Southern Illinois AD Supports Head Basketball Coach Barry Hinson After Post-Game Tirade (VIDEO)
BySouthern Illinois University (SIU) head basketball coach Barry Hinson is regretting comments he made during his post-game press conference following a loss to Murray State.
Following SIU's 73-65 loss to Murray State Tuesday night, ESPN reported, Hinson took the podium and called his players "mama's boys," "bad puppies" and even called out one player specifically.
"Marcus [Fillyaw] was absolutely awful," Hinson said. "That's about as PG-rated as I can say it. He was awful."
SIU athletic director Mario Moccia told ESPN he spoke with Hinson Wednesday morning and said the tirade was probably the result of frustrations boiling over.
"Barry cares about his players," Moccia said. "I know this is not the season he wanted to have after 10 games (2-8). The losses have mounted and he's frustrated. I just wish he didn't call out the players specifically and would have used more generalities.''
Hinson told ESPN he does not regret what he said, except for calling out his player by name.
"I regret one thing -- calling out Marcus' name," Goodman said. "That wasn't fair to him individually, and I'm upset about that. But I'm not upset about anything else I said... I'm not going to fake who I am. I'm an emotional guy and I love my players, but I was frustrated with their overall lack of effort. I felt bad about mentioning one of my player's names. That was a mistake."
Davante Drinkard, a senior forward for SIU, returned the sentiment on Twitter and expressed his distaste for his coach's comments.
"I can't believe the little man had the nerve to call us mama's boys. Smh. I guess this is where Our team learns to point the finger," he wrote.
Moccia was also aware of the tweet and said he felt like Drinkard's comments came from the same place Hinson's did.
"He's just frustrated like Barry,'' Moccia said. "I can't imagine there will be hard feelings.''
Moccia said the SIU community knows that with Hinson come occasional outbursts because it is the type of person he is.
"He does use a lot of colorful language, but people understand. A vast majority of fans like Barry and his passion. He's bringing energy to the program and trying to turn it around," Moccia said. "A coach can get frustrated like the players do, and he realized calling out individual players is never a good thing in a public forum. There's a lot of season left and let's move forward.''