Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team must find consistency

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team has displayed flashes of brilliance and bumbling in fairly equal doses so far this season.

That's probably been the most maddening thing for third-year coach Dickey Nutt, who has been frustrated by the Redhawks' inconsistency during their 4-6 start.

Southeast, like a lot of college basketball squads, largely has performed well at home and struggled on the road.

The Redhawks are 4-1 at the Show Me Center following Saturday's somewhat surprising 74-69 loss to Missouri-Kansas City. They have dropped all five of their games away from Cape Girardeau.

The Redhawks, who have a break for finals this week, will have a chance to pick up another home win and end their road losing skid before starting Ohio Valley Conference play.

Southeast hosts SMU on Dec. 19 and visits Sacramento State on Dec. 22, then tips off its OVC schedule Dec. 28 at home against Morehead State, the defending conference tournament champion.

The Redhawks' inside play has been strong and their backcourt suspect. I thought going into the season that Southeast was pretty stacked up front but probably a little thin at guard and wing. That's been the case through 10 games.

The Redhawks' defense has been bad overall and their free-throw shooting has been poor, just like last year. Those two things need to be shored up if Southeast is going to factor into the OVC race.

I'm sure it's difficult for fans to get a read on Southeast's OVC prospects based on the Redhawks' performances so far.

The same goes for Nutt, who will be looking for some clarity during the Redhawks' final two games before OVC play.

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The Austin Peay men's basketball team, the preseason OVC favorite, finally ended its nine-game losing streak to start the year.

Austin Peay slipped past visiting Arkansas State 86-82 in overtime Dec. 5, then followed up with a 74-70 upset at Tennessee on Saturday. The Governors are 2-9 with league play just around the corner.

But the recent news was not all good for Austin Peay. Forward Anthony Campbell suffered a season-ending knee injury against Arkansas State that will force him to miss most of a second straight campaign.

Campbell had to take a medical redshirt last year after injuring a knee early. Campbell averaged 15.5 points and 5.3 rebounds as a sophomore in 2009-10 but had not been the same player this year, averaging 4.6 points before going down again.

Defending OVC regular-season champion Murray State has been rolling since the start of the year.

The Racers are 10-0 and received votes in last week's national polls. They have several notable wins, topped by Sunday's 76-72 stunner at nationally ranked Memphis.

Eastern Illinois also is off to a strong start at 6-3, while Tennessee Tech (5-4) and Eastern Kentucky (6-5) are the other conference teams above .500.

On the women's side, the OVC preseason favorite Tennessee Tech has struggled to a 3-7 start.

Eastern Illinois has the OVC's best nonconference women's record at 6-2. First-year OVC member SIU-Edwardsville (5-4) is the only other league squad above .500.

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An amazing high school basketball streak ended Friday night.

Sikeston's boys had won 51 straight home games before Charleston prevailed 75-71 in the finals of the SEMO Conference tournament.

The Bulldogs' previous loss at the Sikeston Field House occurred early in the 2007-08 season,

Sikeston, the defending Class 4 state champion, also had an overall 35-game winning streak snapped. It had captured the past three SEMO Conference tournament titles.

Charleston's impressive performance makes the Bluejays the favorites to win the upcoming Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament in what shapes up as a fairly wide-open event after Scott County Central dominated last year.

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Count me among the legion of Cardinals fans surprised that Albert Pujols decided to sign with another team. His acceptance of the Angels' 10-year, $254 million offer was stunning.

It's an amazing contract, no doubt, but Pujols' decision does come with risks, namely not getting the benefit of the doubt from his new fans when his performance inevitably begins to significantly decline toward the end of his contract -- and maybe much sooner.

I'm certain Cardinals supporters would have remained deeply devoted to Pujols because of all the great years he gave them. Angels followers might not be so understanding because they don't a history with the future Hall of Famer.

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From a fan's perspective, I would love to see Oklahoma State's explosive offense get a crack at LSU's dominant defense in college football's national championship game.

But I also believe that Alabama is at least the second-best team in the country, so that's probably the right matchup.

The problem is, if Alabama avenges its lone loss of the season -- that 9-6 slugfest to LSU -- and the squads finish 1-1 against each other, who's to say which team truly deserves the title?

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.