CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- Bryan Mullins is entering year two as head coach at Southern Illinois.
Covid-19 has changed the way he does his job.
It's changed how we do our job as reporters.
Through video chat, Kendra Sheehan asks Coach Mullins the tough questions.
KS: How much has your recruiting had to change because of Covid-19 restrictions?
BM: Right now is the time for basketball in terms of spring recruiting period as we get an opportunity to go out and see some of the state tournaments and junior college and be able to do home visits with families and recruits so definitely a different transition for us and a lot of video watching and we still stay in contact in terms of text messaging and calls and now we are probably doing more facetiming and video conferencing with recruits and their families and try to develop that relationship as best we can.
KS: How has social media been an outlet for you guys to be able to see players that you don't have to see in person?
BM: A lot of kids are posting highlight videos, a lot of coaches are posting their players highlight videos and social media we are able to find out kids from all over the country every single day, just because of Twitter, Instagram and emails we receive so that has been huge in terms of beneficial in terms of surfacing new student athletes for us.
KS: You touched on it a little bit but how has your recruitment style changed not being able to bring students to the campus to see it and to have those in home visits?
BM: I think to be able to paint a picture and to tell the recruits and their families what our program is like and what our culture is about. Our university, our community here. Our marketing and media department here has been amazing putting together different videos and graphics and that has helped a lot so we are able to send it to them and give them pictures of the dorms, pictures of apartments, pictures of facilities, videos of facilites, crowd atmosphere, games at the Banterra Center, things like that have been really helpful in terms of being able to show them what the program is about.
