Southeast basketball gets off to slow start

It figured to take a while for the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team to click considering how many new players the Redhawks are breaking in.

But I doubt fans expected the Redhawks to get off to this slow of a start, especially since they entered the season with what looked like winnable games against the likes of non-power, low-major programs Grambling, Florida Gulf Coast and Missouri-Kansas City.

But six games through the campaign, the Redhawks have not tasted victory. They fell to 0-6 with Saturday's 56-50 home loss to Arkansas State.

I don't think anybody expected the Redhawks to transform from one of the Ohio Valley Conference's worst clubs -- they went 7-23 overall and 3-15 in league play during coach Dickey Nutt's first season -- into one of the OVC's best in one year, but I know most people expected significant improvement.

And, even though their record doesn't indicate it, the Redhawks do appear to be making progress as they have played two of the better opponents on their schedule so far very tough over a four-day span.

Defense and rebounding, major problems early, are getting a lot better. The Redhawks were solid in both areas Saturday and during Wednesday's 10-point loss at Arkansas.

But free throws continue to plague the Redhawks, who hit just 14 of 27 (51.9 percent) on Saturday. Considering that it was anybody's game late -- Southeast led 50-49 with under two minutes left -- a better performance from the charity stripe probably would have resulted in the Redhawks' first win.

The Redhawks are making only 58.8 percent of their foul shots so far. If they can improve in that area, I think they can make some noise in the OVC.

And they'll get their chance real soon because their conference schedule tips off this week with a pair of home games, against Austin Peay on Thursday and Tennessee State on Saturday.

Win those two and the 0-6 start will be a fading memory.

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I rarely like to blame an official for a loss and there's no guarantee Southeast would have won anyway, but you never like to see a game decided in the manner of Monday's contest at the Show Me Center.

Southeast guard Anthony Allison was whistled for a questionable reach-in foul with 2.4 seconds left in overtime of a 76-76 tie against Grambling.

I'd say 99 out of 100 officials wouldn't make that call. The one that would happened to be at the Show Me Center.

With the Tigers in the double-bonus, Raschard Boatner hit the first free throw and intentionally missed the second to give Grambling a 77-76 victory.

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The Southeast football squad was rewarded -- and deservedly so -- for its historic season by placing a league-high and school-record eight players on the all-OVC first team.

Tony Samuel became the third Southeast coach to receive OVC coach of the year honors since the university joined the conference in 1991, and senior tailback Henry Harris was Southeast's first OVC offensive player of the year.

Southeast's other two OVC coaches of the year led the program's other two winning seasons since moving up to the FCS level in 1991: John Mumford (7-5 in 1994) and Tim Billings (8-4 in 2002).

Both those coaches never approached that success in the following seasons, which demonstrates just how difficult it has been to win consistently in football at Southeast.

For people wondering what Mumford and Billings have been up to since leaving Southeast, they've spent considerable time as assistants at FBS programs.

Mumford is in his 11th season at Army -- which is bowl eligible for the first time since 1996 -- and Billings is in his fifth season at Wake Forest, which is struggling these days after playing in the 2007 Orange Bowl.

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Valle Catholic High School won its 10th state title but first since 1995 in about as thrilling a fashion as possible.

The Warriors, trailing Westran 21-14 in overtime, scored a touchdown and two-point conversion for a 22-21 victory in Friday's Class 1 championship game in St. Louis.

Valle finished 14-1 and avenged its only loss, 21-14 to Westran during the regular season.

The Warriors dominated statistically, outgaining Westran 419 to 192 in total yards. Quarterback Alex Stoll led the way as he rushed for 183 yards and passed for 245 yards.

Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.