Redhawks head for Alaska tourney

~Southeast hopes to heat up this weekend in a tournament in Fairbanks, Alaska.

By the time Southeast Missouri State gets back from Alaska early next week, Scott Edgar expects to have a better grasp on his first Redhawks squad.

"I hope when we return that I'll have a much better idea, a much more solid idea, of what combinations to put out there," said Edgar, the Redhawks' first-year coach. "I think this tournament, playing three games in three days, is going to be very good for us."

The Redhawks (0-1) begin the eight-team Top of the World Classic at 11:30 p.m. CST tonight against Drake (0-0).

If the Redhawks win tonight, they'll play the winner of Utah State vs. Centenary at 11 p.m. Saturday. If they lose tonight, they'll face the loser of Utah State-Centenary at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

Other squads in the tournament that concludes Sunday are Rhode Island, Troy, Weber State and host Alaska-Fairbanks, a Division II program.

"I'm looking forward to the entire tournament," Edgar said. "Those are schools maybe not of national names, but they are some very good teams."

And Edgar said the people who run the annual event in Fairbanks always put on a classy show.

"I've been there twice, as the head coach at Duquesne and as an assistant at TCU," Edgar said. "They have tremendous pride with what they do. They make you feel very, very warm, very much at home."

The biggest benefit of the tournament, according to Edgar, is that it is considered "exempt" by the NCAA, meaning the three games only count as one against the maximum number of contests Division I teams are allowed to schedule in a season.

Prior to this year, squads could only participate in one exempt tournament every four years. But starting this season, teams can take part in such events every year.

"As much as I like to be on the practice floor, there is no substitute for game experience," Edgar said. "Especially with such an inexperienced team like we have."

The Redhawks will face an experienced team tonight as Drake's expected starting lineup will basically feature four returning regulars, although junior forward Klayton Korver missed last year with an injury after being a starter the previous season.

Four other Drake players started at least seven games a year ago.

Contrast that to Southeast, which has only two players who started more than three games last season.

"We have a very difficult first opponent. They basically have their whole team back," Edgar said. "Drake is deep, they're balanced, they have experience."

Drake is coming off a 12-19 season under third-year coach Tom Davis, one of the nation's most highly respected coaches who has a 581-340 overall record.

The Bulldogs tied for seventh in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference a year ago with a 5-13 mark.

While Drake appears to have made solid progress under Davis, the Bulldogs still have not had a winning season since 1986-1987 -- when they were ironically coached by Gary Garner.

Garner was Southeast's coach until being dismissed following last year's 7-20 season. He led the Redhawks' to their only NCAA Division I tournament berth, in 1999-2000.

Another tie-in between Drake and Southeast is that Drake assistant Keno Davis has already been assured by the university of following his father as the Bulldogs' head coach whenever Tom Davis retires.

Keno Davis was an assistant at Southeast under Garner from 1998 to 2004.

As for the Bulldogs' personnel, 6-foot-5 senior forward Ajay Calvin is their leading returning scorer. He averaged 10.2 points per game last season, which ranked second on the team.

Calvin led Drake in rebounding a year ago with 5.3 per contest.

"The thing that probably concerns me the most is their experience going up against our lack of experience," Edgar said. "But that's okay. I like this group and the progress they've made."