SE TO FEEL MORE HEAT AGAINST SUN BELT'S ASU

Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner is the first person to admit that the Indians' schedule so far has not been overly stout, although it has been fairly challenging.

But things will change quickly beginning tonight as the Indians gear up for their final three non-conference games of the season.

The Indians host Arkansas State tonight in a 7:30 tipoff at the Show Me Center, visit Bradley Dec. 22 and visit Southern Illinois Jan. 2.

ASU won last year's Sun Belt Conference Tournament to qualify for the NCAA Tournament and is one of the league favorites again this season.

Bradley is the pre-season favorite in the Missouri Valley Conference while SIU is also expected to be one of the MVC's better squads.

"These will be our three best non-conference opponents," said Garner. "I designed the schedule this way in order to give our new players a chance to get ready for these kinds of games."

It's not like the Indians' 6-1 start has been built against a schedule of creampuffs. Southeast owns wins over a 6-2 Western Carolina team that won at Nebraska, a pretty decent Montana team and a Tennessee Tech squad that could make some noise in the Ohio Valley Conference.

There is no question, however, that the level of competition will begin to increase tonight.

"We will definitely have to improve our play (starting tonight)," Garner said. "There are a lot of areas we have to improve on."

ASU whose mascot is also the Indians is off to just a 2-4 start, but there are reasons for that. First, the Indians have played a rugged schedule, losing to the likes of Utah and TCU, among other solid squads. Second, they have been hampered by injuries to some key players.

"We feel better as of late. We've been getting closer to playing 40 minutes," said ASU coach Dickey Nutt. "We're starting to get our players back, which makes a difference. DeShawn Denson was out the first three games and Luis Rivas was out."

Nutt is probably feeling a whole lot better about his squad after Thursday night's impressive 84-72 home win against a talented Memphis squad.

ASU's top player is senior point guard Chico Fletcher, who performs much bigger than his 5-foot-6 height. Fletcher, averaging 13 points and a whopping nine assists per game to rank among the national leaders, has been the Sun Belt's Player of the Year the past two seasons and is regarded as an NBA prospect.

" He's a tremendous player," said Garner. "He's very quick, he's really good at penetrating and he finishes well. We'll have our hands full with him."

ASU's leading scorer is actually 6-4 senior C.J. Pepper (13.8 ppg), who has been doing his damage off the bench. Another double-figure scorer is 6-2 junior Jamie Rosser (10 ppg).

"They have a very good perimeter game, and they've got some big, strong kids inside," Garner said. "They're just really talented. You can't beat Memphis by 12 points unless you have a really good basketball team. It's going to be a very tough game for us."

Southeast suffered its first loss of the season last weekend, falling to host Montana in the first round of the KGVO Coca-Cola Classic. But the Indians bounced back to knock off Robert Morris and capture third place.

Roderick Johnson leads Southeast in scoring and rebounding, averaging 12.6 points and 8.7 boards per game. He is second in the OVC in rebounding and fourth in field-goal percentage (62.5).

Also scoring in double figures for Southeast are Mike Branson (12.1 ppg) and Michael Stokes (10.6). Stokes is third in the OVC in assists with 4.9 per game.

Tonight's contest will mark the return of sophomore guard Fred Abraham, who was academically ineligible for the first semester.

Even though the Indians haven't proven themselves against any heavyweights yet, Nutt has seen enough of Southeast to be impressed.

"They're a very talented and tough team," Nutt said. "We have so much respect and admiration for coach Garner and the job he's done."

Last season, Southeast got a shot in the closing seconds from Kahn Cotton to stun ASU 76-75 in Jonesboro.

"I've sure they haven't forgotten that one," said Garner. "Any time you lose a tough game like that, you can definitely use it as motivation for the next year."

* Southeast will hold its annual Christmas Party before tonight's game and at halftime, with various gifts being distributed.

As part of tonight's festivities, 25 people who have been chosen as Southeast student-athlete mentors will help host the party along with Southeast staff.

The 25 student-athletes, who represent every sport except golf, received training during the fall semester to educate their teammates on various issues and intervene in situations when needed.

The student-athletes were also chosen to partner with DEFY (Drug Education for Youth), a program that tries to provide support for at-risk youth ages 9-12. This mentoring relationship will last throughout the year.