Men's Basketball plays at Tennessee State on Tuesday night

Nov. 17, 2014

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University men's basketball team will play at Tennessee State at 7 p.m. at the Gentry Center in Nashville, Tenn. on Tuesday.

The Salukis (0-1) will be without the services of junior center Ibby Djimde, who will miss 4-6 weeks with a knee injury. The injury will not require surgery.

The Tigers (1-0) beat NAIA Reinhardt in their season opener. They finished 5-25 last season, and new head coach Dana Ford replaced virtually the entire roster with 12 new players.

Southern Illinois at Tennessee State
Date	Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014
Time	7 p.m. CT
Location	Nashville, Tenn. Gentry Center (10,500)
Game Notes	Southern Illinois
Radio	Saluki Sports Network
TV	None
Live Video	OVC Digital Network
Live Audio	Stretch Internet
Live Stats	Live Stats
Social Media	@SIU_Basketball

Salukis look to snap non-conference road streak
The Salukis have lost their last seven non-conference road games. They were 0-5 in non-conference road games last season. The last time they won a non-conference road game was on Dec. 15, 2012 -- a 72-70 victory at Green Bay.

Series versus Tennessee State
The Salukis lead the all-time series between the schools, 12-7, however they have met only twice in the last 48 years, with SIU winning home games in 1989 and 2004.
Nov. 30, 1989 SIU 99, TSU 65
Nov. 23, 2004 SIU 83, TSU 60
In the meeting in 2004, Jamaal Tatum made five 3-pointers and scored 17 points to lead the Salukis.

Hinson 6-4 versus the OVC
Barry Hinson holds a 6-4 record all-time against current members of the Ohio Valley Conference. He's 2-0 vs. Belmont, 1-2 vs. SEMO, 2-0 vs. SIUE, 1-0 vs. Tennessee Tech, 0-1 vs. Austin Peay and 0-1 vs. Murray State.

Youngest Team in the MVC
With six freshmen on the roster, Southern Illinois has the youngest team in the Missouri Valley Conference this season. Below is the average "experience level" of the 10 MVC teams, calculated by adding the classes together and dividing by the number of players on the roster.
Avg Team
2.00 Southern Illinois
2.13 Wichita State
2.29 Loyola
2.31 Drake
2.33 Indiana State
2.39 Missouri State
2.62 Evansville
2.69 Northern Iowa
2.71 Bradley
2.71 Illinois State

Three-straight road games
The Salukis begin the season with three-straight road games for the first time since Jack Hartman's team in 1963 started the season with four-straight road games (at Indiana, at Oklahoma State, at Toledo and at Ohio). Hartman's squad lost all four games, but finished 16-10 and qualified for the small college NCAA Tournament. Including neutral site games, SIU actually plays five-straight away from home for the first time since the 1963 team started with seven-straight away from home.

Djimde sidelined 4-6 weeks
Head coach Barry Hinson said C Ibby Djimde (6-8, 255, Jr.) will miss 4-to-6 weeks with a knee injury. Djimde made his Saluki debut at Saint Louis on Saturday and scored five points in 21 minutes off the bench.

Four starters, sixth man return
It may seem contradictory to call SIU a young team when four starters, plus the team's sixth man from last season return. However, none of Southern's 13 scholarship players are seniors. The Salukis returned 1,699 career points and 109 starts from last year's team.

Anthony Beane headlines returnees
G Anthony Beane (6-2, 190, Jr.) was a Second-Team All-MVC pick last season and a three-time MVC Player of the Week (Feb. 3, 10, 24) during the month of February. In the last 12 games of the season, he averaged 21.4 points, while shooting .520 from the field, .413 from 3-point and .831 from the FT line. For the season, he ranked 8th in scoring in the MVC (14.7 ppg) and 7th in 3-point shooting (.394). Beane scored 20+ points 11 times, including eight of the last 12 games.