Southern Illinois Basketball: Barry Hinson steps down after 7 years as head coach

Let’s look at Barry Hinson’s coaching career with Southern Illinois Basketball and what the Salukis will do to replace him.

After a quarterfinals loss to Northern Iowa at Arch Madness, Barry Hinson announced that he was stepping down after seven seasons as the head coach of the Southern Illinois Salukis. Hinson’s had a long coaching career and this might be his final stop, having previously lead Oral Roberts and Missouri State. He was ranked 131st in our early season head coach rankings but this season has been a struggle for the Salukis.

Hinson’s career began with a decade at the high school level before he was hired as an assistant by Bill Self at Oral Roberts. When Self left for Tulsa in 1997, Hinson took over the program and finished in the top two in the league in these two years. In 1999, he succeeded Steve Alford at Missouri State, though he was released after nine years. He spent four years in an administrative role under Self at Kansas before getting another shot in the Missouri Valley with Southern Illinois in 2012.

Hinson’s biggest struggle is his lack of an NCAA Tournament appearance in his 18 years as a D-1 head coach. He led Missouri State to four NIT appearances, but couldn’t get the job done in Arch Madness. His teams never even won the regular season MVC title, though his Salukis were a top three team the last three seasons. The bottom line is that he just couldn’t finish the job. Hinson’s career mark now sits at 321-246 after a 17-15 season at Southern Illinois. His Salukis were above .500 the last four seasons but never could get over the hump to win Arch Madness.

This year’s Salukis were a senior-laden group, meaning there’s quite a bit of work to do for the next head coach. The team’s best player was senior forward Armon Fletcher (15.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg), who dealt with suspension at the beginning of conference play. Senior center Kavion Pippen (12.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg) was a talented piece under the hoop, but the Salukis couldn’t get enough offense from this team to win key games. Junior guard Aaron Cook (10.6 ppg) is the only player averaging double figures returning for next season.

Despite not making the NCAA Tournament, Hinson has been one of the winningest coaches in MVC history and will be a tough act to follow. There will be plenty of interesting candidates for the position and that likely will include Loyola-Chicago associate head coach Bryan Mullins, a Southern Illinois alum. There’s also the possibility of hiring an assistant from a nearby power conference team, which worked well in 1998 when they hired Purdue assistant Bruce Weber.

Whichever way the Salukis go, Hinson’s replacement will have some work to do to get these Saluki’s back in the NCAA Tournament. Loyola has really emerged in recent years as a powerhouse of the MVC, but the next head coach can build this program into something special like Weber and Matt Painter had 15 years ago.

This is likely the end of the road for Barry Hinson, but you can’t deny that the man has had a solid career. He never made the NCAA Tournament but he won a lot of games with Oral Roberts, Missouri State, and Southern Illinois. Wherever Hinson goes next in life, he will do so with the same honor and class with which he served as a coach for the last 20 years.