Column: Hard-luck 'Hawks need to shift focus to their health

The analysis of Southeast Missouri State’s men’s basketball squad losing 80-60 to UT Martin on Thursday at the Show Me Center is as follows:

* The Redhawks allowed the Skyhawks to shoot 56 percent from the floor

* SEMO got obliterated on the glass 38-24

* And the hosts couldn’t buy a basket in shooting 32 percent overall and missing 19 of 22 3-pointers

“I’m really disappointed across the board,” third-year Redhawk coach Brad Korn said.

It was a “disappointing” outing, but let’s be fair and take a big-picture view of the situation.

Once again, SEMO (9-11, 4-3 Ohio Valley Conference) was depleted due to a key injury, this time, its best player, sophomore guard Phillip Russell.

The current OVC Player of the Week tweaked an ankle in Wednesday’s practice and alerted the Redhawk coaching staff minutes before Thursday’s tip-off that despite taking part in a shootaround earlier in the day and even pregame warm-ups, he “didn’t feel like he could go and move and push off on it,” according to Korn.

The Redhawk offense looked out of sorts all evening, but the remaining guys played hard enough to be within 10 points with 9:21 remaining but ran out of steam.

“It’s not like (injuries) is something new that we’ve dealt with,” Korn said. “From an injury standpoint or an illness standpoint, the whole season has been plagued by injuries and guys being out, key guys being out.”

Which brings us to THIS analysis: Redhawk fans should begin to focus on the OVC Tournament in March.

SEMO has been bombarded by injuries and illnesses since August. The roster has not been healthy for a single day.

Second-year guard Gavyn Elkamil is out for the year with a leg injury.

Freshman center David Idada, who hails from the Netherlands, could gain U.S. citizenship more expeditiously than the NCAA has been in ruling on his eligibility this year.

And on the entire roster, only one player, senior center Nate Johnson, who ironically has a history of injuries, has played in all 20 games this season.

I wrote in November that the only thing that mattered for this program was competing in the OVC regular season and tournament, and that is still accurate – sort of.

I’ve adjusted my opinion to now believe the only thing that matters is getting 100 percent healthy by Valentine’s Day, and then closing the regular season with four strong games (two of which are at the Show Me Center), and then let’s get ready to roll in Evansville in the OVC Tournament, because, and this is absolutely indisputable, IF the Redhawks are healthy, this team is talented enough, skilled enough, defends well enough, and plays hard enough, to win the OVC Tournament and earn the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

With Thursday’s loss, the Redhawks are just one game out of first place (along with UT Martin, Morehead State, and Southern Indiana), behind league leaders SIU Edwardsville and Tennessee Tech. So, a regular-season championship is certainly still attainable. But the macro issue is getting healthy.

If SEMO is still battling health issues as it closes the regular season, then it will have a hard time advancing in the postseason. But if all bodies are available when they step on the court at the Ford Center, there’ll be no team in the league that wants to deal with Korn’s kids.

SEMO has already beaten SIU Edwardsville and Morehead State and will host Tennessee Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The availability of Russell on Saturday is unknown at this point, as well as sophomore forward Kobe Clark, who injured a hamstring late in Thursday’s game and left the arena on crutches.

With 40+ hours remaining before Saturday’s tip, there is still plenty of time for someone to get the flu or test positive for Covid or injure a knee at Burrito-Ville. However, all of that is inconsequential.

Get to Evansville healthy and the Redhawks will have a chance at making history. Just focus on that and nothing else for right now.

Tom Davis is a freelance sports reporter for Semoball.com