It is time to reignite the annual rivalry that is Creighton-Southern Illinois. And although the importance standings-wise of this matchup seems to have lost a bit of its luster the past few seasons, try telling both fan bases that the games between these two schools don’t mean as much as they did in years past. In fact, SIU’s last trip to Omaha gave Bluejays fans one of the most exciting (and frustrating) games of last season. The Jays won the nail-biter after Cavel Witter hit three free throws to send the game to overtime, where Creighton eventually prevailed:
Steve (aka AnOldBandDude) who moderates the message board at Salukitalk took a little time to talk with White & Blue Review in preparation for Wednesday night’s 8 p.m. game (which will be televised on Fox Sports’ MVC TV package).
White & Blue Review: How hard has it been to watch the Salukis falter down the stretch in the last two home games against Northern Iowa and Drake?
SalukiTalk Steve: I gotta say that the psyche of Saluki Nation is the lowest that I have seen it since the end of the Rich Herrin era in the late 90’s. The word “embarrassment” was used by many, many people in the Saluki community after the lack of effort in the UNI game. Saturday’s game with Drake was the classic case of the favored team never being able to put away the underdog team and the underdog team taking advantage of late mistakes to win the game. You kept waiting for Southern to make that run to “put away” Drake and it never happened. It’s tough to think who you can beat if you can’t beat the #9 team in the league at home.
WBR: What has attributed to the past few tough seasons in Carbondale? Is it the style of recruiting and recruits brought into the system, the coaching, or something else?
SS: Wow, I think I could write a multiple-page term paper on that. But I think a couple of major points are really causing problems.
1) A couple of really bad recruiting classes have really messed up the balance and there is very little leadership with a lot of experience in the program. The only senior on the roster (Tony Freeman) is in his first-and-only year on floor for SIU. The only junior with any experience is Carlton Fay. The rest of the juniors are JUCO transfers. Do you blame the players (in some cases) for not sticking it out? Or do you blame the coaches for not doing a good job of evaluating the player and what he brings to the program?
2) The program has lost its identity. “Floorburn U” does not exist anymore. Back to the Drake game, any time that Drake needed a big basket or a rebound, they always seemed get it. Southern couldn’t get a stop when it needed one, like it could in the “Floorburn U” days. There aren’t players in the program like a Darren Brooks or a Tony Young that would be that defensive leader needed on the floor. Again, do you blame the coaches for not recruiting the right kids to play that kind of defense or do these kids just not get it?
3) Focus has been a big issue for this team this year. The Indiana State game in Carbondale was a prime example of it. After leading 20-12 over the first 10 minutes of the half, Southern didn’t make a basket for almost 8 minutes and was down 26-20 right before the break. But in the second half, with ISU leading by 3, Jake Kelly got hurt and Southern ran off a 19-2 streak to put the game out of reach. I really think that the loss to UNI can be linked to the loss of focus when there was some issue that forced Coach Lowery to sit Dillard at the start of the game. UNI jumped out to a 15-2 lead and SIU never recovered.
WBR: It looks like SalukiTalk is melting down with many different threads about head coach Chris Lowery and their displeasure. Is Lowery really on the hot seat, especially if they have back-to-back losing seasons?
SS: Yeah, I think there could be some serious discussions about that. Unless things get turned around soon, this will be the third straight year where reality and results didn’t at least match the expectations that most reasonable fans seemed to have before the season.
And I don’t think that you can look at a won-loss record this year to gauge if it’s better or worse. Southern’s out-of-conference strength of schedule was around 320 or 325 this year and they beat a lot of bad teams by 20 points or more. I think a better gauge of where SIU stands is whether the position in the Valley will improve over what it was last year (8-10 record and finished 5th in the regular season). Undoubtedly, if the Salukis take part in a Thursday night game in St. Louis in March, a lot of questions will be asked.
It’s a sticky situation for SIU right now. We are in the middle of an $83 million renovation of the Arena and building of a new 15,000-seat football stadium. Of that money, there is still $8 million needed to be raised from the community for the project. On top of that, the whole concept of how basketball season tickets are being allocated is changing from being mostly based on the number of years that you’ve had the tickets to a system when the amount of your donation to the SASF (athletic scholarship fund) plays a much bigger role. If the high-dollar donors start short-arming their wallets because of the results on the court, that may play a bigger role in what happens rather than just the win-loss record. Who knows if the money needed to buyout the final 3 years of his contract (@ $750K per year) will be available.
As for the folks on SalukiTalk, there are a number of people that are long-time supporters of the program that have now come to the conclusion that a change might be needed. And we’re not talking about the folks that go crazy with individual wins and losses. They’re more long-term thinkers.
WBR: Kevin Dillard was expected by many to be an all-conference type of player this season with high expectations. How has he been doing this season?
SS: Dillard’s scoring suffered a lot last year when he had to take over the point guard duties when Bryan Mullins got hurt. I think he’s done a better job of getting his shots, even though he’s playing point guard most of the time now. Having Freeman on the wing does help that quite a bit. Kevin’s biggest issues right now are on the defensive end, getting beat off of the dribble by other guards, at certain times.
WBR: What has been the impact of Tony Freeman as an addition to this team?
SS: After Tony got through the initial stage of “kicking off the rust”, he’s been a spark on offense, able to hit 3’s from just about anywhere, and has been the most-consistent guard on the defensive end of the floor. Tony broke his nose in the shoot-around last Sunday before the Illinois State game and has played through it, even after surgery on Thursday.
WBR: Who has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, for this Southern Illinois team?
SS: I think the biggest individual surprise has been JUCO transfer John Freeman. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t score a lot of points but plays at the 3 or the 4 position, guards well, rebounds well and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. The tough part for him is that he’s been fighting a hamstring injury since before Christmas, limiting his minutes.
The worst recent surprise was that after the last-minute Bradley win (a 14-2 run in the last 1:45) and a solid first half at Illinois State (leading 29-24), Southern has dropped 3 games in a row and are in desperate need of a win or two to turn things around.
WBR: Who needs this win more, Creighton or Southern Illinois?
SS: Both teams are coming off of tough losses. I’d bet that both teams can’t wait to get back on the court to see if they can get their last games out of their collective systems. I think that the loser of this game will have a hard time coming up with the 8 wins it needs to stay out of Thursday night. Both teams will look at this game as one that they really need, if they want to stay competitive in the league race.
WBR: What do the Salukis need to do to win the game on Wednesday against Creighton? What is your final prediction?
SS: Though I’ve only seen glimpses of Creighton on TV this year (mostly during the Orlando tournament), I suspect that both teams have a lot of the same goals. Play a focused 40-minute game, get the ball to the inside people and have them produce and do a better job of getting consistent stops on the defensive end.
As a long-time Saluki fan, it REALLY pains me to say this but with the recent losses at home to UNI and Drake AT HOME, it’s hard for me to see how SIU would be able to come out and play well Wednesday night. The Qwest Center has been home to some of the Salukis’ best wins of the last decade. But I am not sure that this Saluki team has the mental toughness to get this win.
Aw, heck. A Saluki fan HAS to dream.
SIU 58, Creighton 57. Same score as 2007. I can still see Bryan Mullins drive down the lane with that little left-handed floater.
