CARBONDALE - Six home losses was not acceptable last season, or any season, for the Southern Illi-nois University men's basketball team.

The Salukis won 33 straight home games between 2003-06, and made the 47-year old SIU Arena a dangerous place to play. Last year's 8-6 record was the worst at home since 1997-98, and this year's team knows if they're going to return the program into a conference contender, it has to start in Car-bondale.

"Everybody on the team, that's what they were most disappointed about last year," SIU sophomore guard Kevin Dillard said at Monday's media day. "We all were winners in high school, coming in, and last year was kind of a drop for us all. We got to start establishing ourselves back in the conference. We're not getting the respect that we came here for. Before we got here, SIU got a lot of respect. We're trying to re-establish that this year. We're trying to win more games, and get our toughness back."

SIU, which finished 13-18 last season, will get a lot of opportunities to re-establish itself in front of the home fans this season. Including its two exhibition games, the Salukis will play 17-of-31 regular-season games at the arena. Five of them, including the ESPNU BracketBuster series, will be nonconference games.

Alabama State, the defending champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Western Ken-tucky highlight the non-conference home schedule. The Hilltoppers, like Alabama State, made the NCAA tournament last season. WKU returns four starters off last year's team and was picked as the favorite for the Sun Belt Conference's East Division.

"We lost six games at home, and I think we had previously lost six in six years," said SIU coach Chris Lowery. "They have to understand that. I haven't talked to them much yet, just because I want to get them focused on getting better. You have to win your home games. Winning home games is the key to any season, especially in the conference. You win all of your home games, and split on the road, you have a chance to win a conference championship."

SIU plays its second exhibition game at 3:05 p.m. Saturday against Division II Southern Indiana. USI is coached by former Saluki associate head coach Rodney Watson.

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5087