Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team faces four-win challenge at OVC tournament

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team has proven it can win four in a row. Now its next goal will be to do that over the next four days.

The Redhawks are embracing the challenge of winning four basketball games in four days, which is something that hasn't been done since the tournament format changed in 2011 and is what they'll have to do if they want to win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

"Naturally, we'd obviously welcome a couple of days off before the tournament in a bye, but it's the way it is," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "Our philosophy and our theme right now, and my message to the team is just: We wouldn't want it any other way. It will be much sweeter when we do it this way.

"Our guys in our locker room, we feel like we're just as good as anybody in the league and we're very capable, but we're going to have to play. I think it's going to be the team that plays the best together, and the smartest and the best defensive team will win the tournament."

Southeast, the sixth seed, takes a four-game winning streak into the tournament and faces No. 7 Eastern Illinois in the opening round at 8 p.m. today at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.

Southeast Missouri State coach Dickey Nutt offers Nino Johnson a high-five after Johnson blocked an inbound pass that secured the Redhawks’ 118-115 double-overtime win over Murray State on Saturday at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

The Redhawks posted a 17-13 overall record and finished 8-8 in the OVC for sixth place. EIU went 11-19 overall and was 7-9 in conference play.

"I think when the ball's tipped up, you can forget about records, you can forget about seeds," Nutt said. "It's who's the best that 40 minutes, and hopefully we'll come out and carry over what we've been learning."

The Redhawks and Panthers meet for the sixth time in the past two seasons tonight. Southeast defeated Eastern illinois 78-68 in the first round of the conference tournament last year.

"We still have the same problem that we had last year, and that's guarding all their guys," EIU coach Jay Spoonhour said in an OVC teleconference Monday. "They just have so many different players that can beat you in a game. That's the hard thing for us."

Southeast and EIU both won on the road against each other this season. The Panthers defeated Southeast 77-74 on Jan. 25 at the Show Me Center, while the Redhawks won 74-68 at Lantz Arena on Feb. 8.

The second meeting was a turning point for the Redhawks.

It snapped a three-game conference losing streak, and after losing their next game to UT Martin the Redhawks picked up four consecutive wins to finish the regular season.

Southeast has been playing with more confidence lately, and there's no doubt its double-overtime victory against OVC West Division champion Murray State on Saturday has provided a boost heading to Nashville.

"More importantly I think that we're playing as hard as we possibly can," Nutt said. "I think we were absolutely exhausted Saturday night after the game. I don't think there was an ounce of effort taken off that floor. It was all left on that floor. That's exciting. That's what you want. You want your teams to be playing your best basketball this time of year. Now we've got to get ready to go play in the tournament."

Although the Redhawks' main objective will be to be playing in the championship game Saturday, they're still sticking with the plan that helped them make it into the tournament -- to take it one game at a time, and it starts against the Panthers.

"They're very opposite of what we try to do. They want to be very deliberate," Nutt said about EIU. "They want to hold the basketball, they'll mix up their defenses, they just try to grind you out. ... We have to show patience not only on the offensive side but defensively as well. We've got to be ready to guard for 30 seconds a possession, and I think that's critical. I think that sometimes after five or 10 seconds we get bored and we're ready to go to the other end, and we can't do that."

After Southeast's win Saturday, Nutt felt his team had proved it had the depth needed to make a push for the tournament title.

However, Southeast's leading scorers Jarekious Bradley and Tyler Stone did not practice Tuesday. Bradley's knee continues to bother him and Stone has the flu, but Nutt's confident they'll feel much better today.

Stone is one of just three Southeast players that have played in the OVC tournament, along with senior Lucas Nutt and junior Nino Johnson, and it could be interesting to see how some newcomers rise to the occasion. Freshmen Antonius Cleveland and Jamaal Calvin both had big games against Murray State, scoring 21 and 17 points, respectively, and combining for the first 11 of Southeast's 13 points in the second overtime to pick up the victory.

"It's exciting to have two freshmen step up in big games this time of year," Nutt said. "Antonius hit a wall midway through the season, but he came out of that and he's playing his best basketball right now, so that's a good thing. Jamaal Calvin's just getting better and better. I think he's strong, he's fast and he's knocking down some shots."

If Southeast wins tonight they'll face No. 3 Eastern Kentucky in the quarterfinals Thursday. If the Redhawks can top the Colonels, they'll meet Murray State in the semifinals Friday.