Sal-who-kis?

One of the year's best hoops stories is being played out in the middle of nowhere

By Zach Creglow

POP QUIZ: Other than Duke, Kansas, Pitt and Gonzaga, which D-I hoops program has the most wins since the start of the 2001-02 season?

Stanford? Nope. Kentucky? Nuh-uh. One of those mid-majors that Hoops Nation has fallen in love with -- St. Joe's? Wrong. Here's a hint: It's a Top 20 program. That has smoked its last 16 opponents. It's in Illinois. Carbondale. In the southern part of Illinois.

Thousands of Salukis fans drank in the moment on Feb. 21. Derek Anderson/AP

You still don't know, do you?

Few people know of Southern Illinois University, which is located 130 miles away from anything that matters. We are small-town America. In these parts -- where SIU's student body of 21,000 drives the town's population up to about 40,000 -- Carbondale is the "big city."

Salukis basketball is the lone form of entertainment within driving distance, and we take it very seriously. The recent rankings and the media attention bring pride to a region mocked in the movie Poor White Trash and the city called the "Worst College Sports Town" in America by this very publication. This is the blue-collar team this blue-collar coal-mining area has long been waiting for.

At the Bracket Buster game against Hawaii on Feb. 21, students and fans packed the cozy SIU Arena, despite the 11 p.m. tip-off time. ESPN's Doug Gottlieb marveled at the intensity inside the arena, which, with its 1970s earth-tone seats, hardly looks like the home of a Top 20 program.

The game was not for the faint of heart; big games at SIU rarely are. Last year after students stormed the court following a win, Salukis mascot Brown Dog passed out and had to be carted from the arena by the cheerleaders. In the last two weeks, fans poured onto the court twice, first after the Hawaii win and again on Saturday against Bradley, when Sylvester Willis (whom you've likely never heard of) hauled in a full-court inbounds pass from Darren Brooks (ditto) and laid in the game-winner with .5 of a second left.

The Hawaii onrush led ESPN's Dave Revsine to ask, "Why storm the court when you are a Top 20 team?"

Easy to explain, Dave. We are craving attention here.

Zach Creglow is a sophomore at SIU and a writer for the Daily Egyptian.

Issue date: March 4, 2004

SI ON CAMPUS Sports Illustrated On Campus, a new magazine covering college sports and collegiate lifestyles, is available as an insert in 72 major college newspapers across the country every Thursday throughout the school year. Click any of the links below to see selected content from the latest issue, or click here to get the entire issue in digital format. • Cover story: Why aren't athletes flocking to Hawaii? • Scorecard: There's a new vibe at Southern Illinois • Previous issue: Feb. 26, 2004