Missouri stands in the way of another SIU tournament run

INDIANAPOLIS -- After seeing his team among those in the field of 65 during Sunday's NCAA tournament selection show, Southern Illinois coach Bruce Weber celebrated for a moment with his players.

Then reality set in. He had only three days to prepare for Missouri.

"We were sweating it a little bit," Weber said. "First you're happy to get in, but then you see who you have to play, and you immediately start to worry again. You always hope that you play somebody that maybe doesn't have the tournament experience, because that's one advantage that we might have because our kids made that run last year. But shoot, their guys made a bigger run than we did."

The sixth-seeded Tigers and 11th-seeded Salukis -- two of the biggest surprises of last year's tournament -- will meet today in a Midwest Regional first round game in Indianapolis at the RCA Dome.

SIU knocked off Texas Tech and Georgia to advance to the Sweet 16 last year before eventually bowing out to Connecticut. MU went a step further, beating Miami, Ohio State and UCLA before losing a close game to Oklahoma in the Elite Eight.

This year, the Salukis (24-6) won the Missouri Valley Conference during the regular season, but were blown out by Creighton in the MVC Tournament championship game in St. Louis. Weber said he hopes the embarrassing 24-point loss to the Blue Jays has put his team back in the proper state of mind heading into the national tournament this week -- namely fear.

"We went into it with a fear factor last year," Weber said. "The kids hadn't been through it before. If you don't go in with that fear factor, all of a sudden, boom, somebody can run over you. I'm hoping that losing to Creighton the way we did will help us get back that fear factor and give us that edge again."

Missouri (21-10) is coming off a four-day run in the Big 12 Tournament in Dallas. The 24th-ranked Tigers fell one shot short of capturing the Big 12 title but gained respect nationally in a 49-47 loss to Oklahoma.

Missouri coach Quin Snyder "has gotten them going at the right time at the end of the year, just like last year," Weber said. "To battle Oklahoma State, Kansas and Oklahoma in the Big 12 Tournament, boom, boom, boom, and to compete like they did, is very impressive. They've got to feel like they've got a good chance to make another run at it. They've got experience, obviously."

After their playoff run last year, the Salukis had trouble scheduling top non-conference opponents for this season. As a result of a less-than-impressive schedule, they had to sweat out an at-large bid to the tournament. Still, they're not likely to sneak up on opponents this year -- especially not the Tigers, who come into the tournament with their highest seed since 1994.

"There will be plenty of people who will pick Southern Illinois to upset us," Snyder said. "Coach Weber spoke at our clinic last year. We certainly know that they're a very good team, and we'll have to be ready to play."

Southern Illinois is led offensively by senior Kent Williams, a 6-foot-2 guard who averages 15.3 points per game. Jermaine Dearman, a 6-8 senior forward averages 14.2 points per game. Dearman is a native of Indianapolis eager to put on a good show after establishing himself as a big-time player during last year's tournament.

"We're worried about Dearman," MU assistant coach Lane Odom said. "Some have compared him a little bit to Tyray Pearson, who played in our league last year at Iowa State. He's a very difficult matchup for anyone."

Still, the Tigers enter today's game with confidence after finishing second in the Big 12 Tournament.

"We've just got to come out focused and continue to defend like we have been, and we can compete with anyone," junior Arthur Johnson said. "We're playing our best basketball of the season right now. We're just ready to get back to work."