Indians appear better equipped for OVC rigors

Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team is not even one-third of the way into its schedule, but the Indians have already given their success-starved fans plenty of reasons to be excited.

I'm not about to predict that the Indians will definitely return to the Ohio Valley Conference's upper echelon, but I am confident in saying that Southeast's talent level is once again on par, or at least close, with most if not all of the OVC squads.

After what transpired the past two years -- when the Indians were long on heart but short on talent as they found victories few and far between -- the influx of quality personnel has no doubt been a welcome sight for Southeast supporters.

Last season, when Southeast went 11-19, the Indians had to do just about everything right -- like shoot extremely well and limit their turnovers -- in order to have a shot at beating most teams on their schedule.

The 2002-2003 Indians probably squeezed as much out of their physical ability as they could, especially considering some of the big upsets they pulled off against Murray State, Tennessee Tech, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Southwest Missouri.

So far this season, Southeast has made some heavily favored foes -- like Arkansas and Southern Illinois -- sweat most of the way on nights when the Indians' final numbers weren't even all that impressive. If the same thing happened last year, those games are total blowouts.

During their 5-3 start, the Indians have already picked up one really impressive win over California-Santa Barbara -- which recently won at UCLA -- and two other solid victories over Wisconsin-Green Bay and Missouri-Kansas City. But it's their road efforts against SIU and Arkansas that perhaps stand out the most.

Having the physical talent to match up with most of the OVC's teams doesn't guarantee that Southeast will be conference contenders by the time the season winds down.

But it at least gives the Indians a fighting chance and definitely beats the alternative of the past two years -- not having much of a chance at all.

Life on the road with Southeast basketball is rarely dull. I've been on plenty of eventful trips during my many years covering the Indians.

Chalk up another one when the Indians played at Arkansas on Dec. 9.

Southeast's bus broke down a little more than two hours into a scheduled seven-hour drive back to Cape Girardeau from Fayetteville, Ark.

The traveling party -- myself included -- spent about four hours in a cold bus (the heaters stopped working when the engine failed) on the side of a highway just outside Springfield, Mo., until a replacement bus finally arrived.

Add in the fact the return trip was slowed considerably by heavy snow much of the way and it all added up to not arriving back in Cape until 10:50 a.m. on Dec. 10 -- about six hours later than originally planned.

While the players still had to attend classes, you can guess what I did the rest of the day -- and it had nothing to do with work.

Yep -- I caught up on some serious sleep.

What an unbelievable facility Arkansas' Bud Walton Arena is. It seats more than 19,000 and is plush in every imaginable way, from numerous luxury boxes to a home locker room that would probably make several NBA teams envious.

Bud Walton Arena is billed as one of the finest college basketball venues in the nation -- and after seeing the place for the first time, I can't imagine many nicer.

It must be great for a university to have the backing of Wal-Mart money. No financial crisis when that happens.

If Southeast could just find one or two unbelievably wealthy individuals who wanted to donate a million bucks or so -- chump change by their standards -- in exchange for some serious name recognition, that would solve plenty of budget woes. It happens at schools large and small all over the country.

And, memo to all those anti-sports fanatics at Southeast: Don't kid yourself. Whether you want to admit it or not, often times when people donate big chunks of money to a university, it begins because they are first and foremost major supporters of athletics.

Count me as surprised as anybody by Oklahoma's recent collapse against Kansas State that cost the Sooners an undefeated season and once again showed the many warts of the controversial BCS.

Sure, Kansas State entered the Big 12 championship game on a roll and figured to test Oklahoma. But I assumed the Sooners would eventually take charge and cruise, just like they had done against most of their other opponents.

Instead, Oklahoma's defeat left three apparently deserving one-loss teams standing at the top of the college football landscape. Only two could be placed in the BCS championship game -- and that pair happened to be Oklahoma and LSU, leaving USC as the odd man out despite being ranked No. 1 in both human polls.

In fairness to USC, the Trojans won't totally be shafted if they beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl because they'll almost certainly share the national title as the AP champion.

Still, this latest BCS mess once again shouts loud and clear for some kind -- any kind -- of a playoff system. Whether that will happen in the near future is anybody's guess.

Best wishes to Lance McNamara, Southeast's head athletic trainer since 1997 who recently resigned to join a private health care facility in Georgia, where most of his family lives.

Lance did a tremendous job at Southeast. The coaches and athletes all seemed to respect and like him, and I'm proud to consider him a friend. He will be missed in the area.

What a great opportunity for Central High School graduate Talley Haines, who spent the past six years pitching in the Tampa Bay organization and was recently selected by Toronto in the Rule 5 Draft.

That doesn't necessarily guarantee Haines a spot with the Blue Jays, but he immediately went on their 25-man roster and will be given every opportunity to make the team out of spring training.

Despite putting up impressive numbers in Triple-A the last few years, the Devil Rays never gave him a shot at making their team. Here's wishing Talley the best as he inches closer to pitching in the majors.

I want to commend Sheila King of Century 21 Heartland for being such a good sport the other night during Southeast women's basketball coach B.J. Smith's weekly radio show at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Knowing how badly I finally wanted to win one of the hot-wing-eating contests that are regular features of the show -- I lost several last year, mainly against Southeast players and coaches -- Sheila agreed to take me on even though she had already consumed a regular meal and I was plenty hungry, especially after downing several cold ones.

So I finally prevailed, and I was quite excited about it. But I have no doubt Sheila would have given me a run for my money if she hadn't already eaten.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. And I'll be looking to make it two in a row soon.

Here's wishing everybody a wonderful Christmas.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.