Jackson receives top seed in Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament

The Jackson boys basketball team has yet to play a game this season, but it's still been tabbed by coaches as the favorite to win the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

The Indians were given the top seed in the 16-team tournament, which will take place Dec. 26, 27, 28 and 30 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. All coaches of teams participating in the tournament voted on the seeds at a meeting Sunday evening at the Show Me Center.

"You never know how the tournament's going to play out, who's going to be playing well that you're going to have to play in one of the rounds," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "For us, I think it's nice for our kids that they got picked the be the one seed, but, once again, we haven't played a game yet, so we've got to go out and prove that we're a good team and do some things well."

Jackson returns most of the talent from a team that defeated Notre Dame 69-53 to claim third place at last year's tournament.

Jackson was scheduled to open play at the Saluki Showcase over the weekend, but the event was postponed due to weather.

"I'd say last week we had some practices where our effort and intensity weren't as good as they have been, but now this week has been better," said Scott when asked if his players were anxious to take the court for a game. "They can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel, but really our preseason practices have been really good. Our effort's been good. Our intensity's been good, but we are definitely ready to play a game."

Two-time defending champion Charleston was given the No. 2 seed, while Central, which finished second last year, was picked third.

Central coach Drew Church said during his comments to the other coaches that his team would be having just its sixth practice of the season with the full team present on Sunday. Seven of the nine players expected to contribute for Central (0-2) this season were members of the Tigers' state semifinal football team.

"There's a night-and-day difference between football and basketball, just the muscles you use, the reaction time, understanding not fouling instead of hitting people, dribbling instead of running with the ball -- just little stuff, dribbling, shooting touch, stuff like that is not where it needs to be," Church said after the meeting.

Church said he gave record-breaking running back Mikey Jones a week off before he began basketball practice and the entire team's rust was on display in a loss at the Riverbend Classic.

"You could tell at the Riverbend playing New Madrid, who's good this year," Church said. "They pressed us, and our reaction -- we were throwing it in the stands."

Church took a light-hearted approach when addressing the early season struggles.

"It just comes with practice and habit and just routine," Church said. "We're going to be OK. We'll be fine. We just need to get in the gym and every day do it."

Notre Dame, which also has yet to play this season, was given the No. 4 seed, followed by No. 5 Scott County Central, No. 6 Oran, No. 7 Chaffee and No. 8 Leopold, which will get a rematch against No. 9 Oak Ridge in the opening round.

Leopold defeated Oak Ridge on a last-second 3-pointer last week at the Woodland Tournament.

Advance is the No. 10 seed. Assistant Chris Asmus announced that senior guard Lane Below will be out for two weeks with an ankle injury but is expected to return for the tournament. No. 11 Woodland, No. 12 Scott City, No. 13 Kelly, No. 14 Meadow Heights, No. 15 Bell City and No. 16 Delta round out the field.

The coaches had much less information to consider than usual when casting their votes. In addition to the postponement of many games because of snow and ice, a rollback in the high school basketball schedule start date this season meant the voting took place before the SEMO Conference Tournament, which begins today.

"You want to be fair, so you hope that you seed people the way they should be seeded based on if they beat somebody or what their record is," Scott said. "But it's still hard because, you know, basketball -- in a month teams can change so much. They can be playing poorly and then they're playing so much better a month later or vice versa. Injuries could happen. We try to listen to the coaches talk and do the best job you can of trying to be as fair as you can."