During the next month the SIU men’s basketball team will play a total of eight games – five of them away from the safety of the SIU Arena, where the Salukis have won 15 straight.

SIU head coach Bruce Weber said he often jokes that the break is the players’ chance to act like professionals since they don’t have to go to class and only have to worry about playing basketball.

“These last two weeks are really stressful for them just like any student, and then to throw in basketball to the mix and it’s difficult,” Weber said, “so for about a month you can really focus on basketball.”

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Sophomore guard Stetson Hairston – who was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 15.5 points, shooting 12-of-18 from the field and having a 11:2 assist-to-turnover ratio in wins over Murray State and Southeast Missouri State – said not having to focus on both classes and basketball takes a lot of the pressure off of the players.

“We can get the scouting reports a little bit easier and understand our plays and practice more on it so it is a lot easier,” Hairston said.

It is important that the players, who have played just one game on the road, are able to focus more during the next few weeks as they travel to face tough opponents in Illinois-Chicago (2-2), Charlotte (2-3), Saint Louis (2-3), Evansville (2-3) and Indiana State (3-4).

Other opponents for the Salukis (4-0) during the break are home games against Cal State-Northridge (4-2), Drake (3-4) and Illinois State (0-5).

Hairston said winning on the road comes down to just one thing – defense.

“We’ve just got to stick together and play great defense,” Hairston said. “Our offense might not come so we’ve just got to keep playing defense and create turnovers and then the transition, that gets us offense.”

The defense has been solid after being a question mark during the preseason.

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Sophomore guard Darren Brooks has been stellar and is currently averaging 3.25 steals a game to go along with his 4.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Hairston is second on the team with 1.75 steals a game and senior guard Kent Williams is third with 1.25.

The first game of the break for the Salukis will be against the Flames of Illinois-Chicago, who the Salukis play this Saturday in Chicago. UIC’s two losses this year have come at the hands of Evansville and No. 6 Indiana.

The Flames currently have four players averaging double-digit scoring in Martell Bailey (13.5 ppg), Aaron Carr (13.3), Jonathan Schneiderman (11.0) and Armond Williams (10.3).

The Salukis have four players of their own scoring in double-digits in Williams (16.8), Hairston (15.5), Jermaine Dearman (15.5) and Sylvester Willis (11.5).

Weber said he thinks the Flames will be the hardest team the Salukis will face, but he won’t know until they actually suit up against them.

He said that might be the deceiving thing about the Salukis undefeated record.

“We’re just not sure how good the teams we’ve beaten so far, how good they are,” Weber said. “There’s some question marks and doubt there and I think we have a chance to be pretty good, but we’ve got to keep making improvements and keep everybody on the same page.”

Other road tests include Conference USA teams Saint Louis and Charlotte.

Weber said even though these two teams might not be as strong as in years past, the fact they play in a more powerful conference makes the two teams that much stronger.

“You’re talking about Conference USA teams that, maybe they’re not great this year, but they’re going to be solid,” Weber said. “It will be a good test and help prepare us for our conference when we go on the road and play against good teams and get in situations where you’ve got to make plays at the end of the game to win.”

The final non-conference game will be against Cal-State Northridge, which defeated a San Diego team that knocked off UCLA and lost to Oregon by just nine points.

However, when the Matadors travel to Carbondale on Dec. 22, it will mark the first game all season they play outside of either California or Oregon.

Add to that the fact they play a game Thursday night and then face the Salukis Sunday morning, and SIU might be facing a jet-lagged team wanting nothing more than to be in bed.

The last four games of winter break will be MVC games at home against Drake (Jan. 2) and Illinois State (Jan. 4) and on the road against Evansville (Jan. 8) and Indiana State (Jan. 11).

Drake, which is led by preseason all-conference pick Luke McDonald, has struggled some and suffered a heartbreaking 50-49 loss at the hands of Iowa.

Illinois State has struggled mightily and has fallen to schools such as Illinois-Chicago, Kent State and Central Michigan.

Then there are Indiana State and Evansville, the teams picked to finish No. 9 and No. 10 respectively in the conference.

The Sycamores have three wins against Youngstown State, SEMO and Eastern Illinois, but looked pitiful in losses to Valparaiso and Butler.

The Purple Aces have fought out wins against quality teams in Illinois-Chicago and Western Kentucky but are limping along without one of their top players in Tobias Brinkley, who was lost to injury.

Weber said it is important that the Salukis jump out to a quick start since the first four teams they will face are by no means the tops in the conference.

“You’ve got to continue taking care of business at home and then you’ve got two games on the road against I guess wouldn’t be top-level teams,” Weber said. “Evansville’s off to a decent start, but Indiana State’s struggled a little bit so you’re hoping that it’s four games that are winnable and jump out and get ahead of the pack right away.”

Hairston, however, said the players haven’t given any thought to the conference games and for now are just worrying about Illinois-Chicago.

“We have these non-conference games first and these games are very important to us,” Hairston said. “I guess we do need to go in there and take care of [the MVC games], but at this point and time I haven’t really thought about it.”

Reporter Jens Deju can be reached at [email protected]