SEMO hoops seeking to be more offensive with its play

To win a college basketball game, a team certainly has to play well defensively in order to keep its opponent from outscoring them. However, if you can’t score the ball yourself, then it really puts pressure on a team to have to play close to near-perfect basketball at the defensive end of the court in order to prevail.

This is the case where the Southeast Missouri State men’s squad finds itself at this point of the early season.

“We’re getting looks (offensively),” fourth-year Redhawk coach Brad Korn said recently. “We’re getting the ball to places that it needs to go.

“We’re just not cashing in right now.”

The Redhawks (1-5) will visit Kansas City (2-5) today at 7 p.m. (Summit League Network) with hopes of finding some success at the offensive end of play.

“It makes the game hard,” Korn continued, “where you have to play perfect defensively. We’ve got to get a little bit more production on the offensive end other than just one guy or one guy in spurts.”

Six games into the season, redshirt sophomore forward Adam Larson is the only player averaging double figures, and he is doing so just barely (11 points per game).

No other SEMO player is averaging more than 7.3 points per game, and Korn’s team ranks 342nd offensively out of 361 NCAA Division I teams.

“Some of these plays,” Korn said, “we’ve got to start making, and I believe that we will. There are growing pains to go through, unfortunately, right now.”

To Korn’s point, nine of the Redhawk players are essentially in their first season of either playing at all at the NCAA Division I level or playing any degree of significant minutes. To compound matters, three of the more seasoned players (Josh Earley, Dylan Branson, and Kobe Clark) have been injured in parts (Earley and Clark) or all of this season (Branson).

“I’m trying to drive the team to be better,” Korn said, “also while trying to keep some perspective and some humility about it.”

One player, who stepped up in Earley’s absence (he left the most recent game after playing 12 minutes) was redshirt freshman center David Idada, who isn’t going to be an offensive force from a skill standpoint but can score some points near the rim and at the free throw line when fouled.

In the Redhawks’ most recent game, a loss at Chattanooga, Idada scored a career-best six points in 15 minutes, but more importantly, he pulled down 12 rebounds.

“He missed a couple of (shots) around the rim, point-blank shots,” Korn said of his center, “but with 12 rebounds, he was physical, active, and he played with heart and some passion.”

Idada has the size and strength to draw fouls, but he needs to significantly improve his shooting at the line. He has gotten to the free throw line 13 times this season but made just three of those attempts.

Idada isn’t alone in that regard.

Only four teams in the country are shooting worse at the free throw line than SEMO’s 57.8 percent.

“We’ve got to start being a little bit more efficient offensively,” Korn said. “We’ve got to get in the gym on your own and start making some shots.

“Otherwise, we really have to manage (the defensive) side of the ball. If you manage the ball too much on that (defensive) side, now, you’re going to put that much more pressure on your defense.”