Redhawks basketball players spend summer in Cape

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt is once again a happy man this summer.

That's partly because it's his natural demeanor but also partly because, for the second straight year, Nutt's players are in town attending at least one session of summer school.

That hadn't been the case in previous years because the university would not put the players on scholarship during the summer, meaning they would have had to pay their own way until the fall semester started. Most of them could not afford it.

Nutt emphasized how much he appreciates that athletic director John Shafer -- who is retiring this week -- and other Southeast administrators were able to work things out.

The majority of major programs, along with most in the Ohio Valley Conference, do it this way and Nutt insists it's important that the Redhawks finally have been able to follow suit.

More than actually attending summer school, the big benefit for the Redhawks is that for at least about a month the players are able to work out and compete in pickup games together along with spending plenty of time together.

Nutt said he considers that invaluable, along with the head start the Redhawks are getting in the classroom, especially incoming recruits who are able to get a taste of Division I academics.

Nutt's third Southeast squad is expected to make solid improvement and possibly a significant step up the OVC standings.

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Things are progressing nicely with the improvement project at Houck Stadium. The new FieldTurf is almost completely installed and the new scoreboard is up in the northwest corner next to the new residence hall.

I got a quick look at the scoreboard over the weekend and it's quite impressive. It includes room for a video board. The original estimated cost of the unit was $450,000.

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Former Southeast pitcher Logan Mahon is beginning his professional baseball career with the Casper (Wyo.) Ghosts, the Colorado Rockies' affiliate in the rookie Pioneer League.

Mahon, who completed his eligibility at Southeast this year, was selected by the Rockies in the 22nd round of the recent major league draft.

Casper opened its season last week. Mahon had not appeared in a game through Saturday.

An ex-Redhawks standout is making noise on the independent level.

Asif Shah, whose last season at Southeast was 2007, is off to a strong start for the Normal (Ill.) CornBelters of the Frontier League.

Shah, an outfielder in his second season with Normal, was batting .352 with eight home runs, nine doubles and 23 RBIs through Saturday. He ranked fourth in the league in homers and sixth in average.

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Former Southeast track and field star Miles Smith still is running well.

Smith, who completed his Southeast eligibility in 2008, placed sixth in the 400 meters Saturday at the USA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore. His time was 45.34 seconds.

The top three finishers earned berths on the USA team for the World Championships that begin in August. A few others from the finals also could be selected for the 1,600-meter relay pool for the World Championships. Smith has a shot at that.

Smith earned a gold medal as an alternate on the USA's victorious 1,600 relay team at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

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The OVC, as expected, had a first-round selection in last week's NBA draft as Morehead State All-American forward and rebounding machine Kenneth Faried was taken 22nd overall by the Denver Nuggets. Faried becomes the eighth OVC player picked in the first found of the NBA draft and first since 1994, when Tennessee State center Carlos Rogers was taken 11th overall by Seattle.

Before Rogers, you have to go all the way back to 1971 to find an OVC first-rounder as Clarence Glover of former league member Western Kentucky went No. 10 overall.

Faried is the second OVC player drafted in the past three years. Tennessee-Martin guard Lester Hudson went in the second round in 2009.

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I'm far from the first person to think this, but golf phenom Rory McIlroy sure looks a lot like Danny Noonan from "Caddyshack."

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There will be no column next week as I take some time off.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.