COURT SESSION: INDIANS BACK AT HOME AFTER MONTANA TRIP

We had a good trip to Montana and brought back some positive things despite not reaching our goal of winning the tournament.

The University of Montana does an excellent job of putting on the tournament. It was very well organized and the people at Montana and at the Double Tree Hotel where we stayed couldn't have been nicer.

Montana has hosted the tournament for 20 years and, after they beat us Friday night, has reached the tournament finals every year.

We didn't deserve to win Friday because we did not play well and were outrebounded 29-13 in the second half as the Grizzlies came from behind to win 60-48.

The good thing about a tournament this time of year is that it provides you the same type of experience we will have if we reach the OVC Tournament finals again this year. It is two games in two nights with good tournament intensity.

It would have been better if we had advanced to the finals and played in the tournament atmosphere that Montana and Idaho experienced Saturday night, but it still provided us with the opportunity to play back-to-back games with very little time to prepare for the second game.

You never know how a team will respond after their first loss of the season, but I thought our team really bounced back well, especially the three seniors. We got great effort Saturday night and got a 55-44 win over a Robert Morris team that took West Virginia to the buzzer at West Virginia.

Our seniors, Roderick Johnson, Brian Bunche and Mike Branson, combined for 38 rebounds Saturday. Johnson made the all-tournament team and it was certainly an honor he earned. In the two games in Montana, Roderick had 30 points and 25 rebounds.

At this point in the season we aren't where we want to be offensively, but I am very pleased with our defense. We are allowing only 59 points per game and we're holding our opponents to just 39 percent from the floor and 29 percent from three. I'm really pleased with our defensive execution, intensity and effort. That is the biggest reason we are 6-1.

Offensively, we need to do a better job on our fast break. We have to score more points and we have to improve our offensive output in a hurry because our next three games are against our best three non-conference opponents in Arkansas State, Bradley and Southern Illinois.

I designed the schedule this way in order to give our new players a chance to get ready for the tough three-game non-conference schedule we face between this Saturday and Jan. 2.

Saturday night's game against Arkansas State at the Show Me Center will be a big test for us. They were an NCAA Tournament team last year and I know they want to get back at us after we beat them in Jonesboro last season.

A big crowd would really help us, and hopefully you'll be rewarded with a Southeast victory.

Gary Garner is the head men's basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University