Southeast faces tough challenge today with Bills

Lorenzo Romar and Gary Garner both think there is quite a bit of significance to St. Louis University's recent narrow loss to second-ranked Missouri.

For Garner, who coaches Southeast Missouri State University, that performance shows just how much of a challenge the 1-5 Indians face when they play the 3-5 Billikens today at Savvis Center.

For Romar, who coaches SLU, that 69-67 setback on a shot at the buzzer shows just what kind of a team the Billikens can be -- although he acknowledges that they are certainly not close to being there yet.

When a reporter remarked that it appears as if the Billikens have been up and down so far this season -- never winning more than one game in a row -- Romar quickly agreed.

"That's probably the best way to describe it," he said. "We've been a little inconsistent. I was hoping we could avoid that, but with our team this year, with a lot of new roles being assessed, we thought that would be a possibility."

Although SLU is a much higher-profile program than Southeast, the Billikens entered the season facing some of the same problems as the Indians.

Like the Indians, who have just one senior, the Billikens are young, with no seniors, although they do have six juniors. And while Southeast lost its top four scorers from last season's 18-12 team, SLU lost four of its top five scorers from its 17-14 squad of a year ago.

"We've got a lot of new players, and also a lot of players in different roles this year," Romar said.

But one player who is in his familiar role is speedy guard Marque Perry, a junior who is SLU's only top player back from last year and is also the Billikens' only double-figure scorer this season at 14.9 points per game. Perry, who had a stellar performance against Missouri, is widely regarded as one of the quickest players in the country.

"Marque is doing a good job for us," Romar said.

Plenty of depth

No other player is averaging as many as nine points per game for the Billikens, but seven are contributing more than five points a contest. In all, nine Bills play an average of more than 12 minutes a game and those nine have all started at least once as Romar continues to shuffle his lineup in order to try and find the right combinations.

SLU's inside game has not been all that overwhelming, although the Billikens do feature a pair of imposing players in 6-9, 250-pound junior-college transfer Kenny Brown (8.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and 6-10, 235-pound Chris Braun (7.3 ppg).

"Once Kenny got going he has probably been our most consistent inside player," said Romar. "After that they're either new or accepting a new role."

The Billikens have some dangerous long-range shooters as Jason Edwin, Drew Diener and Josh Fisher are all connecting on at least 40 percent of their 3-point attempts.

"My gosh, they took Missouri, the No. 2 team in the nation, to the wire," said Garner. "Perry is maybe as quick as anybody in the country. If he's not, he's in the top two or three. Brown and Braun are both big, strong players.

"They're a formidable opponent. We definitely have our hands full."

Romar knows that Southeast is in a rebuilding stage after having an impressive three-year run that produced a 62-28 record, but he insists he is still wary of the Indians.

"Southeast Missouri is always a dangerous team because they're so well coached," he said. "They're not as talented as they were last year, but coach Garner does such a good job that he'll find a way to make them OK.

"We've already lost three home games. We've already lost to Arkansas-Little Rock and Southern Illinois at home, so it's not as if it's an automatic win for us. We're going out to play this game as if it were Cincinnati or Memphis in our conference. I hope our players approach it that way."

Injury problems

Southeast has been bothered by several ailments and injuries this week.

Freshman guard Brett Hale, one of four Southeast players averaging in double figures at 11.6 points per game, suffered a sprained ankle in practice and missed several workouts, although he is expected to play today.

Senior forward Monte Gordon, who was academically ineligible the first semester, would have become eligible to play today, but he continues to be bothered by a racing heart that hampered him most of last season.

Gordon, in fact, had to be hospitalized after what Garner said was a scary episode during Thursday's practice and he will not be at today's game.