Indians eager to dive into OVC play

As we start a new year we also start a new basketball season -- the Ohio Valley Conference season. Our preseason is over with a disappointing 2-9 record, but when you start the conference season everyone is 0-0 and everyone has new enthusiasm and optimism.

Although we had a very disappointing record in our preseason, we did get a lot of experience for our young team and we played with some very good basketball teams. I like this team's effort in both practice and games.

They do compete but like all teams with a losing record, they struggle for confidence. That happens at every level, high school, college or pro. Only winning creates the confidence that is needed to sustain a winning season.

Despite our record, I am optimistic about our chances in the OVC. We may be too young to battle for the regular season championship, but I think we can be competitive and that we can continue to get better as we approach the conference tournament.

We need to get off to a good start in the OVC and we have the opportunity to do that. We open on the road at Eastern Illinois this Saturday night, but then come home for three straight games that will be crucial to our success in the league. We host Tennessee State Monday night, Eastern Kentucky Thursday night and Morehead State next Saturday night. I hope you will be there to help us get off to a great league start.

During the past week, we had a home win over Lincoln Saturday and a loss at Western Illinois Wednesday. In the Lincoln game, we fell behind and trailed by four at the half. When you have a losing record and you fall behind, you are always concerned. But with the help of our great fans, we rallied in the second half.

At Western Illinois we faced a good team that had beaten us by 13 at the Show Me Center earlier in the season. We struggled in the first half, had way too many turnovers and fell behind by 11. After falling behind by as many as 19 in the second half, our team again battled back and got within six points in the final minutes of play but we came up a bit short.

As we prepared for the conference season, we have had a couple of players who have really been very solid over the past few games. Junior Tim Scheer has averaged 16.5 points and 6.5 rebounds over the last four games and redshirt freshman Derek Winans has averaged 16 points over the last five games and has scored in double figures in eight of the ten games he has played.

It is encouraging that in our last game before the start of the OVC season, we were led in scoring by two freshmen. Brett Hale had 17 points at Western Illinois while Winans had 15. Scheer also had 15 and a team high six rebounds.

As the OVC season opens, it appears to me that Tennessee Tech and Murray State are the top two teams in the league. Tennessee-Martin has also played well and Austin Peay is apparently getting better after a slow start. Really, though, after Tech and Murray State I think everyone else is pretty equal and that it will be a very competitive every night out.

I would like to thank our hard core fans who have hung with us during our rough start. I thought we had a great crowd for the Lincoln game and I am hoping we can have great crowds for three OVC home games next week. I'll see you there.

Gary Garner is the head basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University