Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Letters To The Editor
03/07/2005 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2005
Here is a sampling of letters to the editor regarding Sunday's column by Tom Weber. Tom's comments are in italics.
Jean Provart (DuQuoin, IL) writes...
Just wanted to say thanks for the positive article on the Saluki loss. It was a breath of fresh air among all of the negative press, and it showed what this team really is about.
Bob W. (Rockford, IL) had several questions...
I have noticed a trend in the second half of games this year against teams that have been exceptionally difficult for the team to either put away after a goodly lead or to defeat...Is it possible that they extend themselves too hard physically in the first half, could they be in better shape, are the coaches not adapting at half-time to different strategies posed by the opposition, are substitutions being done at the right time?
Tom: I think the coaches examine those issues after every game, win or lose. Basketball is a game where you are constantly re-evaluating your performance and strategy. A mark of a good coach is that they don't over-react to one loss, though. I think this coaching staff has been remarkably steady in that regard.
Lori Cohen writes...
You hopefully opened the eyes of some fair-weather fans. This team is too good to let one defeat set them back, or derail them from winning games in the NCAA tourney. Thank you for your take on the locker room atmosphere. We as fans have complete faith in our team.
Mike Bennett writes...
I agree that there's no reason to panic...The only real concern I have is that the players, and especially the coaches, learn from this game, because I think what cost us this game was the inability to shift tactics when our primary defensive and offensive strategies stopped working. The double on the high screen rarely worked in the second half, and the team was somehow stymied by an unremarkable zone defense -- it looked like we gave up looking for baseline cuts.
Tom: You sound like a coach, Mike. I think we were tentative on both ends of court in the second half against SMS. Momentum is a huge part of college basketball, and the Bears had us on our heels. Give them credit. Unlike Southern, they were playing for their NCAA Tourament lives (and still are tonight).
Mike Payne (DeSoto, IL) writes...
After following college basketball for many, many years, I've come up with a simple axiom that best describes the madness that we all love: The Four A's of College Basketball. Anybody can beat Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere. I've got a good feeling about this team, still. I believe that we will be wearing our home whites on March 17th or 18th and that we can still advance out of the first weekend. I see a 7 seed in the Austin Regional.
Tom: I completely agree, Mike. Outside of the top 10 teams, there's not much difference between the talent level of the next 25 or 30 schools. I see Southern seeded between 6 and 8, playing a team of comparable ability in the first round.
Dereth Maxey writes...
You are so right in defining the character of the SIU Salukis team this year. It is part of why I am a die-hard fan. The SIU team has shown time and time again their resilience to be a winner...A loss in the tournament hurts, but with the caliber of this team--the best is yet to come. Failure is not being knocked down, but getting back up to try again.
Tom: Dereth, this team will come back strong.
Larry Parrish (Ballwin, Mo.) writes...
I've seen a lot of MVC games this year and one trend that is not good is the way the officials call fouls on SIU. Clearly, SMS got the call breaks yesterday, and Chris should have taken a technical on the second or third call of the second half to put the officials on notice and to spark the fans and team. Compare the Shocker game Saturday night to the SMS or Indiana State game and you would see clearly that some different standard was at work. A 27-8 spread at the foul line in favor of SMS won the game folks. There were 25 fouls called on SIU and 14 on SMS. How can a team get or keep in the flow of a game with the stripes blowing their whistles at SMS's end of the floor constantly and media time outs stopping the flow? The next game won't have Valley officials calling the shots.
Tom: Tell us what you really think, Larry! I happen to believe the Valley has a solid group of officials. Certainly better than some of the dreadful officiating I've seen in other mid-major conferences this year. But they are only human. Southern's aggressive style of play naturally leads to more fouls being called. However, I think fouls are easier to call when you're looking for them. I'll give you an example. Tom Davis is a brilliant, veteran coach. He worked the officiating crew in our game at Des Moines like a maestro. That's part of basketball, though.
Micia Beard writes...
I have to admit when the buzzer sounded on Sunday, I was disappointed just like everyone else. However, there is nothing that would make me lose pride in the boys who have given us so much over the years! Our DAWGS will always be #1 no matter what that scoreboard says at the end of a game!! We love you!!!
William Hankinson writes...
Coach has some serious coaching adaptions he better make immediately before the dance. You say not to worry, this game just cost us a 5 or 6 seed, a top 25 spot and a lot of respect. The players did a horrible job in every position. I could not believe my eyes. You say every team has had a bad second half. That was not bad, it was horrible or worse.
Tom: Do you remember the MVC Tournament game in 2003 when Creighton drilled the Salukis? I bet some people had the same sentiments after that game. But as we all know, that team represented itself well in the NCAA Tournament, and Bruce Weber can coach a little bit. Hang in there, Bill.
D. Pettit writes...
I am VERY happy to have coach Lowery as our coach and I am very proud of the Salukis, no matter the result of our first round game (if we have one), but please tell Chris to throw away the playbook that contains that dreadfull slow motion offense. If we hadn't tried to eat the clock yesterday (and many games prior), we may have won by 50.
Andy Scanlon (Dallas, Texas) writes...
Living in Dallas, I'm now in the world of Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies, Oklahoma Sooners etc. I do remind everyone that the Missouri Valley Conference is the oldest west of the Mississippi. Also, that the Salukis did beat Texas Tech and Georgia a couple of years ago and wound up in the Sweet Sixteen. Also, even though the football team is I-AA, they did finish #1 during the regular season and that I-AA teams have a playoff (what a novel concept). I am proud of SIU even though I am not an alumnus. I will preach the Salukis gospel until the day I die. And yes, this team will be just fine.
R Baxter writes...
Thanks for keeping the faith in an otherwise overly critical media sports world.
Tom: My pleasure.
