Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team hoping to take next step this season

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt has brought the Redhawks program back to respectability in his first five seasons.

But can he push the program one step further to where the team is held in high esteem and is a serious contender for an Ohio Valley Conference championship?

He'll begin his sixth season at the helm of the Redhawks program when they travel to Los Angeles for the Loyola Marymount Classic on Friday and Saturday and is optimistic that the team is on the verge of vying for a conference title.

"I think we're in line to be very competitive, and we've got a chance to compete for a title," Nutt said. "That's our goal and that's been our goal since we arrived. We've been able in the last two or three years to put it together, and there is some real sense to accomplishing that."

Southeast's record has improved in each of Nutt's five seasons leading the program, and it finished 18-14 last season.

The Redhawks finished second in the West Division with their 8-8 record and sixth overall in the conference standings after being picked as co-favorites with Murray State to win the division.

Southeast has earned a spot in the OVC tournament each of the last four seasons, but hasn't made it past the quarterfinal round.

Last year they were knocked out by Eastern Kentucky, which went on to win the tournament and received the OVC's automatic bid in the NCAA tournament.

Nutt said that this season's team has been "easy" to coach and that the closeness of the players is exciting.

"They hang together, they play together, they all have one common goal," Nutt said. "If you look around on our team, you don't see many guys out there that are just trying their best to get 30 points. They're more into winning and everything else. I mean, it's just come a little bit easier. Every group is different. Like I said, every group has a different personality -- this is just a good group. They're fun to coach."

Southeast returns second-team all-OVC selection Jarekious Bradley, who averaged 19.0 points and 6.3 rebounds last season and led the team with 75 3-pointers. Bradley will not make the trip to Los Angeles as he's recovering from a severe thigh bruise.

Seniors Nino Johnson and Josh Langford, who averaged 8.5 and 7.5 points, respectively, last season will also be called on to help replace all-conference player Tyler Stone.

Sophomores Antonius Cleveland and Jamaal Calvin will bring a year of experience to the team. Cleveland was the team's third-leading scorer with 9.1 ppg as a freshman. Senior Darrian Gray averaged seven points in his first season as a Redhawk and was second on the team with 32 3-pointers made.

Senior guard JJ Thompson, who had to sit out last season due to NCAA transfer rules, junior transfer Isiah Jones and senior transfer Aaron Adeoye as well as freshmen JT Jones, Marcus Wallace, Ladarius Coleman and TJ Thomas will officially begin their careers at Southeast when the Redhawks face Loyola Marymount at 8 p.m. Friday.

"These guys ... they want to be good," Nutt said. "I think the great thing about this team is that they're very close, and they want it. I mean, there's not a day that goes by that guys aren't calling between classes, saying, 'Hey, can we get a workout in? Hey, can we get some shots up?' and things like that. These guys want it.

"And I don't have to spend my day trying to motivate them to play at a hard level because these guys know how to play hard. I think if you watch our team play, if you're sitting on that front row you might get run over because they get after it, and they'll hurt somebody. I hold my breath every day because they slam into each other going at that high rate of speed, and it's always prone to injury, but our guys are doing a good job of doing what we ask them to do, and that's have great attitude, great effort and be a student."

It remains to be seen if Nutt, who has compiled a record of 69-91 at Southeast, can lead the Redhawks to their goal of an OVC championship or if they'll continue to be on the outside looking in.

"At the end of the day, sure, we want to win every game and we want to be in the NCAA tournament, and that's what we live for," Nutt said. "I promise you we're daylight to exhaustion thinking about that and we're working toward that, but at the end of the day these guys have to walk across the stage and be men and husbands and fathers and everything else, and they're doing good, and I'm really proud of them."