Indians will be put on exhibit

Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner has been pleased with his young, inexperienced squad's progress in practice but he has no idea what to expect from the Indians once they go up against another team.

Garner will get a chance to start finding out tonight when the Indians take on Division II Missouri-St. Louis in an exhibition contest at the Show Me Center.

The game will be the first of two home exhibitions for the Indians, who will play the Dreambuilders Monday night. Southeast opens the regular season Nov. 16 at home against Birmingham Southern.

"Exhibition games are really important and I think they're probably even a little more important with us having such a young team," said Garner. "When you play against yourself every day, you think you know where you are, but you really don't until you play another team."

Garner figures the Indians will receive a solid test against their old Division II rivals from the former Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Rivermen went 14-13 last year, although they have nine new players. Among their returnees is 6-foot-8 center Scott Kassel, a Perryville High School product.

Of his philosophy on exhibitions, Garner said, "We want to win, but that's not the purpose of exhibition games. We'll try to play everybody, try to figure out where we are and who plays the best together."

Indians shorthanded

The Indians will be shorthanded tonight and for at least a while after that because of injury and eligibility problems.

Junior forward Drew DeMond, the squad's lone full-time returning starter, will miss both exhibitions and the season opener because of an injury to his left hand that has been diagnosed as a torn knuckle ligament.

"We don't think it will require surgery and we hope to get him back by Nov. 19th," said Garner.

Point guard Kenny Johnson, a junior-college transfer, will miss both exhibitions while he awaits final certification by the NCAA. The eligibility question pertains to a course he took last year at Penn Valley Community College. If he is certified, as expected, he will be available for the season opener.

"We feel pretty confident the NCAA will clear him, but they don't meet until Nov. 13," Garner said.

Senior forward Monte Gordon and sophomore guard Justin Smith are ineligible until the second semester, Gordon because of academics and Smith under NCAA transfer rules. They will miss both exhibitions and the first six regular-season games.

All of the above means the Indians will play tonight with just seven scholarship players and only nine players in all, including two walk-ons. They recently added another walk-on, forward David Shaw from Waltonville, Ill., to join freshman guard Kevin Roberts.

Scheduled to start tonight are junior Tim Scheer and sophomore Damarcus Hence at the forwards, junior Daniel Weaver at center, redshirt freshman Derek Winans at shooting guard and true freshman Brett Hale at point guard.

Hale, recruited as a shooting guard, would have seen some action at the point anyway to back up Johnson. Now, with Johnson out, Hale will get plenty of work at the point.

"That's a positive," said Garner.

Winans out one game

Winans will miss the season opener because of an inadvertent secondary violation of NCAA rules that was self-reported by Southeast.

According to Southeast athletic director Don Kaverman, the minor infraction resulted from Winans playing in one Cape Girardeau City League basketball game last year during his redshirt season at Southeast.

"He played in one city rec league game and I don't think he had any idea it was against NCAA rules," said Kaverman. "We reported it to the NCAA and it's a one-for-one deal. He played in one game so he has to sit out one game."

Winans' absence means the Indians will be down to just six scholarship players -- and eight players total -- for that Nov. 16 contest with Birmingham Southern. Otahks play Friday

Southeast's women's basketball team will have its final exhibition game Friday when Division II Southern Illinois-Edwardsville comes to the Show Me Center for a 7 p.m. tipoff.

The Otahkians won their exhibition opener last Friday, 93-60 over St. Louis Goldstar.

Southeast will open the regular season Nov. 16 against Montana in the Texas Pan-American Classic.