had a great summer and fall so far.

- With what you just said there, is this potentially your best team of the four that you've had so far?

- Yeah, I think ceiling-wise, we can play at a very high level.

We still have a big step we gotta take, and even throughout the season we're gonna be taking steps to try to be playing our best basketball in February and March, but just the depth-wise, everyone on the team is capable of producing, I think, in a college basketball game.

- You got to see your team in action this past weekend.

You played a charity exhibition game at Alabama against the Crimson Tide, a small student-only crowd on hand and a small gym, so you got some live action.

How did you come out of that game?

What do you think of your team after that?

- Yeah, it was a great experience.

I appreciate Coach Oats and Alabama inviting us to come down there and play, to be able to play an exhibition game against a top 20 team in the country with a student-only crowd where it's very loud.

It was in their volleyball gym, which has a lot of historic significance, a little bit bigger than Davie.

So when you call a play, the students are going crazy, my players can't hear me, and just to be able to have that type of adversity in an exhibition game before the regular season starts is invaluable, and for our guys to play against that type of team early on, it gives us a lot of great teaching.

It shows how capable that we are of becoming.

I just think overall it was a great weekend for our program.

- One great thing for you as you enter this season with two cornerstone players, Marcus Damas and Lance Jones, they're already thousand point scores in their career here.

What are your expectations for them this season?

- I think both of them have an opportunity to take another step as basketball players, as leaders, and make a big step for this program.

They've had a great three years.

They've both dealt with some injuries throughout these past couple years, and they've really been healthy this summer and this fall right now, so I think they're excited.

They're probably the most excited they've been since they've put an SIU jersey on.

I think for them to be able to, along with Trent Brown, those three guys started with our staff our first year and now they're all three seniors, and just in terms of where we start as a program, hopefully where we're going as a program, those three guys have a lot to do with it.

- You mentioned Trent.

You still have several other players who have had experience with you in recent years, JD Muila, you've got Dalton Banks, Chris Cross, Troy D'Amico.

Are all of them stepping up?

Do you feel like they have bigger roles in store for them this season?

- Yeah, you talk about Dalton and JD.

I mean, Dalton's played a lot of minutes his first two years as a freshman and sophomore, and he's had a great, great fall right now.

He's playing really well.

He played good in the two scrimmages and exhibition games that we had.

JD, last year was his first year healthy in college basketball really, and got better and better throughout the season, and he's gonna be a huge piece for us.

He's a great defensive player.

He does a great job offensively being instinctive, and then our freshmen from last year, Troy D'Amico, Scottie Ebube, who redshirted Foster Wonders who redshirted, those three guys just being in the program for a year, and then after you're in college for a year, you're just so much more comfortable your sophomore year.

Everything's not as new.

Usually that sophomore year you can see a big increase in terms of how they play and how comfortable they are.

- What's gotten a lot of attention to the off season are some of the transfers you've brought in, starting with Clarence Rupert.

I mean, people are familiar with him, last year's NCAA tournament on that St. Peter's team that made that incredible run to the Elite Eight.

What does he bring to the Saluki program?

- Yeah, a winner, a guy who only cares about winning.

He did whatever it took for St. Peter's.

He helped them in different ways.

What he does doesn't always show up on the stat sheet.

He brings a level of toughness, competitiveness, great energy on the floor.

So I think our fans are gonna love watching him play.

- You've got a young man who I know has garnered a lot of interest from fans and people around the community, and that's Xavier Johnson from George Mason.

What I hear about him, he's tough, he's strong.

He's gonna add a lot to your back court, it sounds like.

- Yeah, grew up in a basketball family, another guy who's won state championship in high school and just someone who knows how to play, can think the game, and like you mentioned, tough.

He can be one of the toughest guys on the court every single night for us, so I think he also brings a level of toughness and speed.

He's got great speed in the open court.

He can get down hill, get some paint touches for us.

- AJ Ferguson, who's from East Central University in Oklahoma, he had a good game for you at Alabama in that exhibition game.

Tell us what kind of player he is.

- Yeah, AJ's done great.

He's improved every single day since he's been on campus, since we started in June all the way up until right now.

He's played well against Kansas State in the scrimmage, played well against Alabama.

He's six-six, long, athletic, can make a three, can drive a closeout, has a good feel how to play, is a competitive young man.

His future is very bright here.

- As the transfer portal has expanded, we see a lot more, it seems like, in conference transferring, and you've got one of those in Jawaun Newton who comes from Evansville.

Fans are obviously familiar with him because we got to see him in game action, but what does he bring to you?

- Yeah, it's our first time in terms of taking a transfer from in-conference, and I think with Jawaun, just the recruiting process with him, what he was about, he just wanted a chance to win a championship, go somewhere where he could play in the NCAA tournament.

For him, he's played in the Valley for four years.

He knows what it is to play at Illinois State, to play at Bradley, to go to Valpo, so he knows what it takes and what type of grind it out league this is, and just for him to come here and join us and want to win, he brings a ton of experience and great leadership as well.

- Well, the transfers have gotten a lot of attention.

Obviously the lifeblood of a program is to bring in freshman and keep that thing rolling.

You've got a couple in Josh Jacobs, and a rarity around here, a seven footer in Cade Hornecker.

Tell us about those two guys.

- Yeah, JR comes from a great program over in Memphis, and Cade is from Amarillo, Texas.

His high school program was called Floor Burn U, so just in terms of what we're about.

- [Brad] He was made to come here.

- Yeah, his high school coach is a great high school coach.

He comes from a winning program, and he's a guy that every single day is continuing to get better as well.

You really kind of throw Foster and Scottie in that freshman class because they redshirted last year, so now you kind of got Foster, Scottie and Cade as guys with four years of eligibility, and it's a really exciting future for the program as well.

- You mentioned that term Floor Burn U.

That brings back great memories for Saluki fans.

You obviously were a defensive stalwart as a player here, and you coach that way.

How does this team shape up defensively?

Is it where you want to be, or do you still have a ways to go?

- I'm probably pretty hard on the defensive side of the floor, so we're not where we need to be yet, but we shouldn't be.

It's October 31st right now.

We got some time to get to where we need to get to, but in terms of our competitiveness, our will and our ability to guard at a high level, this team has all the tools that it takes to be a great defensive team and to compete for a championship.

- Offensively, I know you like the ball to move.

You don't like it to stick, as you say.

You have the pass, shoot or dribble in 0.5 seconds.

Give us your philosophy on why it's so important to keep the ball moving offensively.

- Well A, we talk about being connected a lot.

When the ball's moving, everyone's touching the ball, you feel more connected as a team, so I think that plays into it.

And then on the defensive side, it's hard when everyone's touching the ball and the ball is constantly moving.

If one guy is constantly dribbling the ball five, six, seven, eight times, the other four guys can watch that guy dribble.

I think as the season progresses and teams start to know your plays, if you can teach your guys how to play rather than just a bunch of plays, it's a lot harder to scout, and we have the capability this year.

I think this is the quickest team we've had, the most guys who can pass, shoot and dribble that we've had, so I'm excited to see how capable of an offensive team we can be.

- The Missouri Valley Conference, new look this year.

Loyola's gone, your old stomping grounds, and now you bring in Murray State, Belmont and UIC.

What are your thoughts on this new look of Valley coming into this season?

- It's great for the league.

To be able to add a Murray State, a Belmont, a UIC, to add two programs that are in the NCAA tournament year in and year out and to bring the Chicago market, retain that market to add in Nashville, I think it solidifies our league as one of the best non-Power Five basketball leagues in the country, and that's what we want to be.

We have had incredible success in the post season from our league.

We've had two teams go to the Final Four, so we can accomplish anything you want from our league, from the Valley, and I think adding those teams only gives us another opportunity to do that.

- Non-conference wise, you open up November 7th against Little Rock at Banterra Center.

You had a tough game with them at their place last season.

What kind of team will they bring in here this season?

- Yeah, a very tough game last season.

Coach Walker's a great coach.

They play extremely hard, very athletic.

They turned us over a lot.

They pressed us.

We gotta be ready to go.

I'm excited for our guys.

We've been on the road these last two games, and to be able to open up at home to play a great program, I'm hoping that we pack the Banterra Center.

I hope it's an electric atmosphere.

It's the start of college basketball.

Everyone's excited.

- The Dawg Pound was huge when you were a player here.

It's slowly coming back again.

What would you say to those students especially who are considering coming out to games this year about getting them to the Dawg Pound and being loud?

- Yeah, it's what we're known for.

I think we have the potential to have one of the best student bodies, college atmospheres in the country, and the Dawg Pound, it's just being part of something that's bigger than yourselves.

We talk about that with our guys and our team, and to be part of the Dawg Pound, you're gonna create memories for your college lifestyle for the rest of your life, so I think if we can pack the Dawg Pound, it makes such a difference.

Teams do not like coming here.

Teams do not like traveling to Carbondale, playing in front of the Dawg Pound for that first game.

You got free T-shirts, towels, pizza, everything you want.

So hopefully we can pack it November 7th.

- Let me ask you a little bit about, your family is obviously a basketball family.

Your brother's on your coaching staff, your father is a well-known AAU coach.

How often do you talk, say to your father, do you talk to him after every game?

How close do you guys stay in contact?

- Yeah, we talk a lot, I mean, almost daily or every couple days, and not so much basketball, to be honest.

He helps me maybe with some leadership or relationship type stuff, or I got a newborn, how to father stuff.

But obviously I'm checking in on my mom and dad constantly, making sure they're good, but they're excited for the season.

They're a huge piece of our lives.

To be able to have Brendan coaching with me is an incredible advantage, something that we'll remember for the rest of our lives, too.

- As a new father, congratulations.

Has that changed the way you coach or the time you spend focusing on coaching?

- Not the way I coach.

I think it gives me a release from coaching when I get to go be with Cason and be with my wife and you take your mind off it a little bit more, and I think that's healthy.

And then you come back refreshed and stuff.

I think I appreciate coaching even more because when I do take my mind off and I get back to it, I love it.

- Well coach, thanks for coming in and talking about the upcoming Saluki basketball season.

Again, the opener is November 7th against Little Rock, then you go to Oklahoma State in the first week of the season, so you jump right into things in a big way.

Good luck to the Salukis this season.

I know a lot of fans are excited about this upcoming ball club, and we wish you the best.

- I appreciate it, thank you.

- That is Men's Head Coach Bryan Mullins joining us here on this special edition of WSIU InFocus of Saluki basketball preview.

We also want to thank Women's Head Coach Kelly Bond-White for joining us earlier in the program.

Again, the women open their regular season on November 12th also at Banterra Center against a very good Middle Tennessee State team.

We look forward to watching Saluki basketball this season, and as always, go Dawgs.

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