Indians return after break

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ggarner

Our players will return to campus this evening after having a few deserved days off to enjoy Christmas with their families.

After Saturday's game at Southern Illinois, I told the players to go home and enjoy the holiday. I didn't care if they even picked up a basketball for three days, but when they get back, I want them to be excited and ready to make us a better basketball team.

Nothing replaces winning, but our strong effort against such a good SIU team gives us something to draw from. I told the players after the game that they should be proud and encouraged by the fact that we were able to play with the toughest team on our schedule and a team that had already beaten Indiana and Iowa State, along with just a three-point loss to nationally ranked Illinois.

The SIU game should give us confidence as we get closer and closer to our Ohio Valley Conference season.

We went into the SIU game with a goal of reducing our turnovers in order to give us a chance to stay in the game. We had averaged over 20 turnovers in the prior two games, but at SIU we had just seven turnovers and only one in the second half. And this was against the best defensive team we will play this season.

We made good decisions and good passes, allowing us to hang with the Salukis and cut a 25-point deficit to five before losing 92-80. If we keep our turnovers down, we will be competitive with the remainder of our schedule.

Kenny Johnson really helped us relieve the pressure applied by the SIU defense. He had the quickness and ball-handling ability to get by his man and penetrate and that relieves pressure.

Kenny is getting better with each game. He is just getting the game experience he needs after missing the first semester of play. He has to learn to play, in game conditions, with our other players and they have to get used to him.

The fact that we have had so many different players miss games because of various reasons has really hurt our continuity and our ability to develop as a team. Once we learn to play together with all our players we will be a much better team.

For this Saturday's home game against Lincoln, we should have all or players, including Monte Gordon, who could see action for the first time this season.

Lincoln, a Division II team, is a very athletic squad that features several Division I transfers, including Kenny Dye from UNLV. I remember that when Dye was in junior college, he was recruited by all of the top Division I programs before choosing UNLV. Things didn't work out there and he now is at Lincoln leading their high-scoring offense that averages 88 points per game.

With the University High School Christmas Tournament at the Show Me Center this week, it will be a great week for basketball in Southeast Missouri. Our game with Lincoln will be at 1 p.m., with the championship round of the tournament scheduled for that night.

I hope you will make it a full day of basketball beginning with our game. The performance at SIU gives our team encouragement and we will continue to get better.

Continued wishes for a great holiday season and a very happy New Year.

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