There’s no matching March Madness for SIUE Cougars, even if they were no match for Houston
Well, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Cougars got their noses rubbed in it Thursday afternoon.
On national television, SIUE was drubbed, 78-40, by the Houston Cougars in a March Madness first-round tournament game at Intrust Bank Arena.
But at least the smaller-school Cougars got some good NCAA money just for making it this far, right?
If 40 grand is your idea of big money in today’s sports world, OK then.
Transportation, room and board expenses for a couple nights in Wichita was SIUE’s financial reward for its first NCAA men’s basketball tournament appearance since going Division 1 in 2008. About $40,000.
But the experience of going to the Big Dance for the first time? “Priceless” was not the word of choice for Collinsville High School and SIUE star Ray’Sean Taylor after a 38-point loss.
“I don’t like to lose. I’m definitely going to be mad about this game when I look back,” he said, shortly before being overcome with tears at the postgame podium.
In the little time he did allow to forecast the future, however, Taylor said pride for a Ohio Valley Conference championship team and, hey, one that did have leads of 2-0 and 4-2 over Houston, will win out in the end.
“We won a championship at the end of the day,” said Taylor, who finished with 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting. “so I think that’s going to cement everything I went through.”
The irony: Had SIUE won a First Four game Tuesday in Dayton against a similar opponent, as everybody originally thought would be scheduled, the OVC would have received one “unit” of NCAA tournament funds, which comes out to about $2.8 million. The team from Edwardsville would have received the biggest cut of that money and might have avoided a first-round matchup with the formidable Cougars.
But a couple of conference title game upsets meant the smaller Cougars got moved straight to the field of 64, thus drawing Houston.
Despite the lopsided score, despite the pittance from the NCAA moneywise, SIUE coach Brian Barone also had wet eyes when describing what the March Madness experience was worth.
“Talk about inspiring, this tournament in the way it’s impacted our program, our conference, our community,” Barone said. “A few years ago, we didn’t have any community, right? We were playing games over and over in front of nobody. But what these guys did, they showed a community what it’s like to be together. Everybody is together, and that’s just so special.”
There has been some talk of late from big-school basketball people that maybe the NCAA selection committee should do away with small to mid-major conference winners from receiving automatic March Madness bids. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, whose teams have been upset by smaller schools in some previous tournaments, sniffed that it’s something that’s “got to be looked at seriously” by the NCAA.
“While everybody likes the upsets in the first round I’m not sure if that’s true as it goes on,” Izzo told ESPN.
Is he kidding? Shocking first-round upsets have almost always happened in March Madness, which is why it is so popular nationally. People like Izzo will look at what happened here with SIUE and turn up their noses even more and say they didn’t belong. They’re wrong. But don’t just take my word for it; here’s what longtime Houston coach Kelvin Sampson had to say on the subject when I asked:
“The people who sit in these back rooms, who try to make decisions on kids’ experiences – some of those people forgot where they came from,” Sampson said. “I remember I coached at an NAIA school in Washington State. Those were the only jobs I could get when I was a young coach. Having a conference tournament and having a chance to play for this tournament, is a great incentive for teams.
“You never know if you can catch lightning in a bottle. Three wins, and you’re in. And once you’re in, you never know.”
Barone said he “could have done a better job” in coming up with a game plan for the Cougars, but it’s hard to see how he could have done anything to prevent Houston’s win. Houston shot 61.3 percent from the floor in the first half in getting a 52-24 lead. The second half was mostly all garbage time. Still, there were long hugs between Barone and his players as the final seconds wound down.
“I’m mad I can’t coach these guys tomorrow, or tonight. Not unless they want to have a late practice tonight or something,” he said.
Sampson, with the victory well in hand, said he actually spent the last four or five minutes focusing in on the SIUE players as much as his own.
Sure, SIUE was no match for Houston – a team picked by many to be the next national champion. But tell the numerous little kids in the packed stands wearing red SIUE sweatshirts, who screamed their lungs out for their players, that small schools don’t belong in the Big Dance. Tell that to the kids from Edwardsville area grade schools who got to put away the books and watch the 1 p.m. game. They had a day they’ll never forget, and that is the point to all of this stuff.
“I hope we never get to the point where we not allow everybody to get the chance to just be involved in this and make memories for them,” Sampson said. “This will be something that they’ll be able to show their kids one day, that we played in the greatest event in the world, which is March Madness.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 5:54 PM.
