2020-21 Finish: 12-14; 5-13 MVC (9th)
Letterwinners Returning/Lost:  9/3
Starters Returning/Lost: 5/0*
*does not include Marcus Domask who played just 10 games before a season-ending injury

The 2021-22 Salukis return 97 percent of their scoring and add four exciting newcomers in the third year of the Bryan Mullins era. 

Already in his young coaching career, Mullins has earned distinction as one of ESPN’s “40 under 40” best coaches under 40 years old, and he has guided SIU to its best start (7-0 last season) since 1947. The Salukis return all their major contributors and could take a leap under Mullins, who led SIU to its last NCAA Tournament appearance when he was the point guard for SIU’s 2007 Sweet Sixteen team. 

The team is led by Marcus Domask, the 2020 MVC Newcomer and Freshman of the Year. Domask missed the final 16 games of the 2020-21 season with an injury but is fully healthy and has averaged 14.2 points over 42 career games. Along with Domask, fellow juniors Lance Jones and Trent Brown return for their third season in Carbondale. Jones stepped up during Domask’s injury and was named Third Team All-MVC last season while leading the MVC in 3-point field goal percentage. Brown started all 26 games as a sophomore last year while connecting on 39 percent of his 3-point field goal attempts. 

Ben Harvey, a transfer from Eastern Illinois, sat out the 2019-20 season but averaged 9.7 points per game as a redshirt sophomore last year. Steven Verplancken, a Division II transfer from Glenville State, averaged 7 ppg last year in his first season at SIU and started 16 games. Joining the loaded junior class is J.D. Muila, a center from Canada who was expected to play a major role last season before a season-ending knee injury. 

Anthony D’Avanzo, Ben Coupet, and Will Keller are SIU’s three seniors. D’Avanzo is using his year of COVID relief after averaging 7.5 points and 3.9 rebounds as a graduate transfer last season. Coupet is a new graduate transfer for 2021-22. A native of Chicago, Coupet averaged double figures each of the last two years at Little Rock and won a conference title there in 2019-20. 

Dalton Banks, Kyler Filewich, and Chris Cross comprise the sophomore class. Filewich earned a spot on the MVC All-Freshman Team last year, and Banks has added 15 pounds of muscle for his sophomore season after being a major contributor as a freshman (6.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.2 apg in 25.5 minutes). 

Troy D’Amico, Scottie Ebube, and Foster Wonders are all freshmen in 2021-22, and all three were ranked in the top-10 in their respective states high school rankings. Wonders was the runner-up for Mr. Basketball in Michigan, and both Ebube and D’Amico are in-state products from the Chicago area.