He's the top scorer in the MAC, and ranks nationally in the top ten. Xavier Silas is basically all that Northern Illinois, and they have some very good local media surrounding them. But there was no mention, that I could find, of his status for the game against Toledo on Saturday. Fortunately for the Huskies they didn't need him (they won 75-70 in overtime), mostly because this is Toledo and every team with healthy hominids is able to win there. You don't need a 22-point-a-nighter to pour it on.
But still! How does this go unwritten about everywhere? I scoured the websites, message boards, and Twitter ... zilch. A deathly silent media blackout on Silas' ankle.
I mean, hell. We saw this sight of Silas on Wednesday against Central Michigan. You're gonna be remarkably curious after that.
I did see a mention on Twitter that Silas wouldn't play against Toledo, but it was from a sports bettor and there was no paper trail back to any source. While it turned out right, it was just not reliable enough to go on.
When I was en route to the game, I did hear on the radio that Silas was not going to play, but even the announcers weren't 100 percent sure. They qualified their observations with the phrase "looks like," as if perhaps he was just dwelling in the locker room and needed just 20 more minutes of rest before he was totally healthy.
And even after the game, we don't have any knowledge of the severity of that ankle. Will he play in the next game? Or the one after that? Is his career over at Northern Illinois, sinking any chances of getting to Cleveland for the MAC tournament?
I hate to say that it's rooted in apathy — I know that NIU fans are ready for this season to be done — but it's worth saying that with Silas in the lineup, they have at least a chance at victory. And no offense to Tim Toler, but even as he fueled NIU to a road victory with 19 points, he's not going to do that every night.
And I don't mean this to sound sulking, but maybe I'm the only one who cares this much. If that's the case, then that's cool; I'll just look at the box score and/or show up at the game to finally realize that he didn't play.