Saluki Sports Update: Two of the best at SIU
Fortunately the “good” outweighed the “bad” as far as SIU sports were concerned last weekend although the “bad” hurt as the finest player ever to wear a Saluki basketball uniform, Charlie Vaughn, was buried Saturday.
The “good” was just that. The football Salukis stayed in the hunt for a playoff berth by outlasting Western Illinois.
SIU’s fine men and women cross country teams both won Missouri Valley Conference championships.
The volleyball team, that we know practically nothing about, defeated the league’s strongest team, Wichita State, for the first time in recent history and Barry Hinson’s basketball team won its first exhibition game.
Coach Dale Lennon’s outfit is hanging tough despite the fact it lost veteran quarterback Kory Faulkner for the season due to broken fingers on his passing hand.
The Salukis managed to slip past Western Illinois in a must-win game Saturday, but still have two more tests just as important when they face Missouri State this week and Illinois State the following week. Fortunately both are home games.
And, both are tossups in our mind.
Missouri State and Illinois State, both 4-2 in league play, are one-half game ahead of the Salukis in the Valley. Both have rallied in recent weeks after slow starts. Neither is unbeatable. All three teams are hoping the so-called experts select at least three teams from the Valley for postseason play.
Should SIU manage to win both of their next two tests, it should be a snap to finish the season with a 6-2 league record as its regular season finale is at Indiana State and the Sycamores are absolutely no threat to anyone.
Seated between two area experts, Greg Starrick, who is Mike Reis’ sidekick on SIU’s basketball broadcasts, and The Southern’s sports editor Les Winkeler, at Saturday night’s basketball game, we listened to their thoughts and opinions on Hinson’s collection of newcomers.
Both Starrick and Winkeler were encouraged by what they were watching and we were inclined to go along with them.
Listening to Starrick’s comments were almost more entertaining than the game itself.
One of Southern Illinois’ all-time greatest high school players who later performed at Kentucky for one semester before returning to SIU where he finished out his playing career, Starrick sees so many things on the court that we completely miss.
We thought later that night, how unusual, speaking at “Chico’s” funeral services in the afternoon and then just hours later listening to Starrick evaluating this year’s new collection of basketball players.
Had Vaughn and Starrick ever played on the same team, it would have been necessary for the game to have two balls involved at the same time, but there is absolutely no argument that the two were the finest high school scorers ever to grow up in Southern Illinois.
Some will disagree and that’s OK. When you stop to think about it, there have been many outstanding high school players in this part of the state.
The game of basketball is what Southern Illinois is best known for in high school athletics. The list of great players is almost endless, but Vaughn and Starrick could put the ball in the hole.
As for “Chico’s” funeral, for us it was an absolutely unforgettable experience. Just sad to see a legend for the final time.