Players looking forward to Edgar's '40 minutes of hell'

~ The Redhawks are eager to play their new coach's aggressive brand of basketball.

It hasn't taken long for Southeast Missouri State's basketball players to warm up to their new coach.

Most of the Redhawks players attended Thursday afternoon's news conference at the Show Me Center when Scott Edgar was introduced.

And they said they are anxious to participate in the style of play that Edgar prefers -- pressure defense and up-tempo offense.

"I'm really excited with that," said guard Terrick Willoughby, who will be the Redhawks' leading returning scorer. "We should have a really athletic team, a lot more than my prior years, and this style should fit us."

Edgar's style is patterned after former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson's famed "40 minutes of hell." Edgar assisted Richardson for more than a decade at both Arkansas and Tulsa.

"It's pretty much the way I want to play," said forward Brandon Foust, Southeast's touted transfer from Oklahoma who practiced with the Redhawks this past season but could not participate in games under NCAA transfer rules. "Getting up and down the court, I've been playing that way since high school."

Southeast's other notable transfer, center Mike Rembert from Bradley, said: "It's an exciting style, the same we played at Bradley. It's the reason I went to Bradley. I'm looking forward to it."

Added guard David Johnson, who missed much of this past season with an injury: "We're really looking forward to a fast-break kind of game. Everybody on the team can play in that style of play."

Edgar smiled when he was told how much his new players are looking forward to his version of "40 minutes of hell."

"Everybody talks like they want to play that way," Edgar said. "But in order to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. It takes a lot of hard work to play that way."

No problem, according to the Redhawks players.

"You know he'll make us work hard, but we want that," Rembert said.

Added Johnson: "We don't mind working hard, as long as it brings us wins."

Besides liking Edgar's preferred style of play, the players said they were impressed with their new coach as a person when they met with him during last week's visit to Cape Girardeau for a series of interviews. They also planned to meet with Edgar again later Thursday.

"He was real personable, real down to earth," Willoughby said.

Said Rembert: "He seemed like an honest person, up front."

Johnson said he couldn't help but be impressed by Edgar's resume. In addition to serving as an assistant at some major programs, he won three Ohio Valley Conference titles in four seasons as Murray State's head coach.

"I like the experience he's had and his experience in the OVC," Johnson said.