Southern Illinoise University Athletics
No pressure this season on youthful Saluki Basketball team
11/02/2014 | 12:00:00 | DawgTracker
By Tom Weber
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Basketball season is underway and the Salukis are picked seventh in the preseason poll, after finishing tied for fourth in the standings last year.
1. Privately, the coaching staff is fine with the seventh-place prediction. Being picked low takes some of the pressure off the team and allows them to fly under the radar a bit. The coaches don't feel this team can contend with preseason favorites Wichita State or Northern Iowa, but they are confident about their chances of finishing better than seventh.
2. You've heard Coach Hinson say that the Salukis will be one of the youngest teams in the country this year. A little research shows that, in fact, SIU has the youngest roster in the MVC. Interestingly, though, they are only a tad younger than the No. 11-ranked team in the country, Wichita State. Here's the average ages of the teams, based upon class rank.
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
3. SIU has a young team, but a quick spot-check shows they are not the youngest. The Salukis' first opponent, Saint Louis (1.82), has nine freshmen on its roster. Missouri (2.00) recently sent out a press release touting its youth under first-year head coach Kim Anderson.
4. Assuming no one transfers after the season, the Salukis will quickly become one of the most veteran teams in the league next year with an average experience of 2.84. The Salukis don't expect to contend for a conference title this year, but they fully expect to be in the thick of the race in 2016 when Anthony Beane is a senior and SIU returns essentially its entire team.
5. There's an interesting website I recently discovered called valueaddbasketball.com. It uses a complicated formula to determine a player's value to his team, and there are rankings for all Division I teams and players. Be sure to read the detailed explanation of the offensive and defensive components of the rating system.
6. According to ValueAdd, here are the top15 returning players in the MVC. Wichita State has three of the top five highest-rated players.
1. Fred Van Vleet, Wichita State (+8.09)
2. Ron Baker, Wichita State (+6.28)
3. Egidijus Mockevicius, Evansville (+6.19)
4. Seth Tuttle, Northern Iowa (+6.13)
5. Tekele Cotton, Wichita State (+3.60)
6. Bobby Hunter, Illinios State (+2.90)
7. Nate Buss, Northern Iowa (+2.88)
8. Darius Carter, Wichita State (+2.66)
9. D.J. Balentine, Evansville (+2.26)
10. Reggie Lynch, Illinois State (+2.26)
11. Jacob Enevold, Drake (+2.06)
12. Matt Bohannon, Northern Iowa (+1.64)
13. Christian Thomas, Loyola (+1.57)
14. Anthony Beane, Southern Illinois (+1.54)
15. Austin Ruder, Missouri State (+1.21)
7. Beane is SIU's highest returning player at +1.54. Desmar Jackson was +4.13 last year. Here are the rest of SIU's returning players, based on last year's stats.
Tyler Smithpeters (+0.57)
Sean O'Brien (+0.21)
Bola Olaniyan (+0.19)
Dawson Verhines (+0.07)
Jalen Pendleton (+0.01)
8. The coaching staff recognizes how hard it will be to replace Jackson's production, especially on defense, where he was among the nation's leaders in steals. The ValueAdd numbers back up that contention.
9. The ValueAdd site goes back 15 years, and here's a list of some of the top single-season performances by a Saluki player. As you can see, Darren Brooks had three of the top six, including an amazing +8.11 in 2005. Generally, anything above 4.00 is considered outstanding.
1. Darren Brooks, 2005 (+8.11)
2. Darren Brooks, 2003 (+6.07)
3. Randal Falker, 2007 (+5.64)
4. Bryan Mullins, 2008 (+5.40)
5. Jamaal Tatum, 2007 (+5.11)
6. Darren Brooks, 2004 (+5.05)
7. Kent Williams, 2003 (+4.87)
8. Jeff Early, 2013 (+4.87)
9. Randal Falker, 2008 (+4.75)
10. Matt Shaw, 2007 (+4.65)
11. Bryan Mullins, 2009 (+4.33)
12. Desmar Jackson, 2014 (+4.13)
13. Lamar Owen, 2004 (+4.09)
10. You must be careful not to read too much into an exhibition game, but the way SIU rolled up 102 points on the University of Saint Mary last night was impressive. The guard combo of Anthony Beane and Jalen Pendleton looked formidable, and there is more size and athleticism on this team than in Hinson's first two seasons.
