Indians face crucial road stretch in conference

Losing its first two Ohio Valley Conference games at home put an early damper on Southeast Missouri State University's chances of competing for a spot toward the top of the league standings.

Fortunately for the Indians, however, they ignored all the grumbling by fans at the Show Me Center following those gut-wrenching defeats to defending champion Austin Peay and expected contender Tennessee Tech -- by a total of six points -- and instead put their nose to the grindstone.

The result has been two straight OVC victories that evened Southeast's league record at 2-2. While not exactly the fast start to conference play they wanted, the wins at Eastern Illinois Tuesday and at home against Tennessee State Thursday at least have given the Indians -- and their supporters -- hope for the remainder of the OVC schedule, particularly when you consider that, with a couple of good bounces here or there, they could be 3-1 or even 4-0 right now.

What happens this week -- and really the next two weeks -- for the 9-6 Indians will probably go a long way toward helping determine their chances of realistically challenging for a top-four OVC finish that means a home game in the first round of the conference tournament.

The Indians play at Tennessee Tech Thursday and Austin Peay Saturday -- and will likely be underdogs in both contests after already dropping home games to those squads. While losing both wouldn't automatically eliminate Southeast from top-four contention, getting at least a split would certainly boost their chances considerably.

Then the following week the Indians make the long trek to Alabama to take on OVC newcomers Jacksonville State and Samford. While those squads aren't regarded among the conference's elite, they'll likely be difficult to beat at home. And Samford's stunning upset at Murray State Thursday got everybody's attention around the league. Using the deliberate Princeton style of offense, the Bulldogs are tough on just about every opponent.

Two weeks and four straight conference road games makes this an intriguing -- as well as crucial -- part of the schedule for the Indians. It will be interesting to see how they come out of it.

Southeast's women have righted their ship after losing their OVC opener at home to defending champion Austin Peay and, with three straight conference wins, the Otahkians are now looking more and more like the favorites they were anointed in the league's preseason poll.

The Otahkians, 8-7 overall and 3-1 in the conference, also have a key road trip this week to play Tennessee Tech and defending champion Austin Peay, squads they split with at home recently and figure to be two of their main challengers for the title.

It was bad on both ends, with neither team really having an advantage because of it, but Thursday's basketball game at the Show Me Center between Southeast and Tennessee State featured the worst and most inconsistent officiating I've seen in a long time.

And just about everybody I talked to after the game -- players, coaches and fans from both squads -- agreed. It was pitiful.

It was great to see former Southeast baseball star Kerry Robinson -- and several other former Indian standouts -- at the Show Me Center Thursday as they signed autographs and posed for pictures.

Talking to Kerry, he's especially excited about the upcoming Cardinals season because all indications are that he'll get the opportunity to achieve the most playing time of his major-league career as he battles for the left-field starting position and perhaps even the leadoff spot in the batting order.

Regarding last Sunday's comment in FanSpeak, I have nothing but the highest regard for former Central High School boys basketball coach Brett Reutzel, who did a fine job during his tenure with the Tigers.

And I have nothing to gain by "bragging on" Derek McCord, as the comment suggested. I just wanted to point out that McCord did an unbelievable job building Scott City's program -- that can't be denied -- and he also has the Tigers rolling right now after they weren't very good in the couple of seasons before he took over as well as during his first year at the school.

By the way, kudos this year to Reutzel, who is leading Fredericktown to a strong season.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.