After sitting out a season, Winans leaps on to scene

It was with mixed emotions that Derek Winans sat out his first season as a member of the Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball program last year.

But all in all, Winans is confident the redshirt season he took was for the best.

"It was tough to watch games last year," said Winans, a former standout at Shawnee (Ill.) High School. "But it was the best thing for me. It gave me a year to mature."

The more mature Winans, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound guard, figures to receive plenty of playing time for the Indians during his rookie season as Southeast must replace its entire backcourt from a year ago.

"We think Derek is really going to help us," said Southeast coach Gary Garner. "He's a complete basketball player who plays with great intelligence. He is a tough kid who can score by shooting the three or finishing inside. I'm excited about his future at Southeast."

Winans had a storied prep career just across the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau. A resident of East Cape Girardeau, Ill., Winans averaged 27 points and 10 rebounds per game as a Shawnee senior, earning all-state and Southern Illinois co-player of the year honors.

An effective scorer from both the outside and inside, Winans showed off his prodigious leaping ability by winning the Illinois Class A slam-dunk championship two years ago. And he showed that skill off again recently during the Indians' 'Houck Madness 2001' by capturing the dunk title among his teammates, thrilling the crowd with some impressive jams.

"Derek is a tremendous leaper and he's an explosive player," Garner said.

Winans, who redshirted last season partly because of a leg injury that required surgery and partly because Southeast had a host of senior guards, was able to practice with the Indians after recovering from the surgery. He believes those workouts were a big factor in helping him progress.

"Practicing helped me with the maturity factor," he said. "It helped me realize how much different it is from high school. In high school I was the biggest player on the court a lot. Here, I'm the second smallest."

Winans, who was valedictorian of his Shawnee senior class and immediately became a Southeast Scholar Athlete last year with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, has no specific goals for his initial college season other than to help the Indians.

"I hope to contribute as much as I can, whether it's points, rebounds, defense," he said. "I just want to help the team any way that I can."

Whatever he does for the Indians, he knows he'll have plenty of crowd support.

"Playing close to home, I'll have a lot of family and friends at the games," he said with a grin. "It's going to be fun. I'm ready to go."