Thursday, February 19, 2009

SIU Basketball. Continuing to break hearts

Well, it almost happened again. The Saluki's mens basketball team was down by 20 points in the second half. Only this time, the opponent wasn't one of the elite Missouri Valley Conference teams-it was Indiana State. The same Indiana State below .500 and known as one of the bottom-feeders of the conference. A late rally helped salvage a little respect, but the truth has come out-the Salukis have hit rock bottom.

Everybody knew that it was going to be tough when Mullins went out with a stress fracture in his foot. It was made even tougher since only 8 players would be dressing for every game. To make matters even better, six of the eight players were Sophomores and younger. Sure, there is a lot of potential with the youngsters, but inexperience breeds inconsistency.

Take the Creighton game, the young Salukis shot an embarrassing 25.1% from the field in the first half. Surprisingly, they were down by 26 at half-time.

To recap, a home game against your hated rivals, and you get absolutely blown out. This coming after you were blown out by the best team in the conference.

What is saddest-there is no one to blame for it. The players are young, Lowery has recruited talented people and injuries are just a way of life in sports.

So where do we go from here? We count down the end of the season, see them probably lose in the play-in game of the MVC tournament and hope that next year goes better.

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