The leaders of the Tour de France wears a brightly colored shirts to signify their positions. The SIU women’s basketball team uses a similar system in practice.

The Saluki coaches keep track of statistics in every drill the team runs. They then hand out brightly-colored, superhero-themed shirts to the points leader for each day and the overall leader for that portion of the season. 

Coach Cindy Stein said the famous cycling race inspired the implementation of the shirts.

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“I love the Tour de France because it’s all about toughness,” Stein said. “[The colored jerseys] made me think how we could apply that to basketball.”

Points, rebounds, wind sprints and screens set factor into a player’s score. An offensive rebound is worth two points, and taking a charge is worth 10. 

The leader for the current portion of the season wears a blue Superman shirt under her gray and white reversible practice jersey until someone takes the lead from her. The daily leader earns a red Flash shirt to wear the next day. 

The season is divided into offseason conditioning, preseason, non-conference play and conference play. 

Senior guard Cartaesha Macklin wore the Superman shirt Thursday, the day before SIU won its first exhibition game 66-60 against Maryville. Macklin has been the leader for most of the preseason portion of the season. Junior guard Carlie Corrigan and sophomore guard/forward Kylie Giebelhausen wore the Flash shirts.

“Our practices are competitive,” junior point guard Rishonda Napier said. “We go at each other, and we make each other better, so it’s working.”

The team has multiple Superman and Flash shirts, so a player does not have to wear a shirt her teammate dirtied the day before, or in case of a tie.

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Senior forward Azia Washington said the superhero shirts are an added incentive in practice.

“I think we’ve got three or four girls who are neck-to-neck,” Washington said. “So those girls at the top are really going for it.”

Thomas Donley can be reached at [email protected] or at 618-536-3307