COLUMN: SEMO’s path through the bracket, and my fandom

So, this is it.

On TruTv at at 5:40 p.m. (CST) Tuesday, March 14, all eyes will be on Southeast Missouri State and Texas A&M Corpus Christi at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio.

SEMO has waited 23 years to return to March Madness. Now they will kick off the tournament as the opening act.

If the Redhawks win, it will be their first ever NCAA Tournament win in school history, and they will advance to the first round to take on top-seeded Alabama on Thursday, March 16, in Birmingham, Alabama.

A St. Peter’s type run would likely have the Redhawks start Alabama and meet Arizona in the Elite Eight.

For someone like me who covers SEMO but is also a graduate student at Alabama and an Arizona graduate, this run could be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare.

I mention Arizona because the Wildcats the No. 1 seed in SEMO’s region during its first tournament appearance in 2000.

For schools like SEMO, the tournament experience around the games is more memorable than the game itself.

“When we flew out there, it's kind of surreal, it was just pretty cool,” said Matt Morris, a walk-on forward from the 2000 SEMO Indians (at the time). “Arizona and Texas were also at the same site. We'd walk up, they'd be coming on and they had like, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Gardner, Richard Jefferson, like they had all these pros. And it was cool just being like, ‘oh, we're on the same court as these guys.’

The sight was Salt Lake City, Utah, home of the Utes. SEMO was a 13th seed in 2000 and took LSU to a tight game till the end.

SEMO lost 64-61, but they won the crowd.

“At that point, the kind of neutral people would take the underdog side and started rooting for us,” Morris said. “It was a pretty tight game, the entire game. I think we ended up losing by three, but it was it was tight throughout and we kind of felt that support and that momentum to during the game.”

The Redhawks are a four-point underdog against the Islanders, so maybe they will have a chance to win the crowd again.

Dayton might not seem like the ideal place to start the tournament, but since 2011, it has its place in tournament history as the starting place for VCU’s Final Four run in 2011, and UCLA in 2021.

“You don't realize it at the time,” said Mike Branson, one of SEMO’s leading scorers back in 2000. “You'll realize years later just how special of an experience it is. There's a lot of really good players that don't get an opportunity to do what this team is gonna get to do but certainly you know you were a part of something really big when you walk in the gym. It just has a different feel. And that's the only way I can explain it. It has a big feel. It's another level you're playing on, and you will feel it, it'll be a very special time for them, and the just the support of the community and the university is second to none. It was incredible from when I was there and I'm sure I saw the selection show [Sunday] and I can see it's, as I would have expected, still there.”

So as the Redhawks finally play on national television, may the First Four be the start of their improbable and incredible run to the Final Four.

It would be a sweet dream for Southeast Missouri and a potentially beautiful nightmare for me.