Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team declines invite to postseason tournament

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team had an opportunity to continue its season.

Southeast officials said that the College Basketball Invitational, one of the two lower-level postseason tournaments that started a few years ago, extended an invitation Thursday to participate in the event that begins early next week.

But Southeast coach Dickey Nutt, primarily citing injury factors, said he made the decision to decline. Nutt called his decision "in the best interest of the program." He said Southeast's administration was in agreement.

"My administration was in full support, whichever way we wanted to go," Nutt said. "After visiting long and hard with [Southeast director of athletics] Mark Alnutt and with my team the last three days, I just felt like the best thing for our program at this time is to close the book on this year and concentrate on our efforts of spring training, academics, recruiting, and get ready for what we think will be a big year."

Nutt said junior forward Tyler Stone, the team's leading scorer and No. 2 rebounder, hurt his back early this week as the Redhawks were holding controlled scrimmages.

"Tyler took a hard fall and has been in treatment," said Nutt, who said Stone would have been doubtful for a game next week.

Nutt said senior guard Corey Wilford, the team's second-leading scorer and top scorer in Ohio Valley Conference play, is bothered by a sprained ankle that limited him some in Southeast's final game, a quarterfinal loss to Eastern Kentucky in last week's OVC tournament.

"Corey couldn't play the last two days," Nutt said.

Nutt said senior guard Nick Niemczyk is having knee problems that troubled him the last few games of the season.

"Nick's knee is as sore as it can get," Nutt said.

Nutt said Wilford and Niemczyk would have joined Stone as being questionable for a game next week.

Southeast's rotation was already thin to begin with as the Redhawks generally used only seven players in their last few games. Nutt didn't think it would be fair to send a skeleton roster into a contest on the road against what would have been a strong opponent.

"We're just not healthy enough right now," Nutt said. "Just to say we were in the postseason, to go in with six healthy players ... that's not the way we want to compete. I wish we were completely healthy."

There is still a chance the other relatively new lower-level postseason event, the Collegeinsider.com Tournament, will offer Southeast an invitation, but Nutt said that also would be declined.

While Southeast would have been required to go on the road for the College Basketball Invitational, a first-round home game in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament would have been a possibility -- except the Show Me Center isn't available on the potential dates.

Nutt said his players appeared to be in agreement with his decision when the squad met Thursday.

"Our players are very good about it. They're not disappointed at all," Nutt said. "Our goals were set very high this year ... the NCAA tournament. Anything less than that would be a disappointment, even though we accomplished some things that hadn't been done in a while.

"As much as I love postseason play, our goal has not changed. It's the NCAA tournament. We never talked before the season about the CBI or CIT, or the NIT for that matter. It was the NCAA tournament."

Nutt knows some fans might not understand, or agree with, his decision to pass up what would have been just the program's second postseason appearance since moving up to Division I in the 1991-92 campaign.

Southeast's only other Division I men's basketball team to play in the postseason was the 1999-2000 squad that won the OVC tournament to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

"Even the talk of postseason play ... we haven't had that in 12 or 13 years. That's a positive step for our program," Nutt said. "I appreciate our fans' feelings one way or the other on their opinions of the tournament, but as the leader of the program I have to make the decision on what's best for the program.

"I don't have all the answers but I feel good about the decision. I just felt like putting all the factors together, we had to make the decision that was best for our players and our program, to put us in our best position to succeed."

The decision to end the season does eliminate any chance that the Redhawks first winning record since 2004-05 would be taken off the books by a loss. Southeast went 17-16, the program's most victories since the 2000-01 squad won 18 games.