Indiana here we come

Finals are over and all the exams are in the books. Now it’s back to the hardwood for the Men’s Basketball team.

Before we look forward lets look back for a second. Chris Lowery answered questions about the season up to this point at pinch penny this week. Here were some of his thoughts.

-If you can’t be 9-0 you’d like to be 8-1. C-Low feels like the team is starting to come together and fire on all cylinders.

-Turns out that the MVC is pretty good. C-Low has been answering all kinds of questions about the other teams in the conference. During a recent interview with Sirius satellite radio C-Low had to tell the interviewer that while the other teams in the conference are good and all, he was there to talk about SIU. He’s ready to stop rooting for the other teams to do well (in non-conference play) and start banging some heads in the valley.

-Redshirt for Josh Bone? C-low said that Josh Bone (Broken Foot) has begun to practice with the team but is far away from getting into a game. Lowery reiterated that no one on the team is “given” playing time- in this program you have to earn it. It is possible that Bone will be given a Redshirt this season.

Without further ado- here is your preview for the Indiana Hoosiers

-No size advantage for Indiana. IU’s tallest player, 6-11 Ben Allen, will miss the game with mono. There next tallest player (DJ White) is 6-9.

-Speaking of DJ White, this kid does it all. DJ leads the team in Scoring, Rebounding, and Blocked Shots (14 ppg, 8 rpg, 2.6 blks). He is a mismatch for any team. Our suggestion? Put Matt Shaw on him.

-Indiana is a well rounded team with some similarities to SIU. They have three guys that average double figures. Besides the aforementioned White, IU features 6-4 Senior Roderick Wilmont who averages 11.8 ppg and should see a steady dose of Tony Young. 6-8 Junior Lance Stemler averages 10 points and 5 boards.

-One thing that sticks out about Indiana is that they do not have one single player averaging over 28 minutes per game. SIU had 3 players averaging over 30 mpg (Shaw, Mullins, and Tatum). That might tell you that they have some depth, but it could also tell you that head coach Kelvin Sampson doesn’t trust his starters.

SIU matches up with Indiana really well and you can expect the boys to roll into Bloomington and play their usual brand of lock down D. We are going to need some contributions from our bench to pull out a win on the road. Wesley Clemmons stepped up big against Western Kentucky and he’ll need to do it again in Hoosierville. This could be a classic “grind it out” win for SIU. The official Salukihoops prediction is SIU over IU 64-61.

Field Trip! Salukihoops is going on the road to Indiana for the game. Check back for a wrap after the game and we’ll have some continued coverage on Monday. Lets hope we bring home a winner!