A new look and a fresh perspective.

New shoes, a new haircut, and two new player additions to the Saluki basketball team are a few of the changes the squad has made since their exhibition loss to Croatia Nov. 10.

The team acquired its new shoes for this season (Reeboks); senior Brian Laur is sporting a new look with a fresh hair-cut and a shave that is not so fresh; and two footballers, junior Damon Jones and freshman Stephen Geralds, joined the squad this week after the end of the gridiron season.

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The Dawgs dropped their first exhibition game of the season in a heartbreaking 67-66 loss, but are hoping to rebound against Athletes in Action Nov. 26 in SIU Arena at 1:35 p.m.

We’re the only school to play them that’s not a big, major school, SIUC coach Rich Herrin said. They have two teams, and this is their good one. We’re very happy to play them because they’re playing schools like Duke, too.

Senior Shane Wells may know more about Athletes in Action than any other member of the team he was a member of an Athletes in Action team in Europe over the summer.

I think it will be kind of neat playing against that organization, he said. It won’t be the same players or coaches though, so it will be a totally different team than the one I played on.

Herrin said even though his team lost in its first exhibition game, he was pleased with the way the players performed.

I substituted freely, and made a lot of changes throughout the game, he said. We won all the stats except for the score. Look at it this way, we had five guys with experience and six without.

Herrin said he likes to look at these games as preseason rather than exhibition because the team plays every game as if it counted.

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He is also looking for good performances from his players because of the inexperience of his squad.

Games are fun, and that is what we work for, Herrin said. I’m looking for a good effort from everyone, he said. We need to work on our rebounding, and we have to understand that everyone has a role to play on this team. We’ve got to play hard all 94 feet.

Sophomore Shane Hawkins said the team’s biggest need is to grow together, but it also needs to play hard the entire game.

We just need to keep gelling together as a team because of all the new faces, he said. I think the preseason will actually be good for the team this year because of all the new faces.

Hawkins also said the team’s main weakness may also be its strongest point.

We have so many new faces that it may be our strong point, also, he said. The fact that we can put 11 different guys on the floor helps us a lot.