Stein bringing change to SIU

Stein bringing change to SIU

By Thomas Donley

The SIU women’s basketball team needed six games to pick up its first win last year.

Although the Salukis lost their sixth game of the 2014-15 season to Illinois, they have won four games. This year’s team is SIU’s fastest to four wins since the 1991-92 team, which won its first four games.

SIU has not had a winning season since 2006-07, the only one in the past nine years. Outgoing athletic director Mario Moccia feels he is leaving the Salukis in the hands of the right person to lead the program back to glory.

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Coach Cindy Stein has a track record of turning around struggling teams and making them contenders.

At her previous three schools, Illinois Central College, Missouri and Emporia State, Stein has inherited teams with .500 records or worse and taken them deep into their respective league’s tournament within three years.

Moccia, who was a senior associate athletic director at Missouri during Stein’s tenure there, said he hired Stein at SIU because of her track record of reviving programs.

He said he is not surprised by the Salukis’ early success this year.

“I’m very pleased with how we’ve played,” Moccia said. “It doesn’t surprise me how she’s been able to turn it around.”

Moccia said SIU’s turnaround could have come last year if not for the plethora of injuries the Salukis faced.

SIU’s team poster and media guide features the slogan “N.O.W.”, standing for never out worked, a reference to the team’s work ethic and the fact it wants to be much improved this season.

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The idea for the slogan came from Stein, who said this year’s Saluki team would be more disciplined and determined than previous years.

“I think it’s a mindset that we’ve got to come in, whether it’s a ranked opponent or an unranked opponent, when we step on the floor, we’ve got to be the team that’s scrapping and working the hardest,” Stein said.

Junior center Dyana Pierre said the difference between this year and last year is the team’s intensity and improved health.

“Practice is much tougher,” Pierre said. “It’s more competitive. Last year, we had practices where we couldn’t play five-on-five sometimes.”

Sophomore point guard Rishonda Napier said the 2014-15 Salukis are better on the court because of their intangibles.

“We’re just more mature,” Napier said. “We have a greater concept of unity. We’ve got great leadership, and we’re just ready to go.”

SIU has received a spark from the returns of Napier and junior guard Cartaesha Macklin from redshirts, as well as the addition of freshman guard Kylie Giebelhausen to the starting lineup.

Giebelhausen said the Salukis’ .167 winning percentage in 2013-14 did not discourage her from signing with SIU.

The East Peoria native said Stein’s promise of the chance for playing time influenced her decision to come to Carbondale.

“Coming here, my goal was just to have playing time,” Giebelhausen said. “When she said that, I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll play a little bit,’ and now I’m like, ‘Okay, it was a really good idea coming here.'”

Giebelhausen has started four of SIU’s first six games and leads the Missouri Valley Conference in blocked shots.

The Salukis play Austin Peay at 1:00 p.m., Saturday in Clarksville, Tenn.

Thomas Donley can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @tdonleyde

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