At the start of the Missouri Valley Conference season, the schedule frowned on Southern Illinois and smiled on Indiana State.
Taking advantage of the situation, Indiana State opened a substantial lead in the championship race.
Now, the race is nearing the finish line, and the stretch-running Salukis (17-9, 11-4 in the MVC) can catch Indiana State (19-7, 12-3) by winning Wednesday night’s game in Carbondale.
SIU Arena has been a terrible place for the Sycamores to visit–they have lost 18 straight there.
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Another subplot is the 91-56 defeat the Salukis suffered Jan. 19 when they played at Indiana State. Since then, they’ve won 8 of 9 and outscored opponents by more than 11 points a game.
Coach Bruce Weber relies on an eight-man rotation and two of the subs, junior swingmen Joshua Cross and Abel Schrader, have been in the forefront in those nine games. The 6-foot-4-inch Cross threw his 220 pounds around in the 65-54 victory over Illinois State on Feb. 12, scoring 14 points and grabbing a MVC-high 17 rebounds.
Guard Kent Williams, a starter as a freshman, is leading the Salukis’ balanced scoring attack with a 13.1 average.
After the Indiana State game, Southern Illinois has two more tough tests–Saturday at Bradley (12-14, 8-7) and Monday at home against Southwest Missouri State (17-9, 10-5). The Sycamores’ remaining games are Saturday at Evansville (16-9, 7-7) and Monday at home against Bradley.
So, what’s new? Valparaiso has overcome a wretched start to win its last nine games and tie Southern Utah for first place in the Mid-Continent race. Flaunting five consecutive conference regular-season and tournament titles in addition to their winning streak, the Crusaders (16-11, 9-5) will travel to Chicago State (9-16, 6-8) on Thursday and end the regular season at home Saturday against Indiana-Purdue (5-19, 3-10).
Chicago State, which has lost six straight, will go from the Crusaders’ adversary Thursday to their ally Saturday in another home-court game against Southern Utah (13-11, 9-5).
Western Illinois (7-21, 2-13) also is a position to do Valpo a big favor by knocking off Southern Utah on Thursday night in Macomb.
It’s a interesting situation because last week in Macomb coach Jim Kerwin of the Leathernecks and Valparaiso coach Homer Drew got in one another’s faces and had a hostile exchange following the Crusaders’ 80-67 victory.