Redhawks need strong finish to make OVC tourney

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team's chances of qualifying for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament aren't very promising.

It will take a strong finish and some help for the Redhawks to squeeze into the eight-team field.

A recent hot streak by Tennessee State, which has been on a roll despite dismissing some of its top players, has put Southeast on the outside looking in.

Tennessee State surpringly has won four straight OVC games to solidify its hold on eighth place at 5-11.

Ninth-place Southeast (7-21, 3-13) has suffered eight straight OVC defeats to fall two games behind the Tigers with two contests remaining. The Redhawks have dropped six straight overall.

Southeast still can punch a tournament ticket in coach Dickey Nutt's first season, but it's going to take plenty of work.

The Redhawks must win their final two games -- both at home, Thursday against Tennessee State and Saturday against Austin Peay -- while the Tigers lose Saturday at Eastern Illinois in their other remaining league contest.

If all that happens, Southeast and Tennessee State would finish tied for eighth and the Redhawks would claim the tie-breaker based on sweeping the season series from the Tigers.

Difficult, but certainly not impossible. We'll see how it plays out.

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Although the Redhawks have had their moments and probably done a bit better than many people expected, the campaign for the most part has contained few surprises.

The real suspense for Southeast fans is how long it will take Nutt to build the program into what they hope becomes a consistent OVC contender.

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Southeast's women, due to injuries and inexperience, are having one of their worst seasons on the Division I level.

But, like the men, coach John Ishee's squad still has a shot to make the OVC tournament despite losing its last seven games.

The last-place Redhawks (7-19, 4-12) are 1 1/2 games behind ninth-place Jacksonville State (6-11) and two games behind eighth-place Tennessee State (6-10).

The only way Southeast makes the tournament is through a three-way tie with Jacksonville State and Tennessee State, in which case the Redhawks would own the tie-breaker based on their combined record against those two teams.

So Southeast must beat Tennessee State on Thursday and Austin Peay on Saturday, while Tennessee State loses its other game at Eastern Illinois and Jacksonville State drops its final contest at Tennessee Tech.

Otherwise the Redhawks will miss the OVC tournament for the first time since 1996-97. The only other time Southeast did not qualify was in its second Division I season in 1992-93.

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While Southeast's men were only a footnote to the story, they were involved in one of the plays of the entire college basketball season -- and one that gained national attention -- during Tuesday's loss at Murray State that clinched the outright regular-season OVC title for the Racers.

With just under five minutes left in the first half and the shot clock running down, MSU freshman guard Isaiah Canaan nearly lost the ball near mid-court.

Canaan went to the floor to regain control and, on one knee, flung up a shot from just inside the center stripe that banked in to put MSU up 29-12.

The ESPN2 show First Take showed the shot and interviewed Canaan on Wednesday morning. First Take host Jay Crawford at one point called it the shot of the year in college hoops.

Wednesday morning's ESPN SportsCenter also added the shot as its No. 1 Top 10 play from Tuesday.

I witnessed the play in person and, even though it had nothing to do with the outcome of what was a lopsided game, it might be the most amazing shot I've seen.

By the way, the Racers have since extended their winning streak to a school-record 17 straight. They are tied with Butler for the nation's longest current victory streak.

At 26-3 overall and 16-0 in the OVC, the Racers are having an amazing season.

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The Southeast baseball team, after a promising showing during its season-opening series at Auburn over the weekend, has its home opener at 2 p.m. Tuesday against NAIA Mid-Continent.

Southeast then welcomes IPFW to Capaha Field for a three-game series Friday through Sunday.

I'm looking forward to watching the Redhawks, and also looking forward to learning all their new players because 19 members of the 35-man roster weren't in the program last year.

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Two of the area's premier high school baseball players recently received impressive honors.

Colton Young, a senior at Notre Dame, was named to the 2010 Louisville Slugger Preseason All-American first team as a pitcher.

Tyler Qualls, a senior catcher at Jackson, was selected as a 2010 Under Armour Preseason All-American.

Congratulations to both.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.