Southeast men show heart with resurgence

You have to hand it to the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team for displaying plenty of character and resolve.

And now, after Saturday's stunning win at Murray State, the Redhawks have a five-game winning streak to bounce back from some tough Ohio Valley Conference losses and become a major factor in the league race heading down the home stretch of the season.

After Southeast suffered three heartbreaking defeats -- including two in overtime and another by two points -- to fall to 1-4 in 0VC play, it would have been easy to write off the Redhawks, and a lot of fans seemed to do just that.

But give coach Gary Garner and his players all kinds of credit. Instead of feeling sorry for themselves and harping on what might have been, they kept working, finally got a few bounces to go their way, closed out games better and responded with their longest winning streak since the 2000-01 season.

And now, at 6-4 in the OVC -- and 11-10 overall -- with six regular-season games left, Southeast not only figures to make the eight-team conference tournament field but has also moved into a fourth-place tie as it shoots for a home game in the first round of the tournament. And the Redhawks are also within striking distance of the top spot.

Sure, it's only human nature for people to think about what might have been -- Garner admits even he does it -- and the Redhawks could very easily be in first place right now had some of those early, narrow league losses been reversed.

But looking back rarely accomplishes much, and the way the Redhawks have been able to rebound is impressive. Now we'll see what happens the rest of the way.

Not just because of the Redhawks' recent impressive play, but it makes me laugh that Garner was picked in a recent Southeast Missourian online poll as the Missouri coach that people would most like to see replaced.

Over the likes of Mike Martz, Quin Snyder and others? Give me a break. Those voters need to have their heads examined.

For various reasons that have been well documented, Southeast's overall recruiting in recent years has not been as strong as when the program was really rolling.

But for anybody to doubt Garner's general coaching ability is, in my opinion, ridiculous.

I had one of my many brain cramps and wrote in Saturday's preview of the Southeast-Murray game that the Redhawks had lost eight straight to the Racers.

But I forgot about Southeast's 78-68 victory over Murray just two years ago at the Show Me Center.

Sorry about the blunder.

While Southeast's men have righted the ship, the women continue to roll as they have now posted eight straight victories, most of them in dominating fashion.

The Redhawks (15-6, 9-1 OVC) keep making a strong push toward their first OVC championship, although Tennessee Tech and Eastern Kentucky continue to hang right with them in the standings, which should set up a great finish.

The weather is warming up some, and Southeast's baseball team is just about ready to begin a season filled with plenty of promise.

Southeast returned most of its position players and several key pitchers from last year's inexperienced squad that overcame some rough spots to make it all the way to the OVC tournament championship game.

Throw in some talented recruits -- including several key mound reinforcements -- and expectations are high for Mark Hogan's Redhawks, who open another tough schedule Friday at Tulane, which has been ranked No. 1 in one national poll.

The Redhawks, who will have a three-game series at Tulane, play their first home game in early March -- and I can't wait to get out to Capaha Field to see them in action.

I was probably as surprised as anybody by the recent announcement that Cindy Gannon was stepping down as Southeast's head volleyball coach to become a full-time athletic administrator at the school.

Although the Redhawks struggled a bit in recent seasons, Gannon had a brilliant 16-year run with the program, leading it to eight OVC titles and four NCAA Division I tournament berths.

And on a personal level, I couldn't have imagined a more personable and cooperative coach to work with as I covered the team during her entire 16 years at the helm.

Here's wishing Cindy the best in her new position, and also good luck to new coach Renata Nowacki, who was Cindy's able assistant the past four seasons.

Former Southeast basketball player Damarcus Hence, who completed his four-year career with the Redhawks last season, is doing well as a member of the St. Louis Flight of the American Basketball Association.

Entering the weekend, D-Money -- as he was known at Southeast -- was averaging about 12 points per game for the minor-league professional squad.

Congratulations to my good buddy Tom Reinagel, who Saturday was inducted into the Notre Dame High School athletic hall of fame.

Tom, a former standout pitcher on various levels -- including at Southeast and with the Capahas -- has been best known in recent years for his tireless work and financial contributions toward the area amateur baseball scene, including a stint as head coach of Cape Girardeau's American Legion team.

Former Southeast basketball star Curtis Shelton, an ex-Central High School assistant, returned to the area over the weekend as the head coach of Wentzville-Holt, which played at Central Friday and at Notre Dame Saturday.

Shelton, Southeast's career leader in 3-point baskets who played for the team in the early 1990s, was always a fan favorite at the Show Me Center -- and a favorite of mine -- for his great personality and for getting the most out of his ability.

All right, it's finally time for my Super Bowl prediction, which is for amusement purposes only and comes with the following warning: do not, I repeat, do not wager anything more than a stick of gum, or perhaps a cold beer, based on my opinion.

First of all, let me say I think it's going to be a really close, down-to-the-wire game, much like what happened last year when the Patriots edged the Panthers.

It seems like the entire world is expecting New England to repeat, and it really is hard to pick against a squad that just about always comes up with big plays in the clutch.

That being said, there's something about this Philadelphia team that I like, particularly Donovan McNabb, who is -- despite what Cape native son Rush Limbaugh might have suggested a few years ago -- one of the sport's elite quarterbacks.

Sure, I could take the easy way out and pick New England, like just about everyone else. But, perhaps against my better judgment, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Eagles 27, Patriots 24, meaning at the very least I expect Philadelphia to cover the point spread, which has been holding steady at seven.

But like I said earlier, please do not take it to the bank. With my track record, it's just as likely to wind up Patriots by about 30.

We'll see what happens later today.

Will there be no stopping the Illinois basketball team, at least during the regular season?

It's beginning to look more and more like it, after the Illini cleared another supposed major hurdle toward an unbeaten campaign by winning handily at Michigan State Tuesday night.

The 22-0 Illini still have quite a few regular-season games left, but it's apparent that they are going to be extremely hard to beat.

And in addition to their glowing record, the top-ranked Illini are simply a fun team to watch, with their tremendously talented guards and their unselfish play that always seems to produce open shots.

On the other end of the spectrum for major-college basketball fans in the region, we have Missouri, which is slogging through a disappointing season that, if it doesn't get better soon, might not even lead to an NIT berth.

The Tigers were not expected to be great this year, but they were supposed to be considerably better than this.

While Illinois always seems like such a cohesive unit, Mizzou usually appears totally out of sync on the court, with too much one-on-one play. That might be fine if you're super talented, but it usually doesn't cut it when your talent isn't at an elite level, which the Tigers' certainly isn't.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian