SIU close with Xavier last night....

[molly jabali]

.....change anybody's mind about them? I think Xavier had all their players.

[wu_shizzle]

Didn't watch the game, but let me take a crack at this.

I'm going to guess that Xavier didn't shoot well and possibly got into foul trouble, Southern Illinois was able to control the tempo and got hyped up for their biggest game of the year.

Am I close?

[another shocker]

'Better not take any team in the Valley lightly.. same as always.

[MadDog]

I saw SIU twice in that Hawaiian tournament. They certainly dont look like a 300+ rpi team to me. They will win some conference games. Its too bad it took them so long to figure it out. Now all they will do is hurt our multi bid chances

[shocker3]

I saw the Clemson game. SIU should have won that game. They looked a lot better to me than Chicago State.

In fact, they look like a team that is going to pick up a couple surprise wins.

[shox1989]

I have seen SIU play twice: against Clemson and against Xavier.

They looked much better than I expected. They are much more athletic than I expected. Seck is the real deal, but several other players look very good.

During their game against Xavier, Doug Gottlieb commented that SIU will surprise some teams and pull off some upsets. He also said that SIU was just now at full strength. He mentioned players who had been injured or couldn't play due to disciplinary reasons (things I didn't know).

It appears to me that SIU is starting to get their act together just in time for conference play. I posted during the game yesterday that I was worried they will knock off one of the top teams in the conference, I just hope it isn't us.

SIU is turning out to be the worst of all worlds. They play bad during the non-conference so they earn a horrible rpi and then get their act together for conference play, taking out teams that might otherwise qualify for the ncaa tournament. They could single handily cost the Valley one or two bids.

Hopefully the top teams won't take them lightly.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

shitty teams get up to play better teams...........news at 11

[molly jabali]

Actually, I kind of agree with that, Awesome...too bad they've ruined the first part of their season!

[BOBB]

Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and slow dancin'.

[RoyalShock]

SIU had been without Bocot and Brown-Surles. They are back now. I believe Xavier was still without one starter and key reserve.