Southeast basketball record is predictable thus far

Nothing against the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team, but I fully expected the Redhawks to lose their first two games.

I must admit, I thought the Redhawks might be a bit more competitive from a final score standpoint than their 90-59 beatdown at Xavier and their 90-71 defeat at Illinois State.

But let's face it, that was a pretty tough way to open the season.

Xavier is a legitimate top-30 type squad, while Illinois State returned plenty of talent from a team that probably underachieved last year, which led to its coach being fired.

So the bottom line is that, record-wise, the Redhawks are right where they should be.

That includes Friday's tougher-than-expected 87-78 victory over NAIA Culver-Stockton in the Redhawks' home opener, which leaves them 1-2.

Now comes one of the more interesting games on Southeast's nonconference schedule.

Evansville visits the Show Me Center Tuesday night in a matchup that might give a better indication of how the Redhawks stack up during the early season.

Evansville was widely regarded as the worst team in the Missouri Valley Conference entering the campaign as the Purple Aces were picked to finish last in every preseason poll I saw.

But the Aces are still an MVC squad, and they did rout Southeast last season in Evansville 65-45, although they lost three four-year starters from a group that tied for seventh in the 10-team league.

The 0-2 Aces have already lost at home to Samford (by one point), which is not expected to be among the better Ohio Valley Conference clubs, but they did play 25th-ranked Butler fairly tough Saturday in a 60-47 home setback.

This is a game that the Redhawks, playing at the Show Me Center, probably should win if they want to show their fans that they are improved over Scott Edgar's first Southeast team.

Still, it's certainly not a gimme, especially after the way the Redhawks performed against Culver-Stockton and the fact they are pretty banged up right now, with several key players either out of action or limited.

It will be intriguing to see what happens Tuesday night. I know I'm looking forward to seeing how Southeast performs.

---

The Redhawks also will have two interesting games this weekend.

That's when the Chicago Invitational Challenge -- which included the matchups at Xavier and Illinois State -- moves to the neutral site of the Sears Center in Hoffman States, Ill.

Southeast should be favored to beat Coppin State Friday, after which the Redhawks will play either North Carolina-Wilmington or Longwood Saturday in a game that also figures to be winnable.

---

What can you say about the performances of Southeast freshman center Will Bogan, the big Bell City product?

Some people in the area dismissed Bogan as nothing more than an oversized high school bully who could only beat up on players nearly a foot shorter.

Who knows what type of college career Bogan will wind up having, but the early returns have certainly been impressive.

In fact, impressive isn't even the right word.

Bogan has been nothing short of sensational during the first three games of his rookie collegiate season.

With the highlight being his 23-point, six-rebound performance at Illinois State -- which had plenty of big, strong inside players -- Bogan is averaging team highs of 13.3 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 59.3 percent.

I've said it many times before, but the 6-foot-10, 290-pound Bogan has plenty of skills I thought would hold up no matter what the level of competition, led by great hands, quick feet, a strong body and solid basketball instincts.

So far that's been the case, but I still caution people to not expect too much from Bogan.

After all, he's just a freshman, and he's bound to have as many downs as ups this year, which is usually the case with Division I players right out of high school.

But Bogan's future sure appears to be bright.

---

By any standard, it was not a good season for the Southeast football team.

But I've got to give the Redhawks their props for the way they battled back to win Saturday's season finale, 32-25 over perennial OVC power Jacksonville State.

Riding a seven-game losing streak into that contest at Houck Stadium, and then falling behind by 15 points three separate times, it would have been easy for the Redhawks to simply throw in the towel.

But they stormed back for an impressive victory to wrap up Tony Samuel's second season at Southeast.

While that doesn't do much to gloss over Southeast's record -- which wound up 3-8 overall and 1-6 in the OVC -- it certainly gives the Redhawks' numerous returners something to build on heading into 2008.

A host of injuries and other circumstances -- including the loss of star running back Timmy Holloman midway through the season for violating NCAA regulations -- no doubt hampered the Redhawks this year.

We'll never know how much better the Redhawks would have been had everything held together, but the bottom line is that they were not a particularly good team for most of the season.

Two years into a coach's tenure in a sport like football is way too early to make a judgment on his ability, especially considering Southeast's tradition of gridiron futility and how difficult it is to turn something like that around.

But next season should be an interesting one for Samuel and the Redhawks, because Southeast fans will no doubt expect considerable progress.

---

When the college football season started, how long would the odds have been that Missouri and Kansas would meet on the final date of the regular season with so much at stake nationally?

Probably off the charts.

Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.