GARNER: SOLD ON COACHING; SOUTHEAST COACH FINDS HIS DREAM HOUSE IS GYMNASIUM

All it took to tell Gary Garner that his life's work was meant to be spent coaching basketball was a two-year stint in real estate that was as frustrating as it was successful.

Garner had just been fired -- somewhat surprisingly -- at Drake after the 1988 season. Unsure about what the future held in store for him, he spent the next two years in real estate sales.

"I was doing real well and I was going to manage an office of about 60 agents," he recalled. "But the two years I was out of coaching, it was the most miserable time of my life. I knew I had to get back into basketball."

Southeast Missouri State University fans are no doubt elated with Garner's decision. Now in his third season as the Indians' coach, he has led the program to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament on the Division I level. The Indians are 24-6, by far their best-ever Division I record, topping last year's 20-9 mark that was at the time the high-water mark for the D-I Indians.

"What has happened this season is just tremendous exposure for our basketball program," said Garner. "It's great for not only the program but the university and the entire community."

The 56-year-old Garner, a West Plains native, can't really pinpoint the time he decided he wanted to become a coach. He just knows that basketball was always such a major part of his life.

"I know I loved to play the game of basketball and I couldn't imagine basketball not being a big part of my life," he said. "When I did start coaching, I knew I wouldn't want to do anything else. Then when I was out of it for two years, I really knew that I was supposed to be coaching."

A second-team All-Big 8 Conference guard at the University of Missouri, Garner began his coaching career in 1967 at Kemper Military Academy, a junior college. He spent the next 10 years at two junior colleges, followed by one year as head coach at Missouri Southern before returning to his alma mater as an assistant under Norm Stewart from 1977-81.

Then came what looked like Garner's big break as he took over the relatively obscure program at Drake in 1981. But his seven-year stint in Des Moines, Iowa, turned out to be bittersweet at best.

Garner had plenty of high moments on the court at Drake. He led the Bulldogs to the 1986 NIT, only their third postseason berth in 20 years. He was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year once, was runner-up for that honor once and became the school's third all-time winningest coach with a 95-104 record.

But Garner was fired after the 1987-88 season despite compiling a 50-39 record over the previous three campaigns. A new president and several other new administrators were hired at Drake and they evidently thought somebody else could take the Bulldogs to national prominence. Since Garner left, Drake has floundered as one of the country's weaker programs, never coming close to matching what Garner did.

"It bothered me a little bit. Sure it did," said Garner of what happened to him at Drake. "When you feel like you're doing a pretty good job and then that happens to you, it's very disappointing. But you have to move on."

So Garner moved on to real estate, which he soon found out wasn't for him. He got back into coaching, as an assistant at Tulsa for one season, and then rejoined the head coaching ranks at Fort Hays (Kan.) State.

In six seasons at Fort Hays, Garner's teams went 138-44. He guided the Tigers to their first-ever Division II national championship in 1995-96, when they went 34-0. Over a two-year period between 1995 and 1997, Fort Hays had a 49-game winning streak, the fourth-longest in the history of college basketball. Also during that time, Garner was the nation's winningest collegiate coach with a 63-2 record.

Garner admits that, despite all his success at Fort Hays, he wondered if he would have the opportunity to get back into the Division I head coaching ranks.

"You always hope to, but you never know if it's going to happen," he said.

Garner received the opportunity at Southeast when he was hired in June of 1997 to take over a young Division I program that was not only coming off a 12-18 season but was about to be placed on NCAA probation.

Since then, the sailing has perhaps been smoother than even the optimistic Garner could have envisioned. Garner's first Southeast team went 14-13 and had the fans excited. His second Southeast squad went 20-9, came within a buzzer shot of making the NCAA Tournament and had the fans extremely fired up.

This year, Garner's third Indian team captured a share of its first OVC regular-season title, won its first OVC Tournament championship, will make its first NCAA Tournament appearance and has the fans in a frenzy.

"I never had any kind of timetable set when I took this job. You just try to do it as quick as you can," he said. "We worked really hard every year and just tried to do the best job we could. I thought all the things were in place to have an OVC championship type program. We have a nice arena, great fan support, a great university, Cape is a great city. But we might have done it a little quicker than we thought we would."

Garner, who has a 306-191 record as a collegiate head coach, has always stressed defense, and it's no coincidence that this year's Southeast team led the OVC in every major statistical defensive category while ranking high nationally in several.

"To have a chance to win championships, you have to be a good defensive basketball team," Garner said. "I don't think you can win with only an offensive team. The stronger a defensive team you are, it gives you a chance to win when the ball isn't going in the hole."

The personable Garner, who is as friendly off the court as he is competitive on it, appears to not only have the respect of his players, but his players also seem to genuinely like him, which isn't always the case for a coach.

Of relating to players, Garner said, "I think I've gotten better at that as the years go by. All coaches evolve and adjust. How you treat people, and treating them fairly, are so important if you're going to get the very most out of young men and get them to reach their potential."

One constant in Garner's life -- both on the court and off -- is his family, which consists of wife Barbara and sons Matt and Jon.

Barbara can be seen at every Southeast home game and many road contests. Matt, their oldest son, is serving as a student coach at Southeast while he completes his degree requirements. Jon, a student at the University of Kansas, attends as many Southeast game as possible.

"Without my family, I couldn't survive," said Garner. "Barbara has been the greatest coach's wife in the world. It's not easy, especially at the college or pro level, being a coach's wife. It's a tough assignment."

The entire Garner family was in Nashville, Tenn., recently as the Indians captured the OVC Tournament title to earn a berth in the NCAA tourney.

"Family means so much to me and it was really special for everybody to be there," Garner said.

As for Garner, he hopes to be there -- on the sidelines -- for a long time to come. While many people his age are contemplating retirement, Garner doesn't know what he'd do if he didn't have a basketball team to direct.

"I don't know if I'll ever retire," he said with a laugh. "If I keep my health, I'll probably coach until I'm 70 or over. I love it that much."