- Western Kentucky is fresh off of a 28-point loss to Murray State.
- Southern Illinois has won each of the last 3 meetings against WKU and 6 of the last 7, overall.
- Head coach Ken McDonald is in his first year, after former head coach Darrin Horn took the 2007-2008 squad to the Sweet 16 and then left for South Carolina.
- A.J. Slaughter leads the Hilltoppers in scoring at 15.0 ppg. Last year, he tallied 16 against the Salukis at the Arena.
The Hilltoppers are one of the top mid-major programs in the Midwest, partially because they
have the facilities and fan base to be successful. Renovated in 2003, E.A. Diddle Arena has seating for 7,500 including 16 luxury suites. Toss in brand new locker rooms, two practice courts, an academic advisement center, and state of the art video replay screens and you can see how they can attract top level talent to their program. While this may be a down year for the Hilltoppers, they'll still be hyped for the Salukis, so don't expect anything to come easy for the Dawgs.You can catch the action from Carbondale on the MediaCom broadcast, Wednesday night at 7pm.
