Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team opens season today at Missouri

The prevailing theme among Southeast Missouri State basketball players following their lone exhibition game is that they lacked toughness.

The Redhawks will need all the toughness they can summon today when they open the season at 25th-ranked Missouri. The 7 p.m. contest at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo., will be televised by Fox Sports Midwest.

"We have to get a whole lot tougher," sophomore point guard Lucas Nutt said. "It's going to be a huge test for us. Missouri will probably be one of the best teams we play all year, for sure.

"It's an opportunity. Maybe we can go pull an upset."

Third-year Southeast coach Dickey Nutt knows the Redhawks will have to play considerably better than during Monday's 68-63 exhibition loss to Division II Harding.

"It was certainly a wake-up call for us," Nutt said. "But playing a top 25 team, it's a great opportunity for us."

Southeast sophomore forward Tyler Stone, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds in the exhibition defeat, has similar thoughts.

"I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be another test for us," Stone said.

Stone might have some extra incentive in facing the Tigers since he played at MU as a freshman in 2009-10. He had totals of 22 points and 12 rebounds in limited action, then transferred after the season.

"It's going to be nice going back to the school I came from, but they're just another team," said Stone, who said he still keeps in touch with some of his former teammates. "We're cool. But come Friday I don't have any friends. Just my brothers on this team."

MU and first-year coach Frank Haith were hit with a major blow before practice even started when 6-foot-8 senior forward Laurence Bowers suffered a season-ending knee injury during a pickup game. Bowers averaged 11.6 points and a team-leading 6.1 rebounds per game last year.

But the Tigers still have plenty of talent returning from a team that went 23-11 overall and 8-8 in the Big 12 Conference during coach Mike Anderson's final campaign. MU returns its four other starters and features one of the nation's best backcourts.

The Tigers were impressive during their three-game exhibition schedule against Division II opponents.

The Tigers destroyed Missouri Southern 114-68, thumped Truman State 87-48 and disposed of Division II power Central Missouri 88-70. They shot better than 50 percent from the field in each contest.

"They're a very good basketball team," Nutt said. "We have to slow down their guards, who are probably the best in the country."

MU's veteran backcourt features a pair of 1,000-point career scorers in seniors Marcus Denmon and Kim English.

The 6-foot-3 Denmon was a first-team all-Big 12 performer last season as he led the Tigers in scoring with a 16.9 average while shooting 44.8 percent from 3-point range (82 of 183). The 6-6 English averaged 10 points and shot 36.7 percent from beyond the arc.

"Marcus is a very efficient and savvy basketball player," Haith said. "You don't see a lot of wasted movement, and that's what makes him so difficult to guard and play against.

"He is coming off a tremendous year and is obviously one of the top players in the country."

Other returning regulars for the Tigers are 6-8, 240-pound senior forward Ricardo Ratliffe, who averaged 10.6 points and six rebounds to earn the Big 12 newcomer of the year honor, and 6-1 junior guard Michael Dixon (10.3 ppg).

Ratliffe shot 57.1 percent from the field while Dixon made 38.8 percent of his 3-pointers.

MU has been starting four guards along with Ratliffe after Bowers went down. Other talented backcourt performers for the Tigers are 5-10 sophomore Phil Pressey and 6-2 senior Matt Pressey, who combined to average more than 12 points last season.

"They are really fast," Nutt said about MU's guards. "We have to get back defensively and make sure we don't give up easy layups."

Today's game will mark the first meeting between the programs since 1997-98, when Gary Garner's first Southeast squad nearly upset Norm Stewart's Tigers in Columbia before falling 65-64.

MU leads the all-time series 5-0. The other four wins by the Tigers were by 7, 14, 22 and 37 points.