GAME DAY!: GARNER HOPES TEAM IN RIGHT FRAME OF MIND

SALT LAKE CITY -- Southeast Missouri State University basketball coach Gary Garner tried his best Wednesday to keep his players in the right frame of mind for today's game, the biggest in the history of the school.

It had to be challenging considering the scores of media representatives hovering in the Huntsman Center, where the Indians, seeded 13th, will take on No. 4 Louisiana State University in Southeast's first-ever appearance in the Division I NCAA Tournament.

Garner, aside from a required press conference where Roderick Johnson and Mike Branson both spoke, basically isolated his players from the media.

"Any time you go in for the first time, you have to be concerned" about distractions, said Garner. "We've never had this much news media before."

The Indians held two practices on Wednesday -- one in the morning at a local high school and the other at 1 p.m. Utah time at the Huntsman Center.

Southeast got most of its work in during the first practice, which was private.

The players basically just shot around in the Huntsman Center for about 40 minutes. The public practice is just as much for the media as it is for the team, but it does give the players an opportunity to become accustomed to the environment.

"We just wanted to get a feel," said Garner. "We haven't played in as big of arenas as most of the teams here have."

The Huntsman Center, home of the University of Utah Utes, seats almost 15,000 people about twice the capacity of the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau

But Branson and Johnson seemed unfazed by the hoopla, handling the press conference with confidence.

"We've been settling down and trying to treat it like a regular game," said Johnson.

Said Branson: "As a team we've been staying focused. This is the first experience for all of us, but we're not happy just to be here."

When asked if they were enjoying the mountainous scenery of Salt Lake City, Branson and Johnson had a been-there-done-that approach.

"We played in Montana earlier this year," Branson said. "So it's nothing new."

Like Southeast, none of LSU's players has ever been to the tournament. The Tigers have not been to the "Big Dance" since 1993.

The Indians may be at a disadvantage considering they haven't played in 11 days since their OVC Tournament championship win over Murray State.

The last time Southeast had such a layoff the team lost 61-52 to Southern Illinois University.

"We've practiced hard and we've done more scrimmaging," said Garner. The layoff, he said, "is a concern."

And this layoff was just more than some time off.

All last week Southeast players were receiving enormous amounts of accolades from Southeast fans all over campus and in Cape Girardeau.

"I've been real proud of the guys," said Garner. "When we got to Salt Lake City that helped us focus. There was just tremendous fanfare back in Cape Girardeau."