Lets get it started

Now it’s for real… kind of. Friday night SIU will play D III Wash U from St. Louis. First off some background on why we are playing Wash U at all. The NCAA lengthened its schedule by two games this year so Southern had to get two more teams on its schedule quick. It’s very hard to get good teams to come to SIU Arena since we have beaten just about any club that’s came to town over the last five years. However, Wash U agreed to play us on short notice and this game will serve as a third exhibition allowing us to get to full strength (Tatum will sit out the final game of his suspension) before Murray St comes to town Sunday the 19^th.

Tony Boyle will be back from suspension on Friday night which will mean our big men will be at full strength for the first time this year. We will have plenty of fouls to give and the minutes should get spread around to everyone. I expect to see Randle Falker or Matt Shaw to play about 30 minutes a game. Boyle, Foster, and Armstrong should be able to come in and provide some solid minutes off the bench.

So far Boyle looks much more composed than last season, and Foster looks like he hit the weight bench in the off-season (he is still slender but it’s a noticeable improvement) The player that I would like to see get a chance is Jordan Armstrong. Armstrong has long arms and is very athletic for a player of his size. If any of these three players can play quality minutes at the “4” position Coach Lowery has mentioned playing Matt Shaw at the “3”. This is exciting to say the least. Shaw will provide serious match up problems for any small forward in the conference.

The official Salukihoops prediction for Friday nights game is 68-46 SIU victory. This means there will be some junk minutes and we should see 7 footer Kobby Acquah. In the last exhibition game Kobby got in and missed a free throw so bad that the ball barley hit the side of the backboard. Ugly. It’s hard to see him playing any meaningful minutes for this team unless we have some kind of injury/suspension. But hey, its college hoops and anything can happen.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch this team play yet come on out on Friday night and check ‘em out. You’ll be guaranteed to see some lock down saluki style defense and they should be able to give us a monster dunk or two. We’ll be back right here after the game to give you a recap, and next week we’ll look ahead to our showdown with rival Murray St.