The Salukis are headed into the Tourney with an 11 game winning streak and they just added some hardware.
Jamaal Tatum has been named MVC Player of the Year! JT also pulled in a more important award, earning a 3.57 GPA and All-American Academic Honors. Congrats to JT.
Randal Falker had a few nice awards of his own- All-MVC First team and MVC Defensive Player of the Year. Falker leads the conference in blocked shots and becomes the sixth player in school history to win MVC Defensive POY.
One look at the All-Defensive first team explains why Southern's defense was so good all year. Tony Young, Bryan Mullins, and Randal Falker all represented SIU on the squad. Look for Mullins and Falker to be right back there next year.
Wesley Clemmons would not be left out of the action. Clemmons earned All-Bench team honors for the second year in a row. It's safe to say this is the last time Clemmons will win this award.
When Coach of the Year is announced Chris Lowery should win in a landslide.
Moving on to basketball action. SIU is set to play the winner of the Thursday night Evansville\Drake matchup (Friday at Noon). If Evansville wins their play-in game SIU will have to play the Aces for the second time in six days. Evansville has already beat SIU once this year so they could make SIU work hard to earn a victory.
Should the Salukis advance to the semifinal (Saturday 1:35PM) they will play the winner of the Bradley\UNI contest. Both Bradley and UNI have wins over SIU this season so this game will again be a battle. Bradley is a hot team coming into this tournament. They finished at 10-8 in the MVC but they are on the outside looking into the NCAA at-large picture according to bracketology. Bradley needs to win this tournament to get in. I expect to see Bradley face SIU in one of the best games of the Tournament. Bradley will look to beat UNI by shooting the three ball and if they play SIU their strategy will stay the same.
If SIU can make it into Sundays Championship game (1:05pm CBS) they will have the opportunity to show a national audience why they deserve a protected seed in the Big Dance. Southern would most likely face Missouri State or Creighton in the title tilt. Bracketology currently has both of those opponents in the NCAA tournament but you can be sure Missouri State does not want to take any chances after being snubbed last season.
SIU will have the most time to rest and recover between games because of their #1 seeding. That will be important because of the lack of depth down low for SIU. Shaw and Falker will be asked to play big minutes three days in a row and it could have an impact on their play by the time Sunday rolls around. Tony Boyle will be a key player to watch this weekend, if he can step up and play 15-18 minutes of quality basketball he could give Shaw and Falker all the rest they need.
If you are in the St. Louis area you can hear Salukihoops on the radio on Thursday night around 6:15pm. I will be the guest of Mike Huss on WGNU AM 920 talking SIU Basketball.
For those of you heading to STL this weekend here are two events that you won't want to miss.
The Alumni Association is sponsoring the Southern Illinois University Saluki Expo & Brunch at the Hilton at the Ballpark Hotel in St. Louis on Saturday, March 3, 2007. The Saluki Expo & Brunch will be held from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. Over 20 booths will showcase regional businesses, SIU departments and SIU-affiliated organizations. An extensive brunch buffet will also be served during the Expo/Brunch!
All the guys from Salukitalk will be at the newly-relocated Hooters at 7th and Chestnut (just north of the Saluki host hotel - Hilton at the BallPark, at the old site of Mike Shannon's Restaurant) after the Friday evening session. It should be a lot of fun so make sure and stop by if you are in town.
Check out the Sunday Sports Review at 10am on WDBX 91.1 in Carbondale or on the web for a recap of the first two days of action. We'll be right back here on Sunday night when the dust settles so check back for a full recap of all the weekend's action.
