FANS STAY WITH INDIANS, SHUMATE `WIN OR LOSE'

Southeast Missouri State University's Indian basketball team wraps up its home season Wednesday night. The Ron Shumate-coached team took significant strides during the season in making the ongoing and difficult conversion to NCAA Division I. Area basketball fans should use this last appearance by the Indians at the Show Me Center to supply an ample dose of appreciation for the program.

In their second season in the Ohio Valley Conference, the Indians have shown steady improvement, peppered only by occasional setbacks. (The road is particularly brutal for Division I newcomers, and Southeast has not escaped this affliction; the Indians have won just two of 11 games away from the Show Me Center this year.) As part of their 14-10 record, however, the Indians have lost two games to teams ranked in the Top 15 of the nation's big-school programs ... and lost two other close contests on the road.

Along the way, the Indians have taken their lumps against more-advanced programs without having their spirit crushed. They have produced a genuine star in Devon Lake, who has been named twice to all-tournament teams this year; he averages more than 22 points a games, putting him among the conference's top scorers and ranking him in the top 40 of all Division I players. The Indians beat the league's top team, Tennessee State, on Saturday and earlier came within seconds of defeating the team ranked second in the conference. Contrary to the darker predictions of some as the Division I move was considered, the Indians show they can play at this level.

In the Indian-friendly confines of the Show Me Center, the home team has shown itself to be intimidating. Southeast has compiled a 12-1 record at home. The home fans have responded to this effort; Southeast leads the Ohio Valley Conference in home attendance, drawing more than 5,500 people a game.

Ron Shumate, who last night picked up his 400th career win, continues to show himself as a masterful coach, bright and inventive along the sidelines and gifted in getting the most from his players. While accustomed to 20-plus win season, Shumate surely feels his stomach churn during these lean years. But patience will pay off, and the Southeast Missouri admirers have not given up. The coach's old line (one borrowed as a title of his upcoming biography) is that the home fans stay with you "win or win." Shumate misses the mark here ... the home fans are with him "win or lose."