CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- In less than a week, the second season begins for SIU men's basketball.
The focus is on the Missouri Valley Conference. Salukis take a two game winning streak to start league play.
SIU has shown two sides. 5-1 at home and 0-4 on the road. And they start Valley play at Indiana State, and the Sycamores are perfect at home.
But Southern has been getting bodies back, building on their depth and when they get all their pieces in play, Coach Mullins believes his team will be a tough out in conference games.
"My goal has always been for us to be playing our best basketball by February," Mullins said.
"Going into that last month of the season for us to be connected and everyone to understand what we are trying to do offensively and defensively, and obviously we have had injuries and haven't had a full roster yet, so when AC comes back we'll have Kerrington (Davis), Sekou (Dembele), AC all healthy for the first time going into Valley play, and it will be exciting and still will take our team some more games and more practices. The more we are together the better we are going to be."
