at Southern Illinois - 01/14/2023 - 7:00 PM - ESPN3

ISU86

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
1,364
The boys bus down US-51 for a game in Little Egypt with the Dawgs.

The Redbirds show up alone in ninth place in conference at 3-4 (8-10 overall) whereas the Salukis are in a four-way tie for second place at 5-2 in conference (13-5 overall).

The teams share six common opponents: they have both defeated Belmont, Chicago State and Evansville and lost to Northern Iowa. The Redbirds lost to Indiana State whereas the Salukis split, and ISU lost to Murray State while SIU won.

The 'birds are led in scoring and rebounding by Kendall Lewis (11,2, 6.8); Darius Burford leads in assists (2.4) and also averages double-digits (11.0) as does Seneca Knight (10.6). The Dawgs are led in scoring, rebounds and assists by Marcus Domask (16.9, 6.2, 3.5); Lance Jones is the only other player averaging double figures (14.0). ISU generally goes eleven deep on any given night whereas SIU goes nine.

According to NET Ranking, the Redbirds (242) toughest opponent was Louisiana State (100, loss), their best win was against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (112) and their worst loss was to Illinois-Chicago (265); the Salukis (97) toughest opponent was Oklahoma State (45, win) and their worst loss was to Southern Indiana (244).

SIU's biggest strengths are field goal percentage (45.4% to opponents 41.0%) and defensive rebounding (they are not particularly strong on the offensive glass).

The next four of five are against the top half of the conference (two SIU dates sandwich games at Bradley and at Northern Iowa (only home versus Valparaiso is a bottom-tier opponent)).

This SIU team hasn't seemed, other than at Southern Indiana, to put up a poor performance. They have more in-house talent than transfers (five total, only three Division-i). Winning this game on the road is doable, but tough. Coming out and playing a focused/strong forty minutes will be mandatory. The bigs must make a presence and stay out of foul trouble. I think program improvement will be shown if we can stay within arm's reach.

Salukis 69, Redbirds 62

NOTE(s): former Redbirds Brendan Mullins and Tony Wills are both on Bryan Mullins staff; also, for those going to Carbondale there are $7.00 tickets at the Banterra Center (section 113) by entering promo code "SEVEN" on-line at SIUSalukis.com/promo
 

Redbird222

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
5,277
SIU is generally stellar on defense but sometimes inconsistent offensively. We need to make them work on offense and limit our turnovers to have a legit chance.
 

Phantom

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
1,920
Tough test in what could/should be a good environment. Saturday night, I think students are back and SIU is playing well. If you flip the script on this...and it was 5-10 years ago...we'd put 8-9K in RA for this game and it'd be rockin. It would be awesome to go steal one from them, but we're going to have to catch them on an off night. If we keep it tight and get to the line, we'll have a chance but we'll see. Just play hard.
 

DannyCooksey

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
3,115
Play as hard as you can for 40 minutes (or more if needed). Also play with your head on your shoulders and not up your ass.
 

Hamdonger

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
6,441
I'm waiting for us, top to bottom, to finally put a really good game together. We haven't had a really good game all year. Rooting for the win, but don't see it happening. Make me eat gravel, fellas.
*although the siue game was pretty good*
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom