Southern Illinoise University Athletics
It's not just about Randal Falker
11/07/2007 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 7, 2007
By Steve Silver
Special to CSTV.com
Maybe it's the free-flowing dreadlocks. Maybe it's the pencil-thin mustache. Or maybe it's because he prefers mountain bikes more than fancy cars.
But there is something not right about Randal Falker.
The Southern Illinois senior forward was recently named the Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Player of the Year, yet he shies away from talking about his accolades.
Ask him about a teammate and he'll answer in volumes. Ask him about his basketball future and he'll shift the subject to his excitement about earning a college degree.
"I don't know, I just see myself as a normal kid," Falker said during a phone interview. "All I care about is making sure the team wins every game."
Falker, though, is anything but normal.
After leading the Salukis in rebounds (7.7 per game) and blocks (2.1) last season, Falker has become the face of SIU basketball.
"Randal is a very outgoing, very free-spirited kid," Salukis coach Chris Lowery said. "If you pull up next to him at a stop light, he'll roll down the window and talk your ear off."
His personality, as much as his on-court accolades, has transformed Falker into the chief ambassador of a program on the verge of becoming a national contender.
Despite losing MVC All-Conference players Jamaal Tatum (15.2 ppg) and Tony Young (9.9 ppg) to graduation, the Salukis have finally garnered some national attention.
After six straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, SIU cracked the AP Preseason Top 25 for the first time in school history and will start at 24th in the poll this year.
They will also begin the 2007-08 campaign as the unanimous favorites to win the MVC crown -- the first time a team has garnered every first place vote by the coaches, media and sports information directors since 1992.
But Lowery sees the preseason hype as a bulls-eye, not an accomplishment worthy of celebration.
"I think most people in this country are in the mode of `Do it again,'" said Lowery, who has won two MVC Coach of the Year honors in just three seasons at SIU.
"I think Southern Illinois and the Missouri Valley Conference have to do it again and again and again until we finally get the respect where we are not being mentioned as, `Hey, maybe these guys figured out how to get by the RPI,' which is a totally absurd thing for people to say. Whether they choose to look at it or not, our success speaks for itself. We just have to continue to win games, because that is the only way you can win people over."
And it is just that "something to prove" attitude that makes the Salukis such a dangerous team.
Aside from Falker, Southern Illinois also returns two talented senior starters in guard Bryan Mullins and forward Matt Shaw.
Mullins, a three-year starter who led the team with 126 assists last season, will handle the quarterbacking duties of the offense.
"Bryan's experience at the point guard position is invaluable," Lowery said. "We expect a lot out of him because he was such a role player in the past, but now he really has to step up and be our lead guard."
Mullins will have no problem feeding his two favorite targets in the paint, Falker and Shaw, but the Salukis might have a new weapon from the perimeter in sophomore forward Christian Cornelius.
After spending a year in prep school, a year red-shirting and a year recovering from a torn ACL that he suffered prior to last season, Cornelius might finally step foot on a college basketball court.
"We are very hopeful that he can make an impact this year," Lowery said. "I think [his knee] is getting close. At this point we have been very slow with him...We are not going to try to rush him by speeding the process up and putting him on the court too soon."
Even with Cornelius healthy by the start of the season, the Salukis' greatest challenge is going to be finding consistent three-point shooters to replace Tatum and Young.
Tatum shot close to 41 percent from behind the arc, while Young hit 38 percent of his long-range shots. The duo accounted for more than half of SIU's three-pointers.
"The biggest thing is that we have to be inside-out," Lowery said. "That is why we were so successful last year. Guys got a lot of shots because of Randal's double team...We still have to establish that, but our guys are going to be a lot more open than Tatum and Young were for the simple fact that those guys were proven veterans and great players for us. So now guys that are unproven are going to have to make shots."
Although Lowery is the first person to admit that Tatum and Young are irreplaceable, the Salukis do not have many question marks left to fill.
With Falker anchoring the Salukis and a veteran support staff like Mullins and Shaw next to him, SIU is as much of a threat as they were the last six times it made the NCAA Tournament -- just ask Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson.
"Let me put it this way, I didn't schedule our game against them," Sampson said about the Hoosiers' Dec. 1 date with the Salukis in Carbondale. "They are tough, hard-nosed and well-coached. They are really good. I mean this is going to be a tough one."
