Important road stretch ahead for Southeast

If the season ended today, Southeast Missouri State University's Indians would not qualify for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the first time since coach Gary Garner took over the program.

In order for that to change, the Indians will have to turn around their struggling season on the road as they play their next four games away from the Show Me Center, beginning Thursday night against Tennessee State.

The Indians, 3-16 overall, are 1-7 in OVC play as they have dipped into last place, thanks to Eastern Kentucky's upsets of Tennessee-Martin and Murray State last week. The eighth-place Colonels are 2-6 while seventh-place Tennessee State is 3-5 after Monday night's 91-72 upset of Morehead State.

Eight of the nine OVC teams get into the league's postseason tourney, with the last-place squad being excluded.

"I was hoping Eastern Kentucky would lose every game and now they've won two in a row," said Garner, in his fifth season with the Indians. "We want to get in that tournament. When I was an assistant at Missouri, we finished eighth in the Big Eight and won the tournament when nobody gave us a snowball's chance.

"I'm hoping something like that can happen to us, but you have to make the tournament."

With eight conference games remaining, the Indians will still have plenty of chances to climb out of the cellar. But Garner knows they have to start making a move soon and he is encouraged by the fact they have had a chance to win all but one of their league contests and appear to be improving steadily.

"No question we are getting better. That doesn't help a lot, but it makes me feel good and I have to salute the players for that because you don't get better unless you come to practice and work," he said. "But we're not pitching horseshoes. Close doesn't count. We just have to find a way to win and hopefully we'll start getting some wins.

"What worries me is how long we can keep losing and have our kids keep hanging in there."

Following Thursday's game, the Indians will remain on the road to face first-place Tennessee Tech Saturday night. Southeast then returns home before going to Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky next week.

The Indians have suffered five consecutive losses and have not won a road game this season. Their lone conference victory was 95-75 over Eastern Kentucky on Jan. 10 at the Show Me Center.DeMond questionable

Center Drew DeMond, the Indians' third-leading scorer and leading rebounder, remains questionable for the Tennessee State game.

DeMond missed Saturday's home contest against Austin Peay after suffering a sprained knee and ankle late in the first half against Tennessee Tech last Thursday.

"The knee is a lot better than the ankle. The ankle is still tender," Garner said. "Our trainer, Lance McNamara, thinks he has a chance to play Thursday, but it's still day to day. It won't surprise me if he does play and it won't surprise me if he doesn't play."