COURT SESSION: SE HOPES TO REACH ONE MORE GOAL WITH 2 MORE WINS

It is an exciting time of the year as we prepare for another trip to Music City Madness in Nashville.

We've achieved our first goal of the season by winning the OVC regular-season championship. It was a co-championship and we would have preferred an outright title, but it is a championship that our team deserved.

The championship gives our basketball program credibility. A program really hasn't arrived until it wins a championship. It gives you credibility with students, fans, the community and nationally in recruiting.

We can't be content with what we've done. Our next goal is to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament and we are just two wins from the field of 64. We have to continue to take it one game at a time because as we found out on Tuesday night, anything can happen on a given night in college basketball.

We dodged a bullet Tuesday night. Tennessee-Martin outplayed us and deserved to win the game, but the final shot didn't fall and we're headed to Nashville. After watching the game tape, I feel our offense played well but our defense that has carried us this season wasn't as good as usual. We seemed to lack intensity on defense that has carried us this season wasn't as good as usual. We seemed to lack intensity on defense and that is essential to be successful, particularly in tournament play.

Antonio Short really picked us up in the first half with 15 points and had a career high 18 points for the game. Antonio seems to be more and more comfortable in our offense and hopefully he is ready to really turn it on. It was good to see Mike Branson break out with some key baskets in the second half.

There are four excellent basketball teams headed to Nashville and any one of the four could win the title. Most people will look for a Southeast vs. Murray State final, but we both have tough games in the semifinals. Middle Tennessee is the hottest team in the league right now after winning 10 of its final 12 games and Eastern Illinois has excellent 3-point shooters. When the threes fall for the Panthers, they can beat anybody.

Our focus has to be totally on Middle Tennessee. We have two wins over the Blue Raiders this season and that will be even more motivation for them. We will have to be ready and we will have to play as a team.

We head to Nashville as a basketball family. We have to help each other. We don't have a star player, but we have a lot of players who know their role.

As this team has really pulled together as a family, I have to give credit to the three seniors, Roderick Johnson, Mike Branson and Brian Bunche for providing the leadership to help us develop as a team.

Our fans are also a great source of support for this team. We didn't have as big a crowd as usual on Tuesday night, but you fans that were there certainly created a great atmosphere. You were there to give us strength when we needed it and we simply might not have won without you there helping us. Thank You!

I know a lot of fans are making the trip to Nashville. It should be a great weekend of basketball. I hope you have fun and I hope our team is ready to elevate play to a championship level. I'll see you there.

Gary Garner is the head basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University.