Edgar eager to see pieces come together on the court

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Scott Edgar believes he has plenty of pieces to mold the Redhawks into an Ohio Valley Conference contender.

And once those pieces come together, Edgar figures the Redhawks will be a dangerous team.

"I like my team," said Edgar, who is in his second season with the Redhawks. "I think we have a lot of pieces, and at some point in the season, I think people won't want to play against us.

"Everything, the exhibition schedule, the nonconference schedule, is geared toward being the best we can be for the OVC season."

The Redhawks were hampered during the preseason as senior center Mike Rembert was still recovering from knee surgery and figured to miss some early games.

Still, the Redhawks return plenty of experience from Edgar's first squad that went 11-20 overall and a sixth-place 9-11 in the 11-team OVC.

That was a significant improvement from the Redhawks' 10th-place OVC finish in 2005-06, when they won four league games and were 7-20 overall.

Edgar said he hopes the Redhawks can seriously contend for the OVC championship, but he also cautions that Southeast is still in only its second season under his system.

"I'd like to think so. I'd like to expect to," Edgar said when asked if the Redhawks can compete for the OVC title. "That's one of the reasons I wanted the Southeast Missouri job. There are championship expectations there."

The Redhawks return four starters, including their leading scorer in senior forward Brandon Foust (12.1 ppg) and fellow double-figure scorer senior swingman David Johnson (10.2 ppg).

Rembert led the Redhawks in rebounding (5.8 rpg) last year and was their No. 3 scorer (9.9 ppg).

The other returning starter is sophomore point guard Roderick Pearson (8 ppg, team-high 68 assists).

Other returning letter winners are sophomore guard Marcus Rhodes (6.5 ppg), sophomore forward Jajuan Maxwell (5.1 ppg), sophomore guard Johnny Hill (3.6 ppg) and sophomore guard Jimmy Drew (1.7 ppg), although Maxwell will likely be redshirted after undergoing knee surgery recently.

Edgar expects solid contributions from his five scholarship newcomers, including the lone scholarship freshman, 6-foot-10, 290-pound center Will Bogan from Bell City High School.

Sophomore forward Calvin Williams is a transfer from Colorado who practiced with the team last year but could not participate in games under NCAA transfer rules.

The other first-year players, all junior college transfers, are swingman Jaycen Herring, guard Kenard Moore and point guard Hank Harris.

"Everybody has had their moments," Edgar said of the preseason and the early part of the schedule.

Edgar said he would like to rev up his fast and furious style even more this year, although he knows the Redhawks need to cut down on their turnovers and improve their defensive performance.

Southeast averaged the most turnovers in the OVC last year (17 per game) and ranked last in the league in scoring defense (76.9 points per game) and field-goal percentage defense (47.7).

All three figures ranked in the bottom 25 among the nation's 325 Division I teams.