SE HOOPS: 'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY; TRIBE LEADS OVC WITH 3-0 MARK

With Ohio Valley Conference play now finished until 1999, Southeast Missouri State University basketball coach Gary Garner certainly has to be elated with how things have gone for the Indians.

Picked to finish fifth in the OVC preseason poll, the Indians have already knocked off the preseason Nos. 2 and 3 teams -- and they find themselves all alone in first place with a 3-0 record.

In addition, the Indians have a 6-2 overall record -- which includes consecutive road victories over Austin Peay, Tennessee State and Arkansas State that had to be considered upsets at the time.

Garner the perfectionist -- as most coaches are -- said he hopes to win every game. But Garner the realist said he's extremely pleased to have prevailed in six of the first eight games.

"You'd naturally like to win every game," he said during his weekly news conference Monday morning. "But if somebody had told me before the season that we'd be 6-2 at this point, I'd have been very happy with that.

"I really felt, when looking at the schedule, that if we could be somewhere around .500 in January -- something like 6-5 -- then I'd feel good about our team. And we still might be 6-5."

The Indians are assured of having a winning overall record when they resume OVC play next month. But Garner knows that winning any of the next three games will be a chore.

Southeast has three non-conference games left during the 1998 portion of its schedule -- and none of them figure to be easy pickings.

Two in fact, would require major upsets: Dec. 22 at Southwest Missouri State and Dec. 30 at Oklahoma State. The other, Dec. 28 against Southern Illinois at the TWA Dome in St. Louis, would not require an upset but would probably take a strong performance.

"In two of those three games, we'll be huge underdogs. Nobody will expect us to beat Southwest Missouri or Oklahoma State," Garner said. "And Southern Illinois, on a neutral court against a big rival, will be tough."

* Garner said that Southwest Missouri's Bears, who are 7-1 and expected to be one of the favorites in the Missouri Valley Conference, will be the best team the Indians have faced so far.

The Bears' only loss was to nationally-ranked Stanford. They own a victory at Missouri and a 26-point win over Louisiana Tech, which beat Southeast at the Show Me Center earlier in the season.

"They'll be the best team we've played so far," said Garner. "We'll have to play better than we have all year."

Southwest Missouri, which plays TCU Saturday, is led offensively by 6-foot-11 center Danny Moore (19.5 ppg). Guards William Fontleroy (11.5 ppg) and Kevin Ault (11.4 ppg) are also major threats.

Southeast and Southwest were old Division II rivals but have not met since Southwest Missouri moved to Division I in 1982.

Southwest is coached by former Indiana All-American Steve Alford.

* The Indians, whose last contest was Thursday, will have had 12 days between games when they face the Bears.

"Having that much time off is good and bad," said Garner. "You like to have the practice time, but you don't like to have that long off between games. Southwest Missouri will have had two games in that time.

"But the important thing right now is finals week. You worry you don't practice as well, but I think it's good for the kids, to have some time at practice to take their minds off finals and get a good sweat going."

Southeast's players will be done with finals Thursday.

* Junior forward Roderick Johnson, who is tied for first in the OVC in field-goal shooting at 64.8 percent, has been named the OVC Newcomer of the Week.

Johnson scored 39 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in wins over Arkansas State and Eastern Kentucky last week.

* Senior center Bud Eley (14.8 ppg) and Johnson (12.4 ppg) have formed quite a lethal inside combination for the Indians.

While Johnson is shooting nearly 65 percent from the field, Eley is at 61.3 percent.

"They are both playing extremely well," said Garner. "We said at the beginning of the year that the basketball has to go inside for us to be successful."

* The Indians continue to lead the OVC in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense. Southeast is allowing an average of 60 points per game and opponents are shooting just 39 percent against the Indians.

Southeast is also first in the league in rebounding margin with plus 9.3 rebounds per game.

Individually, senior guard Cory Johnson has hit all 20 of his foul shots to lead the OVC in free-throw percentage. Eley is first in blocked shots with 19.