BEAUMONT — Lamar hadn’t started a season 8-1 in men’s basketball since the 1992-93 season until now.

This time last season, Lamar was 5-4 going into a game at UT Rio Grande Valley, which ended in a 95-81 defeat. Lamar was also 5-4 the season before and 2-6 in 2014 before winning five straight in Tic Price’s first full season as head coach.

The Cardinals have just one player, Zjori Bosha, remaining from 2014-15. So, it’s safe to say the newer Cards have been waiting for a season like this … to start so well, anyway.

“It’s been a lot of ups-and-downs, going from 3-15 [in the Southland] my freshman year to a 19-win season [overall] last year,” junior guard Nick Garth said. “This year, we’re rolling hot. We’re confident, undefeated on the road. We’re just looking to keep that going.”

With a victory at Southern Illinois (5-4) on Sunday afternoon, Lamar will be 9-1 for the first time since 1981-82.

“We’ve got four big road games coming up,” Garth said. Lamar will visit Duquesne in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and then play two games in the Las Vegas Tournament against California-Davis and either Radford or North Carolina A&T.

Each game features potential bracket busters, or mid-major teams who likely need to win their respective conference tournaments to get into the NCAA tournament but have a recent history of success. Lamar last went to the NCAAs in 2012 with a little-known point guard named Mike James.

“Coach always talks about building our résumé on the road,” Garth said. “We’ve got to have big wins, so we can look back and say this team is really good and they deserve a chance. But we’re working every day to win that championship so we can have a solid bid.”

Ask Price, and he’ll say the Cardinals don’t talk about the NCAAs.

“For us, we have different tests, and we passed the nonconference schedule,” he said. “Once we get into the schedule, it’s about passing the toughness test. We don’t even talk about the NCAA tournament. We’ve got to pass these tests prove ourselves worthy and then let the argument begin. Right now, it comes down to, either you’re going to be a contender or a pretender. Right now, it’s still a work in progress.”

Lamar has beaten big names in Tulsa and UTEP and defeated Coastal Carolina twice. Including a 12-point home loss to 2016 NCAA participant Cal State Bakersfield, Lamar is 3-1 against teams that have made the Big Dance in the past three years. (UTEP last went in 2010.)

Southern Illinois, of the Missouri Valley Conference, hasn’t been in the NCAAs since 2007 and can only try to add another negative mark to Lamar’s résumé in the schools’ first meeting since Jan. 9, 1971. The Salukis, who are coming off a 69-51 win over Jackson State, are 13-4 all-time against Southland Conference teams.

Six-foot-10 junior center Kavion Pippen, a nephew of NBA great Scottie Pippen, averages 13.7 points and 6.2 rebounds in his first season with the Salukis. He’s one of three Salukis averaging double figures in scoring.

Garth averages 12.3 points per game and has made seven starts this season, but he’s projected to come off the bench to give the Cards a mid-game spark.

“We definitely have good depth, and I can go deep in the bench, eight, nine and sometimes 10 guys, and it doesn’t affect what we’re trying to do,” Price said. “It comes down to, who is the guy in the moment? Who’s clicking? Who’s got it going that night? And that’s how we go it.”

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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews