The Southern Illinois basketball team suffered an upset defeat against UIC basketball on Thursday in the first round of the Missouri Valley Tournament. The Salukis were the six seed in the tournament and the Flames were the 11 seed. Southern Illinois was the favorite to win the game, but they went down in double OT, 84-82. The school then made a surprising decision after the game and fired head coach Bryan Mullins.

Bryan Mullins has been the head coach of the Southern Illinois basketball team for the past five seasons, and he had been pretty successful during his time there. He also played college basketball for the Salukis back in the day. Now, Southern Illinois is moving on.

“Southern Illinois is expected to part ways with Bryan Mullins, source told SI,” Kevin Sweeney said in a tweet. “SIU’s season ended Thursday with a brutal loss to UIC. The former Saluki point guard was 86-68 in five years on the job, including 42 wins over the last two seasons.”

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Thursday's loss to UIC was certainly not the way that Southern Illinois wanted their season to end. In order to make the NCAA Tournament, the Salukis needed the automatic qualifier from winning the Missouri Valley Tournament. That didn't happen, and they finish the year with a 19-13 overall record and an 11-9 mark in conference play.

Southern Illinois will now be in the market for a new head coach in the offseason. This certainly isn't how the Salukis imagined their conference tournament week going. It should be an interesting offseason for them as they look for the next coach to lead the charge.