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Season on the bubble

Dynamic duo provides punch for Saluki lineup

Jermaine Dearman, Kent Williams can be counted on for big plays.

By JOHN C. COTEY, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published February 15, 2003

Jermaine Dearman was not supposed to play against Northern Iowa, but he did, scoring 15 and grabbing a season-high 14 rebounds on a hurt ankle.

Pow!

Southwest Missouri State was not supposed to lose, not with a three-point lead and seven seconds left, but Kent Williams made two free throws and a layup to make it so.

Wam!

And poor Drake, which lost 65-64 to Southern Illinois thanks to a 16-point outing by Dearman, and Bradley, which watched Williams score 22 and Dearman 20 in an SIU victory.

Boof!

"They are," said Southwest Missouri State coach Barry Hinson, "the Batman and Robin of the Missouri Valley Conference."

The Salukis dynamic duo is heating up. SIU has won 12-of-13 in 2003, the only loss at Creighton. There have been the aforementioned thrillers, as well as an overtime win over Northern Iowa (Williams scored 22), a nail-biter over a red-hot shooting Evansville team (Dearman had 15 and the key basket), and a win over Wichita State as Dearman scored a career-high 26.

Coach Bruce Weber decided if he sent up the bat signal, his stars would respond.

"You hope your seniors are the guys that make the plays when it counts," he said. "The experienced teams with seniors like that, those are the ones that make the run for championships. Now it's in their hands, and I think with 6-7 games left, both guys have risen up and stepped up their game.

"We joke a lot about Jermaine because he calls himself Big Game, but it was nice yesterday to see him in the paper say every game is big game from now on."

That the only starting seniors have put SIU into the NCAA Tournament picture is of little surprise to coaches of opposing teams.

"Those guys, they mean everything to that team," said Illinois-Chicago assistant Lynn Mitchem, who was at SIU during the duo's first two seasons. "Kent Williams is what America is all about, the ultimate team player who works hard and does what he needs to do. What better person to have the ball at the end of the game; and if not, hey, give it to Dearman. They're two peas in a pod."

With a 1-4 record his first season at Southern Illinois in 1998 and questioning if he made the right call leaving his 18-year stint as a Purdue assistant, Weber attended the prestigious KMOX/Coca-Cola Shootout high school tournament at the Kiel Center in St. Louis in early December.

He sat high in the stands. Really high.

"I didn't want anyone to see me," he joked.

He was there to watch his first signee, Williams, playing against a team led by current Chicago Bull Jamal Crawford. By halftime, Williams had more than 20 points.

"So I moved down a little bit," Weber said.

As Williams piled up points, Weber inched closer to the court.

Williams scored 30 ... then 40 ... then 45.

"All of a sudden he had a chance to break Teddy Dupay's record of 48 points, and there I was, by the sidelines with all the other coaches, and they were high-fiving me," Weber said. "I knew from that point on we got a steal."

Williams set the Kiel Center record, scoring 49, a feat considering the tournament had hosted the likes of Crawford, Stephon Marbury, Kevin Garnett and Penny Hardaway.

Had Williams waited to sign, the performance likely would have earned him some offers. And truthfully, he has admitted, he had his eye on Illinois.

"But I grew up so close to Carbondale, always went to their games as a kid," Williams said. "It was a good place for me."

He became the face of the program. The heart of the program. The program.

In the spring of that first season, Weber signed Dearman, arguably the most skilled player he has coached, and the other bookend in his grand plan.

Unlike the steady Williams, Dearman was an emotional player prone to ups and downs, intermittently brilliant and bamboozling.

There were no 49-point games on his resume, and if there had been, surely they would have been followed by a six-point outing. That, and poor grades, ensured Dearman would be there when Weber came calling.

"He was inconsistent, and his emotions would get the best of him," Weber said. "I watched him in high school and he'd have 20 in the first half and then get a foul and then get nothing in second half. It was pretty tough to sneak anyone out of Indiana, but it just happened that year there were just so many great players in the state.

"Plus they probably saw Jermaine too much and saw his inconsistencies. We didn't see him that much."

Dearman never attained the consistency Williams did. Kid Kent could do no wrong; Dearman would drive you nuts.

But that is the allure of such a player. You stomach the single-digit games for the last second winners, the big-game performances, that hint, that promise, of something spectacular.

Like last year's NCAA Tournament. There, he entered SIU lore, scoring 42 in wins against Texas Tech and Georgia. "That's why he's Big Game Jermaine," Weber said.

The cornerstones of what many called the Missouri Valley Conference's best recruiting class that year, Williams and Dearman have made their mark. Williams has started all 120 games he has played, and Dearman has played in every one.

Along with Weber, they have steered the team onto the college hoops map after three straight losing seasons. Their careers are shaped by winning (71 times), but defined by last year's appearance in the Sweet 16.

Their legacy is all that is left to complete. Weber thinks now they are showing what they want their legacy to be defined by: A Missouri Valley Conference title, which would require beating Creighton in their home finale March 1, and an NCAA Tournament bid, then perhaps a run as sweet as last year's.

"They got a little taste of that Sweet 16 last year and you know they want to go back," Mitchem said. "They can. They got the heart of a lion, and I'll tell you, you can go a long way with the heart of a lion."

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