Malik Reneau and No. 17 Indiana will take the court against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Wednesday night.
The Southern Illinois-Edwardsville men’s college basketball team will head on the road for their season opener against Indiana, the No. 17 ranked team in the country, at the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Wednesday night. The Hoosiers head into this season with multiple new starters. They brought in probably the biggest named center in the transfer portal after Oumar Ballo left Arizona. Ballo averaged 12.9 points,10.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game last season with the Wildcats. They also brought in Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle. Rice transferred in from Washington State after averaging 14.8 points and 3.8 assists. Carlyle transferred in from Stanford and averaged 11.5 points and 32 percent from behind the arc. They are returning two starters, Mackenzie Mgbako and Malik Reneau, who bolstered the team last season and have since improved. Reneau competed with Kel’el Ware, now with the Miami Heat, leading the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game.
Mgbako followed Ware and Reneau with 12.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. The Cougars are bringing back one of their three leading scorers on the season last year in senior guard Ray’Sean Taylor. The guard averaged 13.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists.
They did lose their two leading scorers from last season, though. Damarco Minor, who averaged 15.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, is now with Oregon State, and Shamar Wright graduated. Desmond Polk is also anticipated to take on a bigger role with SIU heading into this season after averaging 4.2 points per game last year.
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