SIUE basketball will be headed to their first-ever NCAA Tournament after knocking off SEMO in the OVC Tournament final.
General Information:
Team: SIU Edwardsville
Location: Edwardsville, Illinois
Record: 22-11 (13-7)
Head Coach: Brian Barone (6th season, all at SIUE)
What to know about SIUE basketball:
The Cougars are headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. They are a relatively new team to Division I, joining in 2008. If you haven’t heard much about them until now, it’s because they didn’t get their first winning season until 2022-23. Head coach Brian Barone has completely transformed this program, this year being their first with a winning record in conference, going 13-7 in the OVC.
The Cougars are led by Ray’Sean Taylor, one of the top scorers in mid-major basketball. He averages 19.3 PPG on the season and was the 2024-25 OVC Player of the Year. Taylor has had an incredible journey, tearing his ACL twice at the beginning of his college career. He’s battled through adversity to become a near 2,000-point scorer (48 points away) and has hit 297 threes in his career.
However, SIUE is far from a one-man show. Big man Ring Malith provides size at 6-foot-9 and off guard Brian Taylor is a good second option. Taylor only averages 2.6 three-point attempts per game, but he drills 47.1% of them, so when he shoots, it always seems like it’s going in.
As a team, SIUE basketball rebounds well and defends. They will make games sloppy and Ray’Sean Taylor can take over at times. However, the Cougars struggle in a few areas, with the most pressing being at the charity stripe, where they only knock down 67.6% of their shots. This can be a crusher in the NCAA Tournament.
NCAA Tournament prediction for SIUE basketball: Round of 64 Exit
Projected seed: 16
Due to not-so-great metrics and playing in a conference that ranks near the bottom of college basketball, SIUE basketball will likely be a 16-seed and play one of the top teams in the country. They knocked off top-seed SEMO in the OVC Tournament championship game, which is a great feat in itself. But knocking off Auburn, Duke, or Florida seems like a far fetch.
If they get stuck in a 16-seed play-in game, the Cougars are more than capable of making it to the actual bracket, but I can’t see this team being the next UMBC or Fairleigh Dickinson. Unless Ray’Sean Taylor goes off for 30+ points, they don’t have the overall offense to keep up with the giants of college hoops.