SIU’s Bryan Mullins – One-on-One

Part One – Remembering Glory Days

(St. Louis, MO) – When Southern Illinois was looking for a new coach, their top choice was a man with ties to past glory days. In Bryan Mullins, they found their man. The two-time MVC ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ and point guard for some legendary Saluki teams was ready and waiting on the Loyola coaching staff.

Mullins was part of the six-year run of Saluki success that saw NCAA tournament action, a Sweet Sixteen appearance and such aggressive defensive prowess, they earned the moniker ‘Floor Burn U’. In ‘Part One’ of our interview, we look back at those glory days of SIU hoops.

A huge part of Mullins’ desire to be the SIU head coach comes from remembering what it was like to be a successful player at the Carbondale, Illinois university. Wa also talked about SIUE coach Brian Barone and Loyola’s Porter Moser.

 

 

Six-Year Run of Success

From 2002 to 2007 SIU made six straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. Twice they went to the Sweet Sixteen and won or shared five Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles. The streak began under Bruce Weber, continued under Matt Painter and concluded with Chris Lowery. Rarely has such a run of success been led by three different coaches.

Players like MVC hall-of-famer Kent Williams, Jermaine Dearman, Darren Brooks, Jamaal Tatum, Randal Falker and Matt Shaw were all instrumental in those championship seasons. A year ago we discussed the first part of that success with Williams (see Local Boy Does Good) and in this interview we were able to learn about the tail end of the dynasty.

Mullins says the Carbondale area fans love basketball, gritty basketball and successful basketball. I asked him to do some word association concerning some of his former teammates.

 

 

Lowery was Mullins’ head coach and the current SIU mentor says the former head man built tough-mindedness into the team. Lowery’s teams simply believed they would win. Long time assistant Rodney Watson brought a steady hand.

Mullins also says those were some glory days for the entire league.

 

 

The first-year head coach is a member of the Saluki basketball hall-of-fame. Mullins led his team in steals four straight seasons and in assists twice. He is the all-time SIU assist leader (509) and second to Brooks with 254 steals. Four times he was a part of the Valley’s all defensive team, twice being named as the league’s top defender.

Mullins did it off the court. He was the league’s ‘Scholar Athlete of the Year’ and was an Academic All-American (2009).

Part Two

Since we’ve covered the glory days, in the second part of our interview Mullins will talk about his coaching influences and the what lies ahead for the coming season.

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