Coming Soon: God, Save The Salukis

March Madness has consumed my soul. That's what I'm about when the breezy weather comes out to play and messes with my long distance shooting on the concrete courts.

But with the SIU men's basketball team having its bubble busted sometime in November, probably when Duke's Kyle Singler turned Carlton Fay into a SportsCenter Top Play (and eventually) a poster on the wall of some Blue Devil fan's dorm room, I've got a lot more free time on my hands.

I've dipped my sports writing pen into the ink and have penned softball stories, baseball features, the occasional column and now, football.

However, despite its aging basketball facility and underachieving ball club, the Saluki men's basketball team is still the apple of my eye. And that's where this new series of featurettes begins.

There are three things the SIU Carbondale campus has become known for over the years:

1. Party school
2. Poshard's Plagiarism
3. Basketball

Like it or lump it (hat tip: Sidney Crosby), that's how it is. When I have been in Las Vegas wearing my Saluki gear, I've been stopped and asked to participate in conversations about college hoops. "How are the Salukis?" people ask. "They're always a scrappy bunch" one college b-ball fan commented. "Go Dawgs!" a certain inhebriated older gentleman yelled.

While celebrating my 21st birthday in the City of Sin, a friend of mine and I rearranged our course back to the MGM Grand and stopped in the Planet Hollywood hotel and celebrated another SIU student's 21st birthday. I had never seen this person on campus in my life, they probably had never seen me either. But it was that Saluki maroon tie that brought us together.

Again, that brings us to "God, Save The Salukis."

It kind of worked with the DePaul Blue Demons ... hey, they eventually won a game in the Big East Conference when they knocked off Cincinnati at Madison Square Garden. So I'll take solace in that.

So that's what I want to do for SIU. I don't want to see the Salukis in the CBI, CIT or any three-letter buy-in tournament reserved for the Bradleys, Evansvilles, Troys and Boise States of the world.

The Salukis only do four-letter tournaments, not three. Unless, of course, we're talking NIT. And even then, ask any SIU fan and they'll tell you Randal Falker and Matt Shaw's senior year should have ended with one last dance.

So, how will God save the Dawgs? I'm not sure yet. But you'll find out as soon as I do.