Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team opens season tonight in California

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team expects to face a hyped-up host team in Los Angeles for its season opener tonight.

The Redhawks start their season at the LMU Classic and will face host Loyola-Marymount at 8 p.m. at Gersten Pavilion in the Lions' first game under coach Mike Dunlap.

"We think it'll be an up-tempo game," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "I think we're going to have to really guard people, as always, and withstand their excitement that they're going to be playing with because it's their opening game and they're trying to make a big parade out of it because this is the first game of the new coach. We know that we're basically their homecoming, but we're prepared. We're ready to go."

Dunlap, who has coached in the NBA, returns to his alma mater this season. He had served as the Charlotte Bobcats' head coach during the 2012-13 season. He's compiled a 328-105 record in his career at multiple levels of coaching.

"Everywhere he goes he wins, so we certainly have a lot of respect for him," Nutt said. "I know he'll have his guys play hard. They'll play an NBA style. They want to get up and down and play exciting, and they'll try to press you all over the floor, just as we will, so I think it's going to be two teams that play alike.

The Lions were 13-19 last season. They return their second-leading scorer, guard Evan Payne, who averaged 15.5 points per game.

LMU won its lone exhibition game by a 68-67 score over UC-San Diego last Thursday. Guards David Humphries and Ayodeji Egbeyemi led the Lions with 23 points and 16 points, respectively. Forward Godwin Okonji chipped in 14. Payne did not play in the game.

Jarekious Bradley, Southeast's top returner, did not make the trip to Los Angeles due to a severe thigh bruise. Bradley averaged 19.0 points and 6.3 rebounds last season.

"Obviously having a guy that caliber out of your lineup and out of your team is devastating because here's a guy that proved last year that he's a 20-point guy," Nutt said. "But more importantly he's experienced, so we've got to do without that."

The Redhawks will face San Diego, which was 18-17 last season, at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. San Diego opens its season against Boise State today in the LMU Classic.

The Toreros return three of their top four scorers. Johnny Dee and Duda Sanadze averaged 16.6 and 12.9 points per game, respectively, while Christopher Anderson averaged 10.3. Dee, a 41.8 percent 3-point shooter, hit 94 3-pointers last year and also was a 94.5 percent free-throw shooter. Sanadze and Anderson hit 47 and 43 3-pointers, respectively, last season.

Southeast's projected starters for today's game are guards JJ Thompson, Isiah Jones and Antonius Cleveland, and forwards Aaron Adeoye and Nino Johnson.

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The Southeast men's basketball team added Xavion Dillon to its list of early signees of the 2015-16 class Thursday, the athletic department announced.

Dillon, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward, averaged 7 points and 5.3 rebounds last year as a freshman at Southwest Mississippi Community College. He shot 53.3 percent from the field and had 34 blocks.

Dillon averaged 25 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks per game his senior year at Tylertown High School in Tylertown, Mississippi.

"We are excited to have Xavion join our program," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said in a news release. "He's a young man that professors and coaches alike all rave about his character. He brings the athleticism that we seek in our recruiting efforts."

Dillon joins Marion, Illinois, guard Robby Dosier, who signed with the Redhawks on Wednesday as part of the week-long early signing period.

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The Ohio Valley Conference men's and women's basketball championships will continue to be held at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium, the league announced Thursday.

The conference and the Municipal Auditorium reached an agreement that will retain the OVC tournament through the 2016-17 season.

"We are delighted to continue our relationship with both Municipal Auditorium and the city of Nashville," OVC commissioner Beth DeBauche said in a news release. "As a result of improvements to the facility and the continued support of both the venue and the city, we can continue to make Municipal Auditorium and Nashville the home of our premier championship."

This season's OVC tournament is slated to be played March 4 to 7.