With a little more than a month to go before conference tournaments, it’s clear who has the best college basketball team in the state.
But after No. 8 Illinois, how do the other 11 NCAA Division I programs rank?
If the defending Big Ten champion and last year’s NCAA runner-up is solid at the top, Southern Illinois clearly is above the rest.
In a less-than-great season for the state’s 12 Division I schools, the Illini and the Salukis look like the only candidates for NCAA at-large bids if they fail to earn their respective conferences’ automatic slots. Loyola, Bradley and Northern Illinois could surprise in conference tournaments.
The Salukis’ 33-game home winning streak is matched only by Illinois. They are a rugged, blue-collar bunch that wins with defense.
The four-time defending Missouri Valley Conference champions (16-5, 9-2) moved into a tie for the league lead with a 65-52 victory Saturday at Illinois State.
“Their defense is so good, you have to make some jump shots,” Illinois State coach Porter Moser said. “[They are] the best defensive team in the country. They are going to lock you up.”
The Salukis start no seniors. Against ISU, they were led by 6-foot-7-inch sophomore forward Randal Falker of St. Louis, who had 18 points and 15 rebounds. Southern Illinois limited the Redbirds to 37 percent shooting.
“Everybody played hard on defense,” junior guard Tony Young said. “That’s what we do. [But] we started to come together on the offensive end.”
The Salukis believe they are hitting their stride.
“You always want to peak at the end of the season,” junior guard Jamaal Tatum said. “We’re starting to play a lot better on both ends of the court.”
Young, a junior on Schaumburg’s 2001 Class AA state champion, was the MVC Sixth Man of the Year last season. The tough 6-foot guard is one of the reasons the Salukis have won a league-record 42 straight conference home games. He came to Carbondale to play defense.
“Everybody wants to score growing up,” said Young, averaging 12 points per game in his first year as a starter. “But I really haven’t thought about scoring points.
“I learned at Schaumburg from coach Bob Williams that if you score 20 points, you score 20 points, but you don’t go out to score 20 points a game. My mentality is to go out, play hard and guard somebody.”
Young was recruited by former SIU coach Bruce Weber, who is now at Illinois. He was a medical redshirt in 2002-03, his first year at SIU, and sharpened his defense guarding standouts Stetson Hairston and two-time MVC Player of the Year Darren Brooks in practice.
Playing defense for a school that’s far from the limelight might be a tough sell. But Weber, his successor Matt Painter–now the coach at Purdue–and current SIU coach Chris Lowery recruited the right kinds of players and have made it pay off.
“It’s about winning,” said Lowery, a point guard for the Salukis in the ’90s. “Kids will do anything to win. We’ve recruited kids who we think can come in and play how we play but also want to win above individual stuff. Going to the NCAA tournament is a pretty enticing deal.”
The Missouri Valley ranks No. 5 in the conference Ratings Percentage Index. SIU, Northern Iowa, Wichita State and Creighton are ranked among the top 40 teams in the country in RPI.
“Our programs are willing to go on the road against other conferences, where those conferences aren’t willing to come to our places and play,” Lowery said. “It’s exciting for me being a former player. I want this league to be as successful as possible.”
Lowery is in his second season as head coach. He was SIU’s third coach in as many years when he took over, following Weber and Painter.
The transition has been almost seamless.
“When I first came here, all those guys were my coaches,” Young said. “When coach Weber left, coach Painter stayed and we knew him. When coach Lowery came in, we knew him. It’s not like someone outside the family. It’s all within the family. Things didn’t change.”
Lowery has continued to win with his own recruits. One of them is starting point guard Bryan Mullins, a freshman from Downers Grove South.
The older Salukis, like Young and Tatum, follow their former coaches’ teams.
“I’d love to play them,” Young said of the Illini. “I’d love to play any big team to prove what we can do, show what we have. I think I’m going to call coach Weber and see if we can work something out for next year, maybe at the United Center.”
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rhanley@tribune.com
