You gotta have faith

SIUC fans travel to St. Louis to support the Salukis through the trials and tribulations of the MVC tournament

Comforting pats on the back.

Sweaty faces covered by towels.

Blurry eyes fighting tears and the haunting vision of the scoreboard.

The almost audible sound of the clock clicking away on the season.

The Salukis were responsible for causing South Missouri State and Illinois State to experience the agony of defeat.

And Monday night, they felt it themselves.

But before the pounding that left the Dawgs’ NCAA future uncertain, fans leaving home before the game ended and an all-but-silenced and stunned Dawg Pound, the Salukis had a few days to revel in the sweet taste of victory.

Despite the not-so-sweet smell of stale popcorn, sticky floor and crowded atmosphere of the Savvis Center, large numbers of fans maneuvered their way into the stadium Saturday to watch the Salukis play their first tournament game against Illinois State University.

“You get a completely different perspective watching the game on television than you do live,” said Helen Martinko, a senior in rehabilitation services from Carbondale. “Watching in person gives you more of an opportunity to see the personality of the players.”

Martinko was not alone in her desire to support the Dawgs in person. The SIU and ISU matchup provided the highest attendance for a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament game that day. Maroon was the predominate color in the fairly packed audience with chants of ISU faint.

“It looks good out here,’ said Doug Owens, a junior in elementary education from LeRoy. “The stadium’s full of maroon and white and there’s only a few specs of the other teams’ school colors. It’s a good image for the school.”

The chorus of three ISU fans sitting in the Dawg Pound held steady throughout what was, at first, a close battle between the two teams. But as SIU progressively pulled ahead, even the three ISU fans who spent the majority of the game chanting “ISU!” abandoned their team spirit somewhere on the sticky floor and joined in chants of “SIU! SIU!”

SIU seemed to find the fair-weather fans amusing as they, in spite of their bright red shirts, stood to join in the sea of students clad in maroon in cheering on the Dawgs. Although they took pride in the victory over ISU, a great deal of shirts reading “I H8 Creighton,” showed what Saluki fans had in mind.

The buzzer prepared to sound, leaving the score at 72-65 and members of the ISU team standing in a hopeless huddle, their coach before them, their season, clearly behind.

The game against South Missouri State provided a sense of dj vu. A different team, sporting the same school colors as SIU, demonstrated essentially the same scenario for fans.

The initial fear, as the Bears, a squad the Dawgs beat with ease later in the season, appeared a worthy opponent of the Salukis. Midway into the fourth quarter, fans experienced a united sense of relief as the Dawgs released themselves from the grip the Bears held them in for most of the game.

The trumpets and trombones of the pep band roared once again, fans of the opposing team finally took their seats realizing once and for all there was nothing to cheer about. Wearing identical colors, but no longer the same degree of spirit, they sat, arms folded, as Saluki fans swayed and danced to the SIU school song.

Messages of “I bleed Saluki maroon,” “Go Salukis,” and most popularly, “I H8 Cr8ton,” traveled across the bleachers where fans swarmed together to discuss the past, present and mostly, the future of their team.

Everyone seemed to agree, in spite of several close points in both games, that ISU and SMS presented no contest for the Dawgs. The common consensus seemed to be that the Creighton Bluejays would not be so easily shot down. But fans had a variety of theories as to how to ensure victory.

“You can’t think about it,’ said Tim Egan, a senior in plant and soil science from Libertyville. “If you hesitate you lose, so you can’t think about it the possibility of losing.”

Leanne Milner felt attendance was the key to victory.

“I think it will be pretty tight between us and Creighton,” said Milner, a senior in radio and television from Springfield. “We’ll probably win by about six. It depends on how many people show up and how pissed off we get.”

Aaron Loese did not have any special strategies to guarantee victory, but he did have confidence.

“We killed Creighton the other night,” said Loese a sophomore in mechanical engineering from Alton. “We’re going to win. And I’m not guessing, I know that.”

It is impossible to list all of the various rituals and theories fans performed before the game. Some wore lucky socks, some only hoped, but a great deal seemed to agree with Milner’s idea that attendance would play a role in the potential victory.

Creighton fans appeared to feel the same way.

An hour and a half before the game, the entrance to the Savvis Center was compacted with the various blues and maroons of fans, both believing their team would be the victor.

Mia Jefferson and her friends Nikki Hickman and Bianca Tines were not clad in the Saluki jerseys they wore during previous games, but they had taken the time to design a sign with the words, “Fox 23, Dearman, Saluki Showtime.”

“I spilled maroon paint in my friends new 2003 car,” said Jefferson, a senior in radio and television from Springfield. “I also think we may have broke something on the way. But we’ll worry about those problems later.

“We’ve been burning up the highway to come see this game because we love this team and these are great guys to watch. There have been times when things were a little sluggish, but we never doubted them for a second.

“And as soon as we win here, we’re going to gas up the car and go with them to where ever the next game is and join the pandemonium there.”

There was barely enough room for Jefferson and other fans to breathe in the crowded ticket lines, but there seemed to be plenty of space for chants.

Taunts of “Korver sucks!” were responded to with boos from disapproving Creighton fans. In return, Bluejay fans accompanied chants of “SIU” with quick, strong retorts of the word “sucks.”

SIU fans continued to taunt Creighton minutes before the game by mockingly perusing the newspaper during the Bluejay’s pre-game introductions, tossing the papers into the air as the final game of the MVC tournament began.

In response, the Bluejays tossed up 14 points before the Salukis were even able to respond.

More than 15 failed shots were discouraging to students, but the majority stuck it out on their feet. It was not until shortly before halftime when the Dawgs fell behind by 26, that rows of fans started to fall like dominoes. However, a majority of unsettled, seated fans in no way meant fans were deterred.

In spite of the unbelievable lead the Bluejays coasted over the Dawgs’ heads, students such as Jon Zoanetti still predicted a five-point lead for the Salukis.

Students fell to their seats, but the spirits of some fans did not, as students continued to support their team as the limping Dawgs came only as 24 points behind the game.

Bittersweet chants of “Carney,” began, and it was certain the closing efforts of the Dawgs would not be enough.

There were some who abandoned their team as it become clear that they would suffer the same fate they had placed upon ISU and SMS. But most stuck it out to the end, watching longingly as the final buzzer sounded and a mass of blue soared to the court to congratulate their team.

“A lot of us expected to win after March 1,” said Brandon Moore, a freshman in radio and television from Chicago. “I’m appalled. I thought it was going to be us on the floor.”

The long period the Dawgs spent fighting off defeat did not make preparation any easier for fans such as Moore, who said he would have preferred a closer game, even if it did end in a loss.

“I’d just rather it be a closer game so we could have gotten some respect,” said Moore. “We have nothing to say now, no matter how many times we’ve won in the past this is what people are going to remember.”

In spite of disappointment over the Dawgs’ futile efforts, fans left hoping that those responsible for the NCAA selections would take into account a stellar play throughout the season and ignore their final performance in the MVC tournament. In the end, good play during the regular season paid off for the Salukis, as the team was chosen to face the University of Missouri in the NCAA tournament.

Until the game takes place Thursday in Indianapolis all the Salukis can do was wait anxiously with fans just as eager to face Missouri.

“SIU was the No.1 seed in the MVC for a reason,” said Egan. “Because we have the No. 1 fans.”

Reporter Jessica Yorama can be reached at [email protected]