Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team fourth in division, women last in OVC preseason polls

First-year Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Rick Ray and women's basketball coach Rekha Patterson got their first experience with the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll, which is voted on by league coaches and sports information directors and was released Tuesday during the OVC's media day in Nashville.

The Redhawks men's team was pegged fourth in the OVC West Division, and the women's team was voted last in the 12-team league.

"I never pay attention to any preseason polls because quite honestly nobody knows what the outcome is going to be," Ray said. "Nobody had, in football, Utah being the best team in the PAC 12 right now; nobody had Florida being the team to beat in the SEC East. I just think polls are something people must do, but very rarely are they actually accurate."

Ray's team received 72 points in the poll. Defending regular-season champion Murray State was picked to win the West with 15 first-place votes and 125 points.

Belmont, which won the OVC tournament title last year, was picked to win the East Division (22 first-place votes, 132 points) as well as the overall championship.

The Bruins received 21 first-place votes for overall champion while UT Martin received two and Murray one.

UT Martin was picked second in the West with nine first-place votes and 115 points. Eastern Illinois was third with 55 points.

Austin Peay (57) and SIU Edwardsville (35) were fifth and sixth behind the Redhawks.

Morehead State received the only other first-place vote in the East and finished second to Belmont with 105 votes.

Eastern Kentucky (88), Tennessee Tech (67), Jacksonville State (52) and Tennessee State (48) rounded out the East Division poll.

Belmont senior Craig Bradshaw was named the OVC preseason player of the year. He averaged 18.3 points, 1.6 steals and 3.1 assists per game en route to being an all-OVC first-team selection as a junior. He shot 42.3 percent from behind the arc and averaged 2.7 made 3s a game.

Southeast junior guard Antonius Cleveland was selected to the preseason all-OVC team. Cleveland averaged 10.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists a game last season.

"I think the first thing is it just goes to show that people around the league have a great deal of respect for Antonius' talent level and expectations for him," Ray said. "I think also it shows that we have a quality young man in our program that people expect to make a jump with his abilities.

"I think the thing that's going to be so different for Antonius is now being the guy who has a target on his back. He's always had guys like Jarekious Bradley and Nino (Johnson) as the guys that were really on the top of the scouting report, so how he handles that this year -- being the guy who's targeted -- will be interesting and something he must learn how to deal with."

The Redhawks finished 13-17 and 7-9 in the OVC last season under Dickey Nutt and were knocked out in the opening round of the conference tournament.

The men's team began practice Oct. 2 and eagerly awaits the start of the season.

The Redhawks host Missouri S&T in an exhibition contest on Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. They begin the regular season at Dayton on Nov. 13 to kick off a stretch of four straight road games.

The home opener is Nov. 28 vs. Loyola Marymount.

"It's a little difficult sometimes to keep your guys' eyes on the prize knowing that their first game is six weeks away," Ray said. "When you get into the season, you know that you've got a game to look forward to. So getting through the mundane part of practice and keeping your guys energized and enthusiastic about practice is always the difficult part, but I've got to give our guys a lot of credit, they've come in pretty much every single day excited and enthused about going out and practicing, so we've just got to make sure we keep it that way."

Patterson, whose team was picked 12th and did not have a player chosen preseason all-conference, informed her players of the predicted order of finish before its official announcement so they weren't surprised by the news.

She explained, like many coaches do, that it's based on last year's results and stats, but she added a personal note from her days on staff at Baylor where she was part of a team that went undefeated on its way to a national title: "If the polls were true, then I would have two national championships instead of just one."

Patterson was pleased with her players' reaction to the poll.

"We actually went out and had a great practice after we talked about it," Patterson said. "I want my players to play their best, to be their best, forget what's on the scoreboard. Come out here and give your best and we'll live with the results of that, but don't let a day go by where we don't put forth great effort and have a great attitude and give good energy."

SIUE received 10 first-place votes and 226 points to receive the top spot in the preseason poll. Cougars guard Shronda Butts was named the preseason player of the year on the women's side.

Defending OVC champion UT Martin also got 10 first-place votes and was second with 213 points. Belmont was third with 202 points and three first-place votes.

Tennessee State, which won last year's conference tournament, received the final first-place vote but was fifth with 168 points. Jacksonville State was fourth with 176 points.

Eastern Kentucky (122), Morehead State (111), Austin Peay (109), Eastern Illinois (88), Murray State (71), Tennessee Tech (62) and Southeast (33) rounded out the poll.

The Redhawks were 10-19 and 3-13 in the OVC and failed to make the conference tournament in Ty Margenthaler's final season.

Southeast will host a pair of exhibition games -- against Oakland City on Nov. 1 and Lindenwood-Belleville on Nov. 4 -- before opening the season at Saint Louis on Nov. 14.

The Redhawks' home opener is Nov. 16 vs. Harris-Stowe.

"I love their energy and effort and attitude, and I think those are things that I have not had to coach, which allows us to truly coach basketball and teach and instruct," Patterson said about her players. "Their heads are spinning because we put in a little bit more of our offense on Monday. *... We scrimmaged against each other and our practice players on Saturday, so that was great for us to be able to show them some film because film doesn't lie. But I like where their heads are, I like where their hearts are and we're just going to keep trying to get better every day."