In today's Chicago Tribune writes about Southern Illinois Saluki basketball player Bryan Mullins and focuses on the program, and not just on another player from Chicagoland. Yet another major-media validation of the success of the men's basketball program at the state's second-largest university. With SIU's recent national presence, this man from deep Southern Illinois finds this kind of casual acceptance of the program from the big city fulfilling, and leaves me with a very warm and tingly feeling all over my body. SIU is in for a fight this year in the Missouri Valley Conference, and our record will not be nearly as impressive as it's been over the last six years. But come March, this will be our toughest, most tested team since Walt Frazier and his Salukis won the NIT in 1967 - when the NIT really mattered in college basketball. The Valley is extremely tough this year. I live in Pac-10 country, and the best conference is here - out West. But the quality and competition of the MVC validates the 3rd or 4th best conference rankings we are getting right now. A Valley team in the Elite 8 is no longer a Cinderella story - it's now an expectation.
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