DREAMBUILDERS' DOSE OF REALTY NO SURPRISE TO GARNER

Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner claims he was about the only person who expected such a shaky performance during last Saturday's exhibition opener against the Dreambuilders.

With only four players returning from last year's 20-9 team, and with basically eight new players on the roster -- many of them will be playing key roles -- Garner sure didn't expect the Indians to be flashing mid-season form.

That's why, although the surprising 72-68 loss to the Dreambuilders disappointed him, it certainly hasn't gotten him discouraged."I think I was the only one who knew what was coming. I don't even think my assistants did," said Garner with a laugh. "I knew it would be ugly. The Dreambuilders were a little better basketball team than we expected, but that wasn't our problem."You're always disappointed when you lose, but we're about where I expected us to be. It's going to take a while for us to be a good basketball team."Although Garner said he saw plenty of negatives in the game, he also pointed out several positives, including the play of senior center Brian Bunche, who scored nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds."Brian Bunche played better than anybody on the team," Garner said. "He's really improved."Our guards rebounded much better than our guards in the past and our free-throw shooting was good."Garner has said all along that this year's Indians will take some time to mesh, but he also believes it's a squad that will improve tremendously as time goes along."We're the kind of team that will improve by leaps and bounds," he said. "We're still just getting comfortable with each other. I don't even know who will start yet."With so many new players on the team, Garner said it was important that the Indians play so many early games at home. Southeast will have four of its first five contests at the Show Me Center, beginning Nov. 19 when Western Carolina comes to town."I've always talked about how important scheduling is," he said. "You have to have a schedule that fits your team. Having four of our first five games at home is very important for this team."I don't think we'll be a good basketball team early in the season, but we're hoping we can win games ugly for a while."

***

Southeast will have its second and final exhibition game Sunday when the Vasda USA Stars, a group of former collegiate players based out of Atlanta, visits the Show Me Center for a 3 p.m. tipoff.

The Indians had originally been scheduled to face a team from Russia, but that fell through. Then, Southeast was supposed to play a squad from the Dominican Republic, but that also fell through.

Former Southeast standout Devon Lake is a member of the Vasda squad. The 6-foot-3 guard, who has been playing professional basketball overseas, played at Southeast from 1989-93 and ranks as the school's fifth all-time leading scorer with 1,279 points.

Lake averaged 22.3 points per game during his senior season in 1992-93, which is the highest single-season scoring average for the Indians since Jewell Crawford averaged 22.4 points in 1983-84.

Lake scored 25 points as the Vasda USA Stars opened their exhibition series with a 112-66 loss to Tulsa Wednesday night. Vasda plays at Arkansas tonight and at Missouri-Kansas City Saturday.

***

Guard Antonio Short, one of three Indians who missed the first exhibition game with an injury, should be ready to play Sunday. Short, a junior-college transfer, had a sprained ankle.

The other two, freshman forward Demarcus Hence (tendonitis) and sophomore walkon guard Ryan Thomas (broken foot), will miss Sunday's game.

***

The November signing period began Wednesday but the Indians, who have two available scholarships, don't anticipate any early signings.