Indians short on conference intensity in loss to EIU

ggarner

Losing to Eastern Illinois in our Ohio Valley Conference opener Saturday night was a tough pill to swallow. It was a tough loss, but we still have 15 OVC games remaining and we just have to get over the hurt and get our first conference win Thursday night at Eastern Kentucky.

Conference games are the most important games on the schedule. The non-conference schedule should be designed to prepare you for conference play.

This year's non-conference schedule should have helped us prepare for the OVC. We played a good zone defense team in UMKC that is coached by a coach who learned the zone defense from Temple coach John Chaney, who is regarded as the best zone coach in the nation. We played pressing teams like Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Creighton, which should prepare us for any press thrown at us by any OVC team.

Conference games are also played with an increased intensity and I was disappointed that our team didn't show that increased intensity against Eastern Illinois. I thought Eastern Illinois did show that increased intensity.

As I indicated in my last column, we had great practices last week, but we just didn't have OVC type intensity Saturday night.

Having said that, I think I have to give credit to Eastern Illinois and their star player, Henry Domercant. He played what I consider to be the best game any player has played against Southeast since I have been the head coach. He was 14-17 from the field and 5-5 from three. We usually had a hand in his face, but he just hit one big shot after another. Once we fell behind, any time we would make a little run, he would answer with a couple of big shots.

The other Eastern players fed off his performance and the result was a 70-percent overall shooting effort in the second half. That is phenomenal shooting.

Although I felt OVC intensity was lacking Saturday night, our players played hard and never gave up. Late in the game, when we put on a full-court press, our players showed a lot of energy and created a couple of scoring bursts. We will use the press more in some games, but because of our lack of depth it is difficult to press for long periods of time.

All of my emphasis this week will be on Southeast Missouri. We have to find a way to get better defensively. Teams are having career shooting nights against us and that has to end.

The road trip to Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State is important to us. We have to concentrate totally on beating Eastern Kentucky and then get ready for Morehead State. Both Eastern Kentucky and Morehead have OVC road wins already this season, with EKU 1-0 in the OVC and Morehead 2-0 in the OVC.

It is unusual that every OVC game so far this season has been won by the road team. We would like that trend to continue for the next two games.

As you have probably read by now, we have decided to seek a medical redshirt for junior Reggie Golson. Reggie hurt his knee in a pick-up game in Kansas City this summer and had surgery once he arrived on campus in September. It has not healed as fast as we had hoped and he has fallen far behind in his conditioning and in learning our systems. We think it is in his and the team's best interest to redshirt, get healthy and be ready to help us next season.

We're disappointed with the opening loss, but with 15 games to go we can't worry about it. It is a long way to Richmond, Ky., and Morehead, Ky., but I hope you will follow us on the radio or over the internet.

Gary Garner is the men's basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University