INDIANS GEARING UP FOR MAJOR OVC RIVAL MURRY STATE

It will be great to be back at the Show Me Center Thursday night for another big rivalry game with Murray State.

We've had great rivalry wins over Southern Illinois and Southwest Missouri at the Show Me Center this season and we need to add Murray State and Tennessee-Martin to the list this week.

Hopefully we will have a big and enthusiastic crowd to energize our players. It seems like we have been on the road for a long time.

On our two-game road trip to Tennessee State and Austin Peay last week, we came away with a split. Although you always want to win every game, it is imperative that you at least get a split of Ohio Valley Conference road games while winning every OVC home game in order to be in the conference race.

We have the split in our first two road games, but our December loss at home to Tennessee Tech will have to be made up for somewhere down the line. We still have a lot of OVC basketball ahead of us.

We had a 31-point win over Tennessee State but it counted as only one win, and although we hated losing to Austin Peay by 28 points, it was only one loss. Austin Peay played a great game. Last Saturday, they were the best OVC team I've faced in my four years in the league. Hopefully they won't be that hot in all OVC games this season.

We can't worry about that loss. We have to be totally focused on Murray State. Our rivalry with the Racers has been a great one over the last two seasons and I look for another great game Thursday night.

We won two of the three games with the Racers last season and they will certainly be out to even the score this season.

I want our team to really get in there and fight Thursday night. We have to battle on every possession. Our success will be determined by how hard we play and how smart we play.

We tell our team to play one possession at a time...to come up with one stop at a time on defense. We have to have tremendous intensity like we had in the SIU and Southwest Missouri games.

Murray State has been a little up and down this season with a young team, but you can bet they will be up and ready to play Thursday night. They are young, but they have Isaac Spencer and he makes up for a lot of their inexperience.

I would like to congratulate Terry Rogers for being named the OVC Newcomer of the Week. Terry was 6-for-6 from the field against Tennessee State and 4-for-5 from the field against Austin Peay.

Terry is continuing to improve with each practice and each game. It takes time when you are working with a big kid like Terry. It seems like the progress is slow at times, but Terry is working very hard. He wants to get better and he will as the season progresses.

With Murray State Thursday night and Tennessee-Martin Saturday night, we are assured of some great basketball at the Show Me Center. I hope you will be with us for the games because we need the energy of the home crowd to put us in the win column.

Following the Murray State and Tennessee-Martin games, we go on the road for four straight games...we need to win these home games! I know I'm excited and I hope you are.

I'll see you at the Show Me Center.

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