The Butler Bulldogs have gone through a lot of adversity in this young 2020-21 season and will have another tough task Monday against a 5-0 Southern Illinois squad that is hungry to prove its fast start is not just due to a soft early schedule.

Butler received bad news last week that East Tennessee State transfer Bo Hodges is academically ineligible for the season and also was dealt a blow with top scorer Aaron Thompson being unable to play in its loss Saturday to Indiana.

Thompson’s status for this game remains up in the air. If he can’t go, Butler might be in the same situation as the game against Indiana, in which it had to play with only seven players available.

Southern Illinois has allowed 66 points or fewer in each of its last four games and ranks sixth in the country in 3-point shooting percentage.

With Butler having yet to exceed 66 points in a game this season and rating in the bottom 10 in the country in steals per game, the Bulldogs find themselves on upset alert against a Salukis bunch that has five of its top six scorers shooting at 44.4 percent from 3-point range.

The play: Southern Illinois +9.