March Madness connects SEMO past with present

2000 seems like such a long time ago, and not at the same time.

A lot has changed between Southeast Missouri State’s first run in the NCAA Tournament and the second. For starters, they were the Indians in 2000 and are returning to March Madness as the Redhawks.

There are some commonalities that link the two teams together, like the fact that both teams have a Johnson and a Branson.

Southeast Missouri State's Dylan Branson celebrates on the bench on Saturday at the Show Me Center. (Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com)

Former SEMO standout Mike Branson noticed it when tuning into the Ohio Valley Conference Championship Game.

“There was a player named [Nate] Johnson and he fed Dylan [Branson] cutting through the lane for a lay-in and the announcer said “Johnson feeds Branson for a lay-in,” he said. “It was very ironic because Roderick [Johnson] and I are still very good friends.”

Branson and Johnson were among the top scorers during SEMO’s first run to the tournament. Many of the members of that team stay connected through Facebook and follow the Redhawks from afar.

Southeast Missouri State senior center Nate Johnson rises for a basket in a recent exhibition game against Fontbonne at the Show Me Center. Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

“Apart from my marriage and the birth of my kids, my college experience and really my senior year with the basketball team was probably one of the most special times in my life,” Branson said. “It’s just something you don’t forget, and you can’t duplicate or recreate, and these guys will have these memories they’re making for the rest of their lives.”

For schools like SEMO, the path to March Madness is through the conference tournament. Both 2000 and 2023 were fueled by a common rival. Murray State took down SEMO in the year prior to each championship run. While Murray State wasn’t around for SEMO to exact revenge this year, beating the Racers to win the title in 2000 meant the world to Branson.

“Winning the OVC was a combination of two seasons,” Branson said. “Aubrey Reese and Murray State beat us on a last-second shot in the regular season, and they ended up winning the regular season title. And in the conference championship, he did it to us again. That kind of lit a fire under all the returning players. The minute that he hit that shot my junior year just set the pace in the tone for our senior year. So, winning that game my senior year was the culmination of all the hard work. We didn’t let them do it to us again and it was like it was all paying off in that moment.”

Former SEMO forward Mike Branson.Southeast Missourian photo illustration / Chris Stanfield

What happened to SEMO in 1999 almost happened this year. Tennessee Tech defeated SEMO on a buzzer-beater by Brett Thompson in a game that helped the Golden Eagles start the conference tournament in the semifinal round and have SEMO start from the first round. In the championship game, Diante Wood made a buzzer-beating jumper that looked like it was going to be for the title. Instead, it merely forced overtime when the official review found that his foot was over the three-point line and not behind it.

“They had a close one for sure,” Branson said. “I was very impressed with how they played. I’ve been very impressed with Coach [Brad Korn]. Certainly, he’s very well-spoken. It’s just been really fun to watch.”

Matt Morris, a forward of the 2000 team, continued to follow the Redhawks since his playing days concluded. While the paths were similar, the teams are far different in style.

Southeast Missouri State guard Dylan Branson exists the bus after the team returned to Cape Girardeau from Evansville, Indiana on Sunday, March 5, where the RedHawks won the Ohio Valley Conference championship on Saturday, March 4.Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

“They seem more guard-oriented,” Morris said. “When we played, we ran the Phil Jackson Bulls-like triangle offense. So it was very much more kind of post-centric and forward-centric. Our best players were Roderick Johnson and Mike Branson, who were both like our power forward and our small forward. So we tried to get the ball in their hands as much as we could.”

Still, he liked what he saw from this team.

“The games I've watched have been very exciting and much more up and down pace-wise,” Morris said. “We were a very deliberate, half-court team, focused on playing really good half-court defense and not turning the ball over. But Phil [Russell] and [Chris Harris] are really good and they're fun to watch. They're both excellent players.“

Harris enters the tournament averaging a career-high 15.5 points per game on a 37 percent shooting clip.

“Chris has got kind of an old school,” Morris said. “You reminded me of watching Jalen Pickett from Penn State, just the old school kind of back down, big guard game. They're exciting.”

SEMO begins play in the First Four at 5:40 p.m. (CST) Tuesday, March 14 when they take on the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio.

If the Redhawks win, it will be their first-ever NCAA Tournament win in school history, and they will advance to the first round to take on top-seeded Alabama on Thursday, March 16, in Birmingham, Alabama.