Mullins wins MVP at Saluki men's banquet

By Todd Hefferman, The Southern
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

CARBONDALE - The Southern Illinois University men's basketball team said goodbye to the braids, the brawn and the brains of an 18-15 season Tuesday night.

In front of an estimated 400 spectators, seniors Randal Falker, Tyrone Green, Matt Shaw and Dion Coopwood made their final public appearances at SIU Arena for the team's annual banquet. They left spectacular stories.

From Falker's flopping dreadlocks, to Green's development as a bonafide starter, to Shaw's career accolades, to Coopwood's unwillingness to give up on a spot on Carbondale's most famous traveling band.

After the squad's assistant coaches introduced the upperclassmen, SIU head coach Chris Lowery showered the crowd with their stories.

Falker will leave Carbondale as the school's all-time blocks leader and one of its most colorful characters. The 6-foot-7 forward was a preseason candidate for the Wooden Award and made the Missouri Valley Conference's first team for the second straight season. This season, he started all 33 games and led the Salukis in scoring (13 points per game) and rebounding (7.2 per game).

"When you say a kid wore out our souls, Randal wore out our souls," Lowery said.

Shaw, a Centralia native who started more games than anyone in school history, became one of the most well-rounded players on the squad. A 76-percent free-throw shooter, the 6-7 forward made 52 3-pointers, averaged more than 31 minutes per game, and was second on the team in scoring and rebounding.

A history major, he was also an honorable mention pick on the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team.

Green and Coopwood were role players at the beginning of the season. Originally touted as a defensive stopper, Green became an offensive sparkplug during the team's longest winning streak of the season, as the Salukis took five straight toward the end of the year. Coopwood, a former walk-on, played five minutes in SIU's NIT win over Oklahoma State.

SIU's season ended at Arizona State in the second round of the NIT, as the Sun Devils won 65-51. The Salukis missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years, but earned a hard-fought victory against the Cowboys when all looked lost.

Bryan Mullins, a junior point guard who had started every game entering the postseason, finally succumbed to a stress fracture that had been lingering for weeks. SIU was also coming off a 54-49 loss to Northern Iowa at the MVC tournament, an event the Salukis knew they had to produce at to get a sniff of an at-large bid.

"They played hard, and you gotta give the seniors a lot of credit," said Mullins, who was awarded the team's most valuable player award. "They could have folded in the NIT when I went out, and they battled at Arizona State."

Five other awards were handed out. Sophomore Joshua Bone received the team's most improved award. Green won the Mr. Hustle Award. Shaw won the Courage Award, Falker won the outstanding rebounder honor, and Mullins picked up the Seymour L. Bryson Scholarship Award.

The two-hour and 10-minute ceremony culminated with a highlight video. Lowery may have summed it up earlier when he spoke about his team's effort in the face of injuries late in the season.

"This was a tough year, but a close friend said to me 'You're never a failure until you stop trying.' And we never stopped trying," he said.