Great crowd today, had a blast at the arena, hopefully this is the start to something, if we beat drake, lookout dawgs might be there at the end. Been waiting a long time to have some fun, let's go already!, go dawgs
I thought Mullins did a great job of coaching tonight, even though we were down at half, I could see his strategy was to attack and try to score in the paint, make Belmont play defense, not just bomb 3's. 2nd half siu really pressured the ball like the old floorburn u days, been a long time since I've seen defense like that. The rotations were solid and consistent, I like the jd and Rupert rotation, seemed like we wore them down, siu had fresher legs at the end
2nd half! 1st half didn't attack the rim, shot too many threes, no intensity, poor rebounding...
2nd half our depth and intensity wore them down and we tried to get to the rim more.
Need to do that from the tipoff! Get the ball inside to Rupert or Hornecker...
Both Drake and Belmont's Twitter accounts are hiding tweets they don't like under their posts. If SIU's Twitter ever does that I won't be happy. Just screams sore loser.
We only shot 10 threes in the first half, that is way down for us. We did attack the rim a lot. Scored all of our points int he paint except for the 3 free throws.I thought Mullins did a great job of coaching tonight, even though we were down at half, I could see his strategy was to attack and try to score in the paint, make Belmont play defense, not just bomb 3's. 2nd half siu really pressured the ball like the old floorburn u days, been a long time since I've seen defense like that. The rotations were solid and consistent, I like the jd and Rupert rotation, seemed like we wore them down, siu had fresher legs at the end
2nd half! 1st half didn't attack the rim, shot too many threes, no intensity, poor rebounding...
2nd half our depth and intensity wore them down and we tried to get to the rim more.
Need to do that from the tipoff! Get the ball inside to Rupert or Hornecker...
I couldn't sleep tonight so I watched a replay from this afternoon on demand on ESPN+. Felt like a game in the Arena from 2002-07. The second half was as close to Floorburn U as we've seen in quite a while. Now, it didn't have the physicality (nor was there anyone on the floor like Bryan or Tony Young or Matt Shaw or Randal Falker) as it did back in the day but it was really fun to see the Salukis guard on the perimeter like they did today.
Great job by the SIU admin in promoting this game, too. Its gotten quite a bit of pub on Twitter, and several players have acknowledged it.
https://twitter.com/xav1erj0/status/1609770714479067138?s=20&t=5nR1oNz_mjzCYZoYVP3zOA
Both Drake and Belmont's Twitter accounts are hiding tweets they don't like under their posts. If SIU's Twitter ever does that I won't be happy. Just screams sore loser.
I would report them to Elon except I got booted from Twitter a long time ago!
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison
Back from the "Dale and agree with above posts. My quick takes:
Great crowd and atmosphere. In addition to aforementioned Floor Burn U type game, loved the balloon drop and not just because it was NYD, I recall balloon drops at many games back in the '70's. So very happy to see that tradition return.
Dawgs did wear them down, no question. I now believe BM is making the correct decisions on rotations. He is going with the players he believes will win. Yes, I would like to see more CH, FW, etc. but the goal is to beat the other team.
If this team ever plays a "complete" game and gets more consistent at 3"s, look out Valley. Rebounding and turnovers are improving. Hopefully as BM says, they are playing their best basketball in March.
Great day, solid win and congratulations Salukis. Just keep it up.
March on triumphantly!
As nice as this win was, Mullins will need to re-focus the team right away, because a big one looms on Wednesday. Drake will come to town wanting to avenge the MSU loss and SIU may be a bit lackadaisical after two pretty big wins.
Hopefully we get a good crowd for this one as well, because we might need it.
@number-1-fan AJ has been ill. Hasn't practiced since the Murray game. I should've mentioned it on the broadcast.
@number-1-fan AJ has been ill. Hasn't practiced since the Murray game. I should've mentioned it on the broadcast.
There is absolutely no doubt the fans, including me, were booing the refs. The tall, short haired ref blew the call when the Belmont player obviously kicked the ball out of bounds. He was bad all game. The female ref actually did a pretty decent job. Saluki fans rarely boo the team and weren't booing the team in this case. We have some of the best and most knowledgeable fans around!Thought the booing was lame even if it was at the refs. Think it was some of both. Only time I’d consider booing the team was the end of Lowery
IMHO, the team that poses the biggest threat to the Dawgs winning the MVC title is not Indiana State or Drake, but Bradley. Fortunately for us, we don't play the Braves until February, which means we should have a healthy Eubube with some game experience under his belt. With the emergence of Rupert and J.D. Muila's improved play, the 5 spot looks very secure. Wonder if Mullins will move Rupert to the 4 spot and let Scottie and J.D. carry the load at the 5.
Great win by the Dawgs. kudos to the SIU athletic department on the New Year’s Day celebration. It was great to see a large crowd at the Arena it looked awesome on TV. I watched the replay after I got home. Hoping the Drake game gets good crowd and the Dawgs continues the streak. Go Dawgs
IMHO, the team that poses the biggest threat to the Dawgs winning the MVC title is not Indiana State or Drake, but Bradley. Fortunately for us, we don't play the Braves until February, which means we should have a healthy Eubube with some game experience under his belt. With the emergence of Rupert and J.D. Muila's improved play, the 5 spot looks very secure. Wonder if Mullins will move Rupert to the 4 spot and let Scottie and J.D. carry the load at the 5.
I’ve had that thought lately as well with the Rupert/Muila combo playing well that now with Ebube cleared, minutes are going to get really tight for the posts unless Mullins is willing to try Rupert at the 4, at least for parts of games. I know Rupert isn’t much of a shooter at this point but that would be a way to get SIU’s most impactful five guys on the floor more often with some of the guards and wings not producing a whole lot.
Bradley comes to mind as a Valley team that has seen some success with bigger guys like Childs and Leons playing the 4 in recent years, and obviously that’s the norm at many power conference schools.
