Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball Hosts Wichita State Wednesday Night
02/04/2002 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2002
Southern Illinois (19-4, 9-2) will play Wichita State (12-10, 6-5) Wednesday night at SIU Arena. The Shockers beat SIU earlier this season in Wichita.
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20-Win Plateau A win over Wichita State Wednesday night would make this Saluki team the fastest to reach the 20-win plateau in school history. Nineteen other SIU squads have won 20 games since the men's basketball program began in 1913, but the earliest it was ever done was on Feb. 15, during the 1989-90 season. That team finished 26-8.
The Series vs. Wichita St. Southern Illinois has won 11 of the last 12 at home against Wichita State. The last home loss to the Shockers was on Feb. 23, 1998. Overall, SIU holds a 33-30 advantage in the series. Weber is 6-1 against the Shockers, with his only loss coming earlier this year.
Heating Up From Three In the last five games, the Salukis have made 45-of-91 (.495) 3-point attempts. Leading the way have been Darren Brooks (17-of-30, .567), Marcus Belcher (14-of-22, .636) and Brad Korn (11-of-23, .478).
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.
Williams 15th 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 15th in career scoring at SIU with 1,346 points.
Best Start in MVC Play At 9-2, the Salukis are off to their best start ever in the MVC since joining the conference in 1975. The best record SIU has posted in Valley play has been 14-4, in the 1991-92 and the 1993-94 seasons.
Dawg Bites Kent Williams has a 4:1 assist to turnover ratio in MVC games this season...SIU became the first Valley team to win at Creighton since the Salukis won there on Feb. 19, 2000... Brad Korn had a career-high 15 points against the Bluejays...The Salukis' RPI jumped seven spots to 65 after beating CU.
