Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball To Face League-Leading Creighton on Sunday
01/31/2002 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2002
Southern Illinois (18-4, 8-2) will play at Creighton (14-5, 9-1) Sunday in a battle for first place in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bluejays are riding a seven-game winning streak.
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First Place Showdown The Salukis need a win at Creighton to pull into a first place tie with the Bluejays. A Creighton win would give it a two-game lead over SIU with seven games remaining for each school. SIU has won the MVC regular season title three times since joining the league in 1975-76. The last time was in 1991-92.
Heating Up From Three In the last four games, the Salukis have made 37-of-76 (.487) 3-point attempts. Especially effective from behind the arc have been Darren Brooks (14 of his last 27, .519), Marcus Belcher (14 of his last 21, .667) and Brad Korn (8 of his last 17, .471).
Turning Up the D Colorado State is the only team to shoot better than 45 percent from the field against the Salukis this season. Last year, 17 of SIU's 30 opponents shot better than 45 percent against the Dawgs.
The Series vs. Creighton Creighton leads the all-time series with Southern Illinois, 36-24. The Bluejays have won 10 of the last 12 meetings overall and five of the last six at home against SIU.
Williams 16th in Career Scoring at SIU Junior guard Kent Williams is the 34th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. The team's leading scorer now ranks 16th in career scoring at SIU with 1,335 points.
Evansville Recap The Salukis recorded season highs in points (101), 3-pointers (12), points in a half (56), margin of victory (39), blocked shots (9) and assists (25) against Evansville Wednesday. The 39-point win was SIU's biggest margin of victory versus any opponent since beating Missouri Southern by 55 points on December 22, 1994.
Dawg Bites Twice this season, the Salukis have had six players score in double figures (vs. Indiana State and Evansville)...Kent Williams has a 4:1 assist to turnover ratio in conference games this season.
Mid-Major Top 25 Thirty Division I coaches vote in the mid-major poll, which is compiled by Collegeinsider.com # Team (Poll as of Jan. 27) 1. Gonzaga (18-3) 2. Western Kentucky (18-3) 3. Butler (18-3) 4. Southern Illinois (17-4) 5. Creighton (13-5) 6. Pepperdine (13-6) 7. Bowling Green (14-4) 8. Valparaiso (16-6) 9. Pennsylvania (13-4) 10. Ball State (13-6) 11. Utah State (14-4) 12. Kent State (14-5) 13. UC-Irvine (14-6) 14. Arkansas-Little Rock (14-6) 15. Manhattan (14-4) 16. Coll. of Charleston (15-4) 17. Texas-Pan American (17-6) 18. Hampton (14-5) 19. Brown (12-5) 20. UNC-Wilmington (12-7) 21. Tennessee Tech (14-4) 22. Montana State (13-7) 23. Jacksonville (15-6) 24. Davidson (13-6) 25. Vermont (15-5)
Defense Much Improved Southern Illinois' defense has improved dramatically over last year. 00-01 01-02 FG% 45.4 39.5 3FG% 38.9 33.7 Points 72.0 66.2 Reb. Margin +2.0 +5.3 Blocks 2.3 5.0 Opponents are shooting 39.5 percent against SIU this season. The last Saluki team to hold opponents below 40 percent on the season was the 1967-68 club. SIU has held 14 of its 22 opponents below 70 points this year. Last season, the Salukis held opponents below 70 points just 13 times in 30 games.
Roberts Climbs Blocks Chart Rolan Roberts is climbing the school's single-season blocks chart. After 22 games, he has 57 blocks and needs 33 more to tie Joe C. Meriweather's record set in 1973-74. Last year, SIU averaged 2.3 blocks per game. This season, the Salukis are averaging 5.0 blocks per contest.
Freshmen Make Impact A pair of freshman guards, Darren Brooks and Stetson Hairston, have made a major impact so far this season. Brooks, a redshirt, is the team's top scorer off the bench 9.9 ppg) and fourth-leading scorer overall. He is also third in rebounds (4.6 rpg) and first in steals (1.5 spg). Hairston has started every game and is fifth in scoring (7.0 ppg) and fourth in rebounding (4.3 rpg). He is also third in assists (45) and second on the team in steals (1.3).
