COURT SESSION: INDIANS BACK HOME AFTER RUGGED WEEK

It is good to be back home and finally have a full week of practice. We had three games on the road last week with only one practice to prepare for each game.

This week we will have a chance to work on what we need to work on, not just prepare for another team.

The Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday games in the OVC this year are really taking a toll on the players and teams. I talked with coach (Mark) Gottfried at Murray before our game Saturday and he felt we were hurting our league by compressing the season in order to get the OVC Tournament championship game on ESPN.

It begs the question -- is it worth one game on national television? It is certainly something the coaches will discuss after the season.

In a couple of weeks we have road games on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, meaning our players will miss all but one day of classes that week. That makes it tough on everybody.

We are home for the next three games and they are real crucial for us as we battle to get one of the top four seeds in the OVC Tournament so we can host a first-round game. Hosting a first-round game helps your chances of advancing to Nashville and once you get on a neutral court, anything can happen.

We play Eastern Illinois Saturday night and the Panthers have an excellent basketball team with one of the top players in the conference in 6-5 guard Rick Kaye.

Eastern is 6-2 in the league and Kaye leads the league in scoring with 20.9 points per game. I'm really impressed with Kaye. He can beat you in a lot of different ways.

Even though we got just one win in our three road games last week, I thought we saw some positive things. First of all, our team played hard in all three games.

Bud Eley returned to the court for the three road games and I probably played him more minutes than I should have, but it is good conditioning for Bud, who had been out of all action for over a month. He still shows the effects of the layoff, but with a full week of practice this week, he should start returning to form.

Nathan Owen had good games at Tennessee-Martin and Murray State. He is starting to play like he isn't a freshman any more. His defense has really improved and he had 10 points in the second half at Murray State.

Owen's development will help me give Cory Johnson more rest during games and that should improve his output. Cory has played a lot of minutes during the first half of the OVC season.

Basketball is a great game, but sometimes it will drive you nuts. At Tennessee-Martin, guards Jason Ohlsen and Robin Cude were a combined 10-14 from 3-point range as the Skyhawks beat us in double-overtime.

The next game against Eastern Illinois, Ohlsen and Cude were a combined 1-15 from three and Eastern prevailed in overtime. It's hard to figure.

Three straight wins at the Show Me Center would certainly help our chances of hosting an OVC Tournament game and it all starts Saturday night with Eastern Illinois. I hope you will be there to help us out.

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