Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball tunes up for Valley Tournament
03/01/2006 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2006
By Brian Feldt
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Salukis took the court for practice Tuesday afternoon at the SIU Arena wearing brand-new black shoes, different from the traditional white and maroon shoes they usually wear.
"I don't know who picked them," said guard Jamaal Tatum. "We always get new ones before the tournament, and we will see if we can get a little change out of them for this tournament."
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The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, known as Arch Madness, begins Thursday afternoon and will continue through the weekend in one of the most intriguing conference tournaments in the nation.
"Every team might not be making the NCAA Tournament, so they will be playing harder, thinking that they need to win the tournament to get in," said Tatum.
Of the 10 competing teams, the top six are separated by only two games in the standings. Those six squads will all argue that they deserve an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if they are unable to capture the title in St. Louis.
Much speculation has centered on how many MVC teams are deserving.
"If you go by the stats, then six teams should get in," said SIU head coach, Chris Lowery. "But more realistically, probably four or five."
Southern Illinois, seeded number two after a key win over Northern Iowa, will play the winner of Evansville-Illinois State game.
Wichita State birthed the number one seed by winning the regular season conference title, which makes this year the first time in four years that SIU will not have the number one seed going into the Valley Tournament.
"I still think the target is on our back," said Tatum. "I still think we are the team to beat. We might not have won the conference, but I still think we are a team that people are worried about."
The Salukis have not won the Valley Tournament in 11 years, since beating Tulsa to claim the crown in 1995.
"The last few years, we knew we were going to the NCAA tournament, so our kids just relaxed," said Lowery. "We still feel we have some work to do to get in, so we have to go into the tournament with a different mindset than we have in the past."
Some bracket experts say the Salukis need to win at least one game, if not two.
"I'm not going to put a number on it," said Lowery. "If you put a number on it, then it gives the committee members a number to judge you on."
