Preview | Salukis Begin Four-Game Road Swing at No. 21 Florida Friday Night

CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois basketball begins a four-game swing in the Sunshine State on Friday when the Salukis take on the No. 21-ranked Florida Gators at 6 p.m. CT in Gainesville. SIU will then head to Estero, Florida for three games at the Gulf Coast Showcase starting Monday.

SEC Network Broadcast | Radio Broadcast | Live Stats | SIU Game Notes | Live Updates on X

HOW TO FOLLOW

Mike Morgan and Mark Wise will have the television call on the SEC Network.
The radio broadcast can be heard locally on 101.5 CIL-FM, on the Saluki Radio Network, SIUSalukis.com/Listen, the Saluki Mobile App, and the Varsity Network App with Luke Martin and Rodney Watson calling the action.
Fans can follow Live Stats at SIUSalukis.com.

QUICK HITS

First-year head coach Scott Nagy leads the Salukis. Nagy brings 30 years of head coaching experience to Carbondale and has recorded 14 straight winning seasons while at the helm of both South Dakota State and Wright State. Nagy ranks No. 17 in wins (579) among active Division I head coaches.
Kennard Davis Jr. and Ali Dibba picked up Third Team Preseason All-MVC honors.
Kennard Davis Jr. tied for fifth in program history with seven steals against Missouri S&T. The sophomore ranks eighth in the nation in steals with three per game. He had 22 total steals during his freshman season.
SIU ranks 44th nationally and second in the MVC with 18.3 assists per game. Davis leads the team with four dimes per game. Dibba is averaging 2.5 assists in three games. Eight Salukis have five or more assists.
Freshman Rolyns Aligbe has improved each outing, pulling down a career-high seven rebounds while scoring five points in 16 minutes against NDSU. He also recorded a team-best three steals against the Bison.
Transfer forward Davion Sykes has put up at least six points in each of his first four games with SIU while tying for second on the team with 4.8 rebounds per game. He's done so averaging 18.6 minutes per game.

LAST TIME OUT
Southern Illinois basketball ran past North Dakota State, 69-44, on Monday night at Banterra Center to improve to 2-2 on the season. The Salukis held the Bison to 26.5 percent from the field in the game and just 5-for-27 from behind the arc. The game ranked as the 10th-best defensive performance in program history in opponent field goal percentage and the fewest points that NDSU has scored in a game since 2024. For the Salukis, it was a complete game on the defensive side of the ball. SIU held the Bison to just 23 first-half points on 10-for-27 shooting before improving on that in the second half with just 21 NDSU points on 8-for-31 shooting. Ali Dibba paced the Salukis offensively with a game-high 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting. Kennard Davis Jr. and Jarrett Hensley added nine points for the Dawgs while Elijah Elliott scored eight points to go with four rebounds and two assists.

LOOKING AT FLORIDA
Florida comes into Friday at 5-0 on the season led by third-year head coach Todd Golden. The Gators are scoring 87.2 points per game while allowing just 67.8 points. UF has five players scoring in double-figures led by Walter Clayton Jr. who averages 18.4 points per game. Will Richard is averaging 15 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

THE SERIES WITH THE GATORS
The game on Friday will be the first meeting between the two programs. Florida head coach Todd Golden is 2-0 against Southern Illinois from his time coaching at San Francisco.

ELLIOTT LIGHTING IT UP
Scorers score and that is exactly what Elijah Elliott has done for the Salukis in four games. The transfer guard can score in bunches and from all areas of the floor. He leads the team at 16.5 points per game as well as knocking down nine 3-pointers, including a career-high five triples at Oklahoma State. He has scored 20 or more in three games this season.

DAVIS OFF TO A HOT START
Sophomore Kennard Davis Jr. has made an impact on both ends of the court. He is averaging 14.8 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 steals, and 3.0 rebounds per game. After scoring 12 in the season-opener, Davis came out to lead SIU with 22 points in a win over Missouri S&T, nearly recording a triple-double with eight assists and seven steals. He scored 16 points on the road at Oklahoma State with 13 coming in the second half.

DIBBA SHOWING CONSISTENCY
Guard Ali Dibba has lived up to the hype through four games for SIU. After leading Abilene Christian a year ago in scoring, the senior transfer has put up double-digit scoring efforts in each of his first four games, averaging 13.8 points for the Salukis. He is also tied for second in rebounding with 4.8 per game.

EXPERIENCE ON THE BENCH FOR THE SALUKIS
One thing that Southern Illinois does not lack on the bench is experience within the coaching staff. SIU boasts over 100 years of total coaching experience between six coaches, as well as over 50 years of head coaching experience between Scott Nagy (30) and Steve Hawkins (28). Nagy (579) and Hawkins (453) have won a combined 1,032 games while at the help of their programs respectively.

NCAA NAGY, THE PLAYER
As a player at NCAA Division II Delta State, Scott Nagy was a part of two Regional Championships with the Statesmen in 1987 and 1988. A guard from 1985-1988, Nagy started 122 straight games and is Delta State's career assist leader (549) and the program leader for most assists in a season (234, 1986-87). The Gulf South Conference Freshman of the Year in 1985, he was the Gulf South's Athlete of the Year in 1988, and a three-time member of the Gulf South All-Academic Team (1986, 1987, 1988).

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
SIU head coach Scott Nagy has made five trips to the NCAA Tournament, a place his father was very familiar with. Dick Nagy spent 33 years in coaching, mostly as a top assistant. He worked for the legendary Lou Henson at Illinois for 17 years, helping the Illini reach the NCAA tourney 14 times and advance to the Final Four in 1989. He also was on the bench for Wright State's Horizon League foe UIC when it won the Midwestern Collegiate Conference in 1998.

RESPECT THE VALLEY

Notably, MVC teams are 12-4 in their first game in the NCAA Tournament dating back to 2012. The league has now combined for 20 wins in the NCAA Tournament in the past 11 NCAA championships and has earned multiple bids 16 times since 1994.
From 2012 to 2019, MVC teams won 10-straight, first-round games in the NCAA Tournament, tying a league record that was set from 1941-55.
MVC teams have 42 total wins in the NCAA Tournament since 1994 with 12 Sweet 16 trips and two Final Four appearances. Notably, 31 of 42 victories have been against Power conferences, and the league has a winning record in that span against Big 12 and SEC schools.
During the last decade, the MVC has ranked in the Top 10 nine times for all conferences in average home attendance.

FOLLOW THE SALUKIS
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Salukis by visiting SIUSalukis.com as well as following the team on X at @SIU_Basketball, Instagram at @SIU_Basketball, and Facebook at Facebook.com/SIUBasketball. Fans can also download the "Salukis" mobile app from the App Store or Google Play Store.

Calendar

Upcoming Events