Pleasant surprises

College basketball fans have had plenty to root for this year

It's a great time to be a college basketball fan if you live in Southeast Missouri.

First, there's the state's premier public university, Mizzou, that has been ranked in the Top 5 and has designs on going far in the NCAA tournament. First-year coach Mike Haith has the Tigers playing the best we've seen in Columbia for quite some time.

Then there's Scott County Central grad Otto Porter who is a main cog in Georgetown's unsuspected ascension into one of the best teams in the Big East Conference and one of the top 15 teams in the country. You can read more about Porter in today's sports section on Page 1B. He's a good, well-rounded kid who is impressing his coach and the national pundits as well. In other words, doing what we all knew he could do, and representing Southeast Missouri with great effort and class.

And then there's Southeast Missouri State University. The Redhawks aren't world beaters, but they've been a nice surprise after a handful of tough seasons. For much of this season, they've been ranked No. 2 in the Ohio Valley Conference and recently gave the nationally ranked Murray State Racers a scare. For the first time in a long time, there is good reason to think that Southeast could make some noise in the conference tournament this year.

Southeast has another matchup with the Racers this week, this time at home. If there's one regular-season home game you've got to see this year, it's this one. Don't miss out. Murray State will bring a large contingent up to the Show Me Center. It's up to Redhawk Nation to give the Redhawks a significant home court advantage. They will need every ounce of it to have a chance to knock off Murray State.

The game is at 7 p.m.

We'll see you there. Go Redhawks!