Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team wants to get Bradley more involved in offense

With his team gathered around him at practice Monday afternoon, Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt said by today he'd have each player's specific role written down.

The Redhawks (7-10, 1-3 OVC) face Jacksonville State (8-10, 1-3 OVC) at 8 p.m. tonight in Jacksonville, Alabama, and Nutt feels clearly defining each player's role will help their struggling offense.

The one role he clearly defined to the team verbally in practice Monday was that senior forward Jarekious Bradley is the team's "money guy," and getting him the ball more will make things easier.

"[Opponents'] main focus is JB. They're putting a lot of emphasis on that, and we hadn't been able to offset that," Nutt said. "As a result it's leading to inconsistencies, maybe dry spells. It's no secret we're not shooting the ball particularly well. But we have to stick to our role. Our roles are not good enough identified yet. We've had them identified, but we just need to go over them again.

"The bottom line is Jarekious Bradley is our go-to guy, and if you're not coming down the floor looking for him, then there's something wrong. We've got to go through him. He can make life easier for us if we can get him going, if we can get him in rhythm. They're shutting him down. He only had seven attempts the other night. That's not good enough. *... But right now we're not finding him at the perfect time. He's only going to be open for a split second, and we've got to make sure that we're getting the ball to him when he's open for a split second."

Bradley, who is fifth in the conference in scoring with 15.8 ppg, was held to 10 points in Saturday's loss to Eastern Kentucky and nine points in Thursday's loss to Morehead State.

He poured in a season-high 29 points in Southeast's lone conference win against Tennessee State.

The Redhawks were held scoreless for about five and a half of the final six minutes of their loss to EKU, and it quickly allowed the Colonels to extend a five-point lead to 18.

Nutt said that a lack of post production is allowing teams to guard shooters easier, and poor free-throw shooting hasn't helped.

Sophomore guard Antonius Cleveland and senior forward Nino Johnson, who have started all 17 games, have the most free-throw attempts for Southeast, but are shooting 44.8 and 44.4 percent from the line, respectively.

"We're hitting a lull there, and that's hurting us offensively," Nutt said. "That's my evaluation. But it doesn't mean I've lost faith in any of them. I want them to play as hard as they can play every single possession. If they can do that, they'll be OK."

Bradley and junior guard Isiah Jones, who has started the last three games, are the Redhawks' best 3-point shooters, knocking down 27 and 26 on the season, respectively.

The status of Jones, who is averaging 14.3 over the last three games, is unknown for tonight's contest. He did not practice Monday due to a right hand injury. He had a negative X-ray, but was also going to have an MRI.

"That's disappointing," Nutt said. "I think it's going to be a pain tolerant level."

Southeast, which is 2-7 away from the confines of the Show Me Center, will face a Gamecocks squad that is 7-1 at home.

JSU sustained its first home loss of the season Sunday, falling 84-57 to Murray State. The Gamecocks also have conference losses at SIU Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois. Their lone OVC win was a 71-59 defeat of Austin Peay.

The Gamecocks are led in scoring by senior guard Darion Rackley with 15.1 ppg. He's knocked down 28 of 82 3-point attempts. Senior forward DJ Felder averages 10.1 ppg and 5.4 rebounds.

Senior guard Avery Moore leads the team with 34 made 3-pointers out of 113 attempts.

"They've been building that team for awhile," Nutt said. "They haven't had a lot of success over the years, but this year they feel like this is their best team. *... I'm more concerned about us. I'm concerned about us playing our winning basketball the way we were a week ago on the road. We played very good, very energetic. For whatever reason we were just somewhat lethargic at home."