The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

SIU races to 3-0 start

Defense, quickness lead Salukis to two road wins

Amanda Whitlock ~ Daily Egyptian SIU junior guard Darren Brooks drives past two Jacksonville State defenders in Wednesday night's 84-49 SIU win. The Salukis have started the season 3-0, the best ever start for a first-year head coach.

Entering this season, a major question for the SIU men's basketball team was whether it would be able to come up with clutch baskets.

The Salukis emphatically answered that question with a 3-0 start that included two road wins on courts historically difficult on which to win.

Most recently, SIU passed a test with an 81-77 win at Wisconsin-Milwaukee in which the Salukis were able to hold off numerous second-half charges by the host Panthers. The win snapped the Panthers' 17-game home winning streak.

Despite losing their top two scorers from last year's squad, the Salukis say that big-play ability was never in doubt.

"That's what everyone keeps talking about, Kent [Williams] and Jermaine [Dearman], about how we lost those guys, but there's 15 other guys that wear uniforms," fifth-year senior Brad Korn said. "One through eight can just come up and make a play, and I think we're all confident in each other. We're all one."

Those big plays were needed, as SIU's only blowout of the three games came in an 84-49 rout of Jacksonville State Wednesday night at the SIU Arena.

The first glimpse of the team's potential came in the season opener Nov. 21 at Wyoming. The Salukis, who trailed by as many as nine points in the second half, took the lead with 2:25 remaining on a short Josh Warren shot.

Freshman Jamaal Tatum then notched the first two points of his collegiate career with a driving layup with 55 seconds to play that gave SIU a three-point lead.

The Salukis held on for a 67-62 win in front of more than 9,000 fans at the Arena-Auditorium, one of the nation's toughest places for visiting teams to play.

Though Tatum only scored two points in that game, head coach Matt Painter said he has contributed much more to the team.

"Whenever it's in the full-court, whenever it's in that up-tempo style, he flourishes," Painter said. "He does a very good job of making decisions in the open court, and slowly but surely he keeps getting better in the half-court with decisions, and he plays actually better in games than he does in practice.

"He's gonna be a very good player for us."

Tatum is just one prong of a Saluki squad with improved quickness. SIU has forced 15 turnovers per game and held opponents to less than 38-percent shooting.

The backcourt has played a huge role in that defensive prowess.

"Our guards, we're really focused on defense, trying to get steals and getting in the passing lanes," junior guard Darren Brooks said.

Brooks, a 6-foot-3 St. Louis native, has averaged nearly eight rebounds a game, including numerous acrobatic tip-ins, to go along with his 19 points per contest this season.

But the Saluki post players have also played a crucial role in the quick start. Though this was an area thought to be a weakness in the minds of many, Painter never had doubts about the ability of his frontcourt.

"I thought our big guys were our strength," Painter said. "I was just letting people talk about it. We have four big guys. Our big guys, what they thought was our weakness, right now it's probably our strength."

Korn has become the team's second-leading scorer with a 12.3 average, and Southeastern Illinois College transfer forward LaMar Owen has averaged more than 10 points a contest while shooting at nearly a 74-percent clip.

The 3-0 start is the best ever for a first-year SIU head coach, but Painter is more concerned with his team than himself.

"It's important that we won three games in a row," Painter said. "It's not important to me. I think the one thing I probably have over a lot of those coaches is the fact that these guys are familiar with me and I'm familiar with them."

SIU will return home to face regional rival Southeast Missouri State Wednesday night at the SIU Arena, where Painter says his team could use a surge from the Saluki crowd.

"Hopefully, we get a very good crowd," Painter said. "Hopefully, we can play with the same energy, the same intensity. Our guys respect SEMO. They play against them in the summer."