Southeast women are having impressive turnaround

I'm not about to predict that the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team is ready to challenge for the Ohio Valley Conference championship.

That's probably a stretch considering how much the Redhawks have struggled the past three seasons.

But you've got to be impressed by the way the Redhawks are performing under second-year coach Ty Margenthaler. He and his staff have breathed plenty of life into a floundering program.

The Redhawks (8-8, 2-1 OVC) already have surpassed their victory total from Margenthaler's first season last year, when they went 7-22.

Southeast has not won more than eight games in a season since the 2008-09 campaign and also hasn't posted more than four OVC victories in any season since 2008-09. The current Redhawks look like they'll blow those figures out of the water.

The Redhawks are riding their first three-game winning streak since 2008-09 and own their best 16-game record since 2007-08, when they won their most recent OVC championship.

Margenthaler has been able to blend several players left from the previous coaching staff and some key newcomers into a cohesive unit that does not appear to be physically overmatched in most games, unlike the past few seasons.

Southeast women's hoops is fun to watch again, which I honestly haven't been able to say for a while.

The Redhawks certainly haven't arrived yet; they still have a long way to go.

But right now you've got to say things are definitely trending in the right direction.

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I haven't changed my opinion that I believe the Southeast men's basketball team is headed for a strong season, likely its best since the NCAA tournament campaign of 1999-2000.

But the Redhawks definitely were knocked down a notch during last week's two-game road trip to Nashville, Tenn., as they suffered a pair of losses by a combined 47 points.

Most people already knew Belmont was a really strong addition to the OVC after the Bruins earned NCAA tournament berths five of the past seven years -- including the last two -- as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Southeast felt the Bruins' wrath Thursday night as the OVC East Division preseason favorites crushed the Redhawks 107-72 in the first meeting between the programs.

It was total domination, the game every bit as lopsided as the score. The experienced Bruins shot 61.5 percent from the field and had two players score 30 points as they won for the 33rd time in their last 34 home games.

Belmont, with its best players being seniors, might not be quite as good next year.

But there is no question Belmont is a strong overall addition to the OVC in men's hoops.

Belmont takes the sport seriously, putting plenty of resources into the program.

The Bruins play in the sparkling Curb Event Center, which opened in 2003 and features luxury boxes along with numerous other impressive amenities.

Belmont boasts several high-profile, wealthy donors, including country music star Vince Gill, who is good friends with longtime Belmont coach Rick Byrd. Gill goes to virtually all the Bruins' home games and was in attendance for the Southeast contest.

Southeast then fell 81-69 on Saturday night at Tennessee State, which also remains undefeated in the OVC East Division.

The Redhawks (10-9, 2-3 OVC) have lost three straight. But the silver lining for the Redhawks is that all the defeats were to upper-echelon OVC squads.

Three-time defending OVC champion and West Division favorite Murray State rallied to beat the Redhawks on Jan. 5. Then came the losses to Belmont and TSU, picked one-two in the East Division.

Now that the Redhawks' toughest three-game OVC stretch of the season is out of the way, they'll have a string of games in which they should be decided favorites.

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Some people, myself included, didn't think the Eastern Kentucky men's basketball team was for real despite its impressive nonconference run against a fairly weak schedule.

But the Colonels turned plenty of heads, mine included, with Wednesday's surprising 77-65 win at Murray State to hand the Racers their first OVC loss.

EKU (14-3), 4-0 in the OVC for the first time since 1978-79, looks to be the real deal. Southeast will find out when the Redhawks host the Colonels on Feb. 2.

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It was widely thought when the OVC men's basketball season started that the East Division would be much stronger than the West Division.

So far that has certainly been the case.

The six East Division teams are a combined 20-8 in league play, led by Tennessee State, Belmont and Eastern Kentucky at 13-0.

Those three squads are all above .500 overall as well as in conference play, as is Jacksonville State.

The six West Division teams are a combined 8-20 in league play. Murray State, at 3-1, is the only West squad above .500 in conference games. The Racers and Southeast are the only West clubs with overall winning records.

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Major kudos to former Jackson High School girls basketball coach Ron Cook for his induction into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Cook, who was honored before Thursday's game against Central, led Jackson to a 446-143 record over 24 seasons, including four straight Final Fours in the 1990s.

Cook is a class act all the way and he was always one of my favorite coaches to cover when he directed the Indians' program.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.