Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball MVC Tournament Preview
02/27/2002 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2002
Southern Illinois (24-6) begins play in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Saturday at noon. The Salukis will play the winner of the Bradley-Indiana State game.
Tickets: The SIU Athletic Ticket Office has no single-session tickets on sale. To purchase single session tickets you must call TicketMaster in St. Louis at (314) 241-1888 or order via the web at www.mvc.org.
Follow these instructions to purchase tickets to SIU's Saturday game (Session II).
Press 5 for Savvis Center Events
Press 10 PLUS the pound sign and that will take you to Session II ticket availability.
The SIU fan section is 101 102 125 and 126. Although those sections could be full, they will add to the next available section to try to keep fans close together. You can also buy tickets at the door on the day of the game.
Television: The game will be carried live on Fox Sports Net Midwest (available in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska and the cities of Indianapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis). It will also be carried live by Fox Sports Net Chicago (available in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin and the city of Chicago).
Satellite Coordinates: Galaxy 11, TR 6, Digital Slot B
MVC Tournament Guide in PDF Format
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Conference Co-Champs Southern Illinois finished tied for first place in the Missouri Valley Conference with Creighton. It marked the school's fourth regular-season title since joining the league in the 1975-76 season. The Salukis were co-champions in 1977 and 1992, and they were outright champs in 1990.
MVC Tournament History The Salukis have a 20-18 overall record in the MVC Tournament, capturing the title and its automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament in 1977, 1993, 1994 and 1995.
Number One Seed By sweeping Creighton in the regular season series, the Salukis have earned the number-one seed in the conference tournment.
Elite Company As of Feb. 26, SIU is one of only nine teams out of 324 Division I schools that have won at least 24 games. Most Wins Cincinnati (26-2), Duke (25-2), Kansas (25-2), Gonzaga (25-3), Western Kentucky (25-3), Butler (25-4), Central Conn. St. (24-4), Pittsburgh (24-4) Southern Illinois (24-6).
Williams Ninth in Career Scoring 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 ninth in career scoring at SIU with 1,454 points.
Tying a Record At 14-4, the Salukis tied the school mark for best conference record. Both the 1991-92 and 1993-94 teams finished 14-4.
Dawg Defense Only three teams have shot better than 45 percent against Southern this year: Colorado State (49.1), SMS (45.6) and Illinois State (48.2). Last year, 17 of SIU's 30 opponents shot better than 45 percent.
Sharing the Ball Williams, the runner-up for MVC Player of the Year, led the league with a 2.2-1 assist to turnover ratio. His ratio was 3.2-1 in Valley games this season.
Conference Honors The Salukis did well on the Valley's postseason honor roll. Rolan Roberts was First Team All-Conference, Newcomer of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Kent Williams was runner-up for Player of the Year, First Team All-Conference and First Team All-Academic. Jermaine Dearman was Honorable Mention All-Conference, and Darren Brooks was named captain of the All-Bench squad.
National Rankings The Salukis received eight votes in this week's AP Poll one vote in the Coaches Poll. The only time in school history that SIU has been ranked was during a three-week span in late Nov./early Dec. in 1976. SIU rose as high as #18.
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 (9.2 ppg) and fourth-leading scorer overall. He is also fourth on the team in rebounds (4.3 rpg) and third in steals (39). Hairston has started every game and is fifth in scoring (7.7 ppg) and third in rebounding (4.5 rpg). He is also third in assists (68) and first on the team in steals (43).
Defense Much Improved Southern Illinois' defense has improved dramatically over last year. 00-01 01-02 FG% 45.4 40.2 3FG% 38.9 35.1 Points 72.0 67.3 Reb. Margin +2.0 +3.9 Blocks 2.3 5.0 Opponents are shooting 40.2 percent against SIU this season. The last Saluki team to hold opponents at or below 40 percent on the season was the 1967-68 club. SIU has held 17 of its 30 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 30 games, he has 79 blocks and needs 11 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.
Comeback Kids In both games versus league-leading Creighton, the Salukis had to mount a huge second-half rally to win. They overcame a 16-point deficit at Creighton and a 13-point deficit at home.
Undefeated at Home The Salukis posted a 13-0 record at home this season, marking the first unbeaten season at home since the 1992-93 team finished 12-0. It tied the school record for best home record, set by the 1965-66 team (13-0). Other unbeaten home seasons include 1974-75 (12-0), 1966-67 (12-0) and 1960-61 (9-0).
Road Warriors The Salukis posted a 9-5 record in road games this season. Only six other Division I schools currently have more than nine road victories this season (Butler, Central Connecticut State, Gonzaga, Hampton, Kent State and Western Kentucky).
Front Court Tandem The inside tandem of Rolan Roberts (6-6, 250, Sr.) and Jermaine Dearman (6-8, 220, Jr.) was statistically the best front in the MVC this year. They combined to average 25.9 ppg, 15.0 rpg and 3.2 bpg.
Dawg Bites Thanks in large part to Roberts, the Salukis broke the single-season team record for blocks. The team currently has 150 blocked shots...SIU became the first Valley team to win at Creighton since the Salukis won there on Feb. 19, 2000...Twice this season, the Salukis have had six players score in double figures (vs. Indiana State and Evansville)...SIU outpaced its home attendance average by nearly 2,000 over last year (6,423 to 4,483)...The Salukis are 1-3 under head coach Bruce Weber in the MVC Tournament, advancing past the first round in 2000 with a win over Evansville.
Shooting For Most Wins Only two other teams in school history have finished with 24 or more wins. The Salukis' need three victories in postseason to set the school mark for most wins. Most Wins at SIU 1989-90 26-8 1966-67 24-2 2001-02 24-6
Playing a Role Every player on the 15-man roster has a well-defined role to play this season. The Salukis have used only one starting lineup throughout the season, and virtually the same playing rotation in every game. Last year, Coach Weber experimented with five different variations on the starting lineup.
Evansville Performance The Salukis' most dominating performance of the season came on Jan. 30 vs. Evansville. SIU recorded season highs in points (101), 3-pointers (12), points in a half (56), margin of victory (39), blocked shots (9) and assists (25). 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.
Mid-Major Top 25 Thirty Division I coaches vote in College Insider's mid-major poll. # Team (Poll as of Feb. 24) 1. Gonzaga (26-3) 2. Western Kentucky (25-3) 3. Kent State (22-5) 4. Butler (25-4) 5. Utah State (21-4) 6. Pepperdine (20-7) 7. Creighton (19-7) 8. Southern Illinois (23-6) 9. Valparaiso (22-7) 10. Hampton (22-5) 11. Bowling Green (21-6) 12. Pennsylvania (21-6) 13. UC-Irvine (20-8) 14. Tennessee Tech (22-5) 15. Ball State (18-9) 16. C. Conn. State (24-4) 17. E. Tennessee St. (18-9) 18. UNC-Wilmington (19-9) 19. Texas-Pan Am (20-9) 20. New Mexico St. (19-10) 21. Manhattan (20-7) 22. Marist (19-8) 23. Montana State (18-8) 24. Rider (17-10) 25. Georgia State (18-9)
Spreading the Wealth Five different players have led the Salukis in scoring in a game this season, Kent Williams, Rolan Roberts, Jermaine Dearman, Darren Brooks and Marcus Belcher.
Deadly From Three During a five-game stretch in late Jan.-early Feb., the Salukis made nearly half of their 3-point attempts (45-of-91, .495) . Leading the way were Marcus Belcher (14-of-22, .636), and bench players Darren Brooks (17-of-30, .567) and Brad Korn (11-of-23, .478).
Recruiting Southern Illinois signed three players during the November signing period: forward Blake Schoen and guards Ryan Walker and Bryan Turner. Schoen (6-5, 200) averaged 23.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists during his junior season at Benton Central High School in Oxford, Ind., and was one of 180 high school players selected to participate in the Nike All-American Camp last summer. Walker (6-3, 190) averaged 17.0 ppg at Galesburg High School in Galesburg, Ill. and compares favorably to current Saluki Kent Williams, according to SIU head coach Bruce Weber. Walker's father played basketball at Wake Forest. Turner (6-1, 180) averaged 5.0 apg last year in his freshman season at Mineral Area Junior College (Mo.) to lead the conference. He also averaged 9.0 ppg and led his team to a 19-13 record. Turner was the all-time leading scorer at Beaumont High School (Mo.). Southern Illinois has one remaining scholarship to offer and will attempt to use it on a frontcourt player in the spring, according to Weber.
