JUDGEMENT DAY: TALE OF TWO COACHES; RELIEVED GARNER SET TO HIT RECRUITING TRAIL

Southeast Missouri State University basketball coach Gary Garner didn't want to sound like a guy who was getting ready to celebrate.

After all, the Indians received three years of probation and the loss of one scholarship during Thursday's ruling handed down by the NCAA.

But all things considered, Garner figures his program came away in pretty good shape -- certainly a lot better than what could have happened as the result of what were deemed to be several major violations committed by Southeast's previous coaching staff.

"I don't want to sound like I'm totally happy, because we did get probation and it will cost us a scholarship," said Garner following the press conference to announce the NCAA's decision. "But in a way, this is like a victory. I think this is the best we could have hoped for. It certainly could have been a lot worse."

Probation basically means that the program must keep its nose clean in the future. Realistically, simply being put on probation was the best-case scenario for the program, which could have received some pretty severe sanctions, including a ban on postseason play and other recruiting restrictions besides the scholarship reduction.

Garner said he actually feared the worst, particularly since the school believed it would have already learned of its fate several weeks ago.

"My gut feeling ranged from expecting the worst to expecting the least," he said. "But the longer it went, that really concerned me.

"The thing that really concerned me the most was possibly being banned from postseason play and not having a chance to compete in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. We're happy there's no postseason ban, that's the big thing."

Now that Garner and his staff know where they stand, they can try to start signing players for next season. The spring signing period began Wednesday. Southeast has not yet signed anybody, mainly because players were waiting for the NCAA's ruling.

"The not knowing was the biggest thing. That was very frustrating," Garner said. "Now we can go forward. We can really take off and get after it."

Even though Garner acknowledges that Southeast might have lost some potential signees because the NCAA waited until after the signing period started to release its ruling, he remains confident the Indians can still land some talented players.

"I think we still have time to salvage our recruiting year," he said. "We may have lost a player or two, but I still think we can have a good recruiting year.

"If we didn't sign anybody, I think we'd have a good basketball team next year. But I think we're going to be able to sign some talented players."

Asked how long it would take he and his staff to notify recruits of the NCAA's ruling, a laughing Garner said, "I saw (assistant) coach (Tom) Schuberth just go running out of here. He's probably calling players right now."

The Indians lost just one major contributor from this past season's 14-13 team and will have a pair of key transfers eligible for next season.

Because of the NCAA taking away one scholarship, Southeast will have 12 for next year instead of the usual 13. Even though Garner was pleased with Thursday's ruling, he did not want to minimize the scholarship reduction.

"Something like that has an affect," he said.

Southeast has three available scholarships and Garner said the Indians hope to begin receiving commitments from players in the next few days.

"We've worked extra hard to really stay on the kids we've been recruiting through this entire process," he said. "We hope to have a few commitments pretty soon."