Challenging road awaits Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team

I know I've said this before, but the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball schedule finally should be released by the university any day.

That's because the Redhawks recently set their third and final guarantee game that generates revenue for the athletic department.

Southeast will receive $90,000 for visiting Oregon on Nov. 20.

I previously wrote that the Redhawks would get $90,000 for a season-opening trip to Missouri and $70,000 for a date at Bradley.

That's a total of $250,000, minus travel expenses. Not a bad payday for an athletic department always looking for ways to bring in money.

And it means a tough opening stretch for the Redhawks, who will play all three of those money games in the season's first 10 days.

Southeast opens against the Tigers on Nov. 11 and faces Bradley on Nov. 16 before the Nov. 20 trip to Oregon.

I also previously wrote about most of Southeast's other nonconference opponents and now have filled in some that were missing.

Home matchups will be against SMU (a return from last season), Missouri-Kansas City (another return from last season), Miami of Ohio (a return from the 2009-10 BracketBuster), Southeastern Louisiana and NAIA squads Harris-Stowe and Hannibal-LaGrange.

Other road dates include Arkansas State (the Red Wolves played at the Show Me Center last season), Sacramento State (the BracketBuster opponent at the Show Me Center last season), Central Arkansas and the BracketBuster.

That's in addition to the new 16-game Ohio Valley Conference schedule after the 18-game, true round-robin league slate of recent years.

It's a pretty challenging schedule with some appealing home dates. And even though football is on most Southeast fans' minds these days, basketball season will be here before you know it.

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The Southeast football team definitely still is a work in progress, but I thought there was plenty to like from Saturday's first scrimmage of preseason camp.

Southeast's offense dominated early, scoring touchdowns on its first three series, but the defense asserted itself and kept the offense out of the end zone the rest of the way.

I'm not saying any of these guys are going to turn out to be Henry Harris, but Southeast appears to have a solid group of running backs and the retooled offensive line did a good job.

Junior Renard Celestin, who rushed for 100 yards on nine carries and ripped off a 65-yard touchdown, ran well. So did redshirt freshman Lennies McFerren, who was on the first unit Saturday. He picked up 55 yards on seven carries.

Junior Levi Terrell, a transfer from Division II Nebraska-Omaha where he put up big numbers the past two seasons, and true freshman AJ Cobb also were impressive.

The same goes for true freshman quarterback Trey Lewis from Sikeston High School, who very well could turn out to be Southeast's signal caller of the future.

Overall the Redhawks displayed plenty of athleticism on both sides of the ball.

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B.J. Smith's recent hiring by Highland (Kan.) Community College means that both former Southeast basketball coaches who left amid allegations of NCAA violations that resulted in the university being placed on probation are in the junior college ranks.

While Smith, Southeast's women's coach for four seasons from 2002 through 2006 before resigning under pressure, is at Highland, Scott Edgar will be entering his second season as the coach at Eastern Oklahoma State College.

Edgar, whose two-year tenure with the Redhawks ended with his firing in December of 2008, led Eastern Oklahoma to quite a turnaround in 2010-11. The Mountaineers won 19 games following a winless 2009-10 campaign.

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Congratulations to the Southeast women's gymnastics program for being named the 2011 academic national champion by the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women.

This marks an amazing fourth time in five years that the Redhawks have won the prestigious award.

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High school football practice only began a week ago but teams already are preparing to hit the field against outside competition. Scrimmage-type jamborees are Friday.

And we're less than two weeks away from the Aug. 26 season openers.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian