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https://siusalukis.com/news/2018/9/1/mens-basketball-salukis-add-6-8-forward-sekou-dembele.aspx

SIU may pick up late frontliner for 2018---6-8 230 pound Sekou Dembele of Birmingham, Alabama's Central Park Christian School is enrolled at SIU now--no official announcement yet--probably will take Jimmy Beane's 2018 scholie. Jimmy is enrolled on his own dime now and will get a 2019 scholie (Darius Beane, the SIU Assistant coaches' son is on the roster already--Jimmy is his cousin)

Article on Loyola's future. http://www.valleyhoopsinsider.com/whats-next-for-loyola/

Good article--but just one caveat for all teams--never really know how you will play till you see how new guys mix with vets and how other teams improved--just remember in 2016-17 the same Custer and Loyola team lost three games in a row to SIU--a lot of that had to do with Bol guarding the rim-- I can't wait to see Krutwig vs Bol

Salukis have just now released schedule: We play KENTUCKY on November 9 (Friday)--gulp! also play Buffalo twice and perhaps top ten Nevada--but some SIu fans will still b#tch, I'm afraid

It may have been the refs, but probably also could have partially been Kavion Pippen hitting 9 of 11 shots

College basketballs Top 144 is now up to #84--St. Mary's who was 30-6 and went to NIT

Just FYI: Belmont comes in at #89 on collegesportsmadness Top 144

Yeh, it's hard to believe for example that UNI has taken such a big fall. Hopefully 4 at least teams are well into the top 100--and 5-6 before the year is through

Well College sports madness has you guys at #112 in their "Top 144" countdown--I think that's really under rating you, For sure you'll finish in top 100 at least. UNI is below you at #129

www.siusalukis.com


Tommy Bell let go and Kill (former SIU, NIU and Minnesota Head football Coach) takes his place--

THANKS VALPO--yours truly the Saluki fans  

As a Saluki fan, I would certainly appreciate you guys beating the Deadbirds (aka ISU Redbirds) to help us out a bit. They beat us in overtime last night at Normal to tie us. Our depleted team roster---4 of our guys played over 40 minutes and one of our starters played 44 of the 45 minute contest. I'm afraid lack of numbers is going to do the Salukis in at St. Louis (3 games in three days)

dawg, it's also finding a point of emphasis for that ref to call the foul.  If a moving pick isn't being a called, a discussion with the ref about moving picks may lead to a call later.  It's, shall we say, getting that ref to be inclined to find the infraction.

Speaking of moving picks, that must be a point of emphasis this year--seems like they have called a bunch. Maybe because lots of teams are using that high screen offense all the time

It is a coaching art to "work the refs" for calls and longtime coaches like Ben Jacobson or Barry Hinson can get the benefit of the doubt and have some pull, particularly at home. There were a TON of "hometown" calls on Saturday. The refs tried to make a few makeup calls but the damage was done when they put our bigs in foul trouble in the 2nd half with ticky-tac BS foul calls. Jay and Smits couldn't be aggressive on the boards.

It's actually a technique---more so than just B8tching all the time, vet coaches like Hinson usually just explain their view on a call to a ref--calmly and with some logic> A lot of calls by refs are 50-50 ones which could be called either way, I suspect so if a ref feels that he has leaned too much from being fair he might subconsciously try to even things up by calling a 50-50 situation the opposite way next time--that's just my theory

Ugly game for both teams led to even game through 38 plus minutes--big difference besides FTs was your Bigs not being able to stop Pippen the whole game (9-11 from field)--just the opposite of what happened in your win at Valpo--you'll knock someone out in the tourney--hope it's not us

Obviously the 6-10 Pippen is not as good as the red shirted Bol (80 plus blocks last year) but he can do it. He averages about 2 a game--but his presence dissuades people from driving non-the-less

Expect 6000 plus at Saturday's game in C'dale--for the next 24 hrs they are offering 10 dollar tickets to the end zone Bleachers on line at their website

[in]

I thought it was a solid game by the officials and we had some ticky tack calls on us with one truly horrendous call on Bakari

I thought the refs were fairly inconsistent. Sometimes they called ticky tack fouls but other times they didn't and players on both teams got frustrated by their calls. When you notice the refs in a game that generally means they weren't great at the officiating. From an administrator on the IN State message board: My thing is I'm fine with however refs want to call it, but you damn well better call it consistently. When a hook is a hook on one end but not the other, that's a problem. I don't feel like Valley officials call it consistently the same on both ends. If they did, I'd have no issues.

You know us SIU fans were bemoaning the refs even though we won our game with Drake last night--I tend to think that like all humans, refs occasionally screw up, but on the whole I think is us fans seeing the calls through our partisan lenses that make it seem that they're total screw ups --they're trying to be fair most of the time

Congrats--state can be tough

Good luck against the Trees tonight--but I'm hoping you don't start shooting really well till after you leave Carbondale this coming Saturday night.

My suggestion is to double Koch every time he gets it on the blocks  we (SIU) did it and he turned it over a bunch (4 turnovers, eight points, 2-5 shooting)

Hitting a bunch of threes, again, is one way to beat UNI or anyone else in the league--but if you look at most of the results this year it is the defense of a team that will give them a win. Offense comes and goes but you can always play with intensity on the "D" side of the ball (you CAN do that but we have inexplicably forgotten to do that several times already ). UNI will pack it in on defense and dare you to hit the outside shot

Congrats--I'm sure you all will agree, this MVC season will be going down to the last few games--tight--I have no idea who will win it

The key for every MVC team: play defense like it's a championship game and you will win

Congrats for the win over my Salukis---we got back on the bus defensively after the first 12 minutes of play--and Bol and 6-7 Wiley were our best big defenders--but you got to go with what you got--I'm not feeling very well today--but congrats for a great win