SIUE’s Brian Barone, Kyle Thomas Bring Indiana Connections To Assembly Hall

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville coach Brian Barone was part of former Indiana coach Tom Crean’s staff from 2008-10. One of his players, Kyle Thomas, is the son of Daryl Thomas, who played on Indiana’s 1987 national championship team.

Brian Barone is in his sixth season as SIUE's head coach / photo via siuecougars.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana’s season opener against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville came with a few Hoosier ties.

The Cougars’ coach, Brian Barone, was on Tom Crean’s staff at Indiana from 2008-10 as the director of basketball operations. SIUE junior forward Kyle Thomas is the son of the late Daryl Thomas, a starter on Indiana’s 1987 national championship team under coach Bob Knight.

Barone and Thomas both spoke after Wednesday’s game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall about the extra special night. 

Barone was glad to bring his son, who was born in Bloomington, back to his birthplace for the first time since he left to take an assistant coaching job at Green Bay. Barone was also happy to see several familiar faces, like Indiana athletic trainer Tim Garl, team physician Larry Rink, equipment manager Rusty Stillions and Jordan Hulls, a former player who’s now on staff.

“Without being cheesy,” Barone said. “It felt like I had come back home.”

“Coach [Crean] was unbelievable, and he’s been unbelievable to me,” Barone said. “The time I spent here, without getting – it made me feel like home. Rusty made cookies, and I used to go over there every Friday to get the cookies in the equipment room. So, it’s why Indiana’s special. It’s why this place, I’m always pulling for it. I really am, because they treated me so well, and it was really cool to be back. It really was. I was really proud to bring a team back that I’m proud to coach, and hopefully I represented my two and a half, three years of Indiana the right way and they’re, in some sense, they understand that I took what I learned from Indiana to hopefully implement into my coaching career.”

Indiana defeated Barone’s SIUE team 80-61 on Wednesday. Now in his sixth year as SIUE’s head coach, Barone said postgame he likes the character and talent of his team. He was proud of the way they competed, especially because three key players recently returned from injuries. 

SIUE tied the game at 27-27 with 4:48 left in the first half, but Indiana immediately responded with a 10-0 run. The Hoosiers led by at least nine points and by as many as 22 in the second half. Barone said his team put itself in a position to make a run, but he thought Indiana did a good job of making the shots they needed to make in critical situations.

Barone was impressed by the Hoosiers’ size and the way they pressured the ball, specifically when guarding SIUE’s Ray’Sean Taylor, who finished with 17 points on 7 for 22 shooting. 

“They’re a big team. They’re a physical team,” Barone said. “They have the ability, if they can shoot like that, I mean, or knock down the big shot, I should say, and continue to spray it around from that regard, I think they’re gonna be a pretty darn good team.”

Barone was especially impressed by Indiana sophomore wing Mackenzie Mgbako, who scored a career-high 31 points on 13 for 17 shooting. That was the first 30-point performance in an Indiana season opener since Eric Gordon’s 33 points against Chattanooga in 2007.

“He doesn’t get sped up, I feel like. He just kind of goes about himself,” Barone said. “I thought that on film. We watched a bunch of film from the end of the year, obviously we saw some stuff from this year as well. I didn’t feel like he really sped up. I thought he read the screens the right way. And at the end of the day, I think he was 13 for 17. His shot, when he was getting into his shot, he didn’t speed – he just shot what his shot looked like. And he had it going a little bit. He’s got great size. Did a good job pressuring us on a couple reversals.”

SIU-Edwardsville head coach Brian Barone coaches his team against Bradley at Carver Arena. / MATT DAYHOFF/JOURNAL STAR / USA TODAY NETWORK

Barone was on staff for the first three years of the Crean era, when Indiana was on probation for Kelvin Sampson’s recruiting violations and won just 28 games in a three-year stretch. He learned a lot about hard work during those challenging times and tries to implement that in his current position.

“We talk about find a way, and that’s a mentality that every day quite literally got me off the couch at times. When you’re here, you had to figure out, here, we had to figure ways to do things against our opponents when we had different restrictions, whether it was probation, whether it was a lot of guys transferring and you didn’t have the ability to reload right away. Just kind of that mentality of not hearing no, or hearing no and saying, okay, well what do we gotta do now?” 

“Just that mentality of just working really hard. Coach Crean instilled that into me, my dad did, my mom did, but coach did that when I was a player at Marquette, and he did it when I worked here for him, along with everyone else on that staff and those guys. It was awesome seeing Jordy [Hulls]. That kid was out there bouncing the ball at, honestly, 1 or 2 in the morning when we were up here cutting film and things like that.”

Wednesday’s game came with extra meaning for Kyle Thomas, too. Indiana public address announcer Jeremy Gray recognized Thomas pregame and showed his family behind the SIUE bench on the videoboard.

Thomas’ hometown is Bolingbrook, Ill., and Wednesday was the first time he had ever been at Assembly Hall or Bloomington. Thomas played last season at Bradley and began his career at Eastern Illinois, but he did not appear in Wednesday's game.

Kyle Thomas Transfers to @SIUEMBB

🔗https://t.co/nA97EVRtrL pic.twitter.com/Z14ul5xgJM

— SIUE Cougars (@SIUECougars) May 7, 2024

He walked around Assembly Hall on Tuesday, looking at pictures and memorabilia from his father, Daryl’s, career as a Hoosier. He enjoyed seeing a picture of him holding up the 1987 national championship trophy, in particular.

“For me, this is like home,” Thomas said. “My dad played here. I’ve heard stories about this place for the longest time, so finally being able to be in this place, it’s a dream come true, to be honest.”

Indiana's Todd Meier (left), Daryl Thomas (middle) and Steve Alford (right) celebrate winning the 1987 national championship. / Indiana University Archives

Kyle also felt honored to hear from people at Indiana about how much his father impacted their lives. Daryl passed away in 2018, and Kyle credits his father as the whole reason he plays basketball.  He remembers his father saying that it feels like the fans are on top of the court at Assembly Hall. As soon as he walked onto the court Wednesday, he felt that.

“It sucks that he can’t be here right now, because I know he probably would have loved to see this,” Kyle said. “But I know he’s up there watching, so can’t be too upset.”

Daryl Thomas played at Indiana from 1983-87 under Bob Knight. / Indiana University Archives

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• TODD'S TAKE: Indiana’s new players collectively had an uneven night, but the Hoosiers’ veterans carried the day in the season opener. CLICK HERE

• WATCH: Oumar Ballo gets a feed from Trey Galloway for a second-half dunk. CLICK HERE.

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