Team travels to Soutern Illinois to battle Salukis

Southern Illinois coach Bruce Weber and his men's basketball program are looking forward to facing the Hoosiers on Salukis hardwood for the first time.\n"It's been the talk of our town for the past two years," Weber said. "People are excited -- we'll be close to a sellout for the first time in 11 years.\n"Everybody's talking about Indiana coming here."\nWeber and the Salukis will host the Hoosiers tomorrow at SIU Arena in Carbondale, Ill. Tip off time is set for 4:05 EST.\nFor the Hoosiers, this game will close out a stretch that had them on the road for the first six games of the season, a brutal schedule that has coach Mike Davis wondering who is responsible for IU having to run across the country before playing at Assembly Hall.\nSaturday will be no easier. The Salukis (4-1), out of the Missouri Valley Conference, have posted a couple of impressive wins against Iowa State and at St. Louis. They lost a close one to No. 2 Illinois, 75-72, in the finals of the Las Vegas Invitational last week.\nNobody has to tell Davis how good Weber's team is.\n"They're really good," Davis said. "It's going to be a tough game. If we can beat them it would be a big win."\nThe close loss to the Fighting Illini Nov. 24 got the attention of many. Weber said the game was good for his team, but he would rather have won than just come close.\n"At first, everybody is patting you on the back, you feel good for yourself that you competed," he said. "(Then) it's disappointing, you don't get a chance to play top level teams like that."\nThe leader for Southern Illinois is junior guard Kent Williams. He leads the Salukis in scoring with 16 points a game, but struggled against the Hoosiers last year at Assembly Hall, when IU beat the Salukis 85-63.\n A big part of Williams' frustration in scoring only six points came from having to get around senior guard Dane Fife and his defensive presence.\n"He gets angles on people," Weber said of his guard. "He was disappointed in how he played at IU last year. Fife is a very good defender.\n"We're going to have to deal with that."\nThe Hoosiers (4-1) are coming off a 79-66 win at North Carolina Wednesday. Sophomore guard A.J. Moye led the way with a career-high 20 points, most of which came on four three-pointers in the first half against the Tar Heels. Moye said he wants to continue to be in Davis' starting lineup.\n"With the starting role, I might have more chances to shoot and score," Moye said. "The longer you're out there, the more chances you have to make something happen. I'm just going to continue to make something happen."\nWeber knows IU better than other coaches might. Before taking over at Southern Illinois in 1998, Weber spent 18 seasons with Gene Keady as an assistant coach at Purdue. From what he has seen, Weber thinks the Hoosiers have combined aspects of past teams and have been energized by Davis' offensive scheme.\n"They're doing different things," Weber said. "This is more of an NBA type thing. They're getting into the triangle.\nThey're a hard nosed team that loves to compete, that's Indiana basketball."\nThe things IU has been doing include hitting shots from the outside when they face a zone and getting inside production when they are attacking a man-to-man defense.\nThat combination has Weber and the Salukis in a pinch. Which way do they defend?\n"We got to extend. They're shooting the ball well," Weber said. "We have to do a good job on (sophomore forward Jared) Jeffries. If you extend out, they can manipulate things down low. They're physical and they have size inside."\nLast year against the Salukis, IU used 15 three-pointers to get the victory. Moye thinks the Hoosiers will be in for more of a fight this season.\n"We got a tough one, plus they have some incentive from last year," he said. "We played pretty good against them last year"