The grinch may have stolen Christmas from Whoville, but he must have stopped at SIU Arena to steal the preseason from the Saluki men’s basketball team as well.

After dropping both of its exhibition games this season, SIUC is looking to start the regular season on a positive note with a win over the Huskies of Northern Illinois University tonight in DeKalb.

In the preseason, the Salukis lost a heart-breaking game to Zagreb (Croatia) 67-66, and also lost to Athletes in Action 97-83.

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In the Athletes in Action game, the Dawgs shot only 34 percent from the floor in the first half, but rebounded to shoot 51 percent in the second half. Sophomore guard Shane Hawkins, the only returning starter from last season’s team, hit only three of 13 during the gamewith 12 of those shots coming from behind the three-point arc.

Hawkins said there was no excuse for his shooting performance, but the team cannot rely on just one player.

We’re going to play nine or 10 guys, and we can’t rely on one player, he said. All the shots I missed, I was wide open. Obviously the shooters have to shoot well for us to win.

As for the Salukis’ game plan against the Huskies, Hawkins said the Dawgs will try to wear them down with a full-court, up-tempoed game.

We are going to run because we have so many players, and that works to our advantage with the running game we play, he said. Controlling the tempo is the key in every game we play this season.

With NIU’s 0-for-18 performance from behind the three point line against Austin Peay Monday, Hawkins said the Salukis will have pressure the Huskies’ shooters to take bad shots.

I thought they could shoot the ball, but with their 0-for-18 against Austin Peay, our guards will have to put pressure on their shooters, and we will have to rebound to win, he said.

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After dropping its two exhibition games, Hawkins said the team’s spirits were low, but a win would help boost it.

With the two exhibition games we performed poorly in, morale is low, he said. We would like to win, and that’s our main goal, but most importantly we would like to play well.

We just didn’t perform good enough in the preseason to compete in the Missouri Valley Conference this year.