Southeast's league title was unthinkable in November

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Amazing.

That one word pretty well sums up the 2006-07 Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team.

Who in their right mind would have guessed that the Redhawks would repeat as Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament champions to reach their second consecutive NCAA tournament?

Apparently not many people -- count me among the doubters -- since Southeast was picked just fifth in the OVC's preseason poll based on voting by the league's head coaches and sports information directors.

But really, who could blame those prognosticators? Southeast lost four starters from last year's team that captured the program's first OVC regular-season and tournament titles and made the NCAA Division I tournament for the first time.

Sophomore guard Tarina Nixon was the only returning regular, and senior center Lachelle Lyles was the only other returning player with significant experience. Combined, they averaged about 10 points per game.

Throw in the fact head coach B.J. Smith was placed on administrative leave in November and then resigned in December without ever coaching a game this season, and the Redhawks appeared to face an uphill battle before they ever took the court for an official contest.

But Nixon has been rock solid at the point, Lyles turned into the nation's leading rebounder, sophomore guard Sonya Daugherty -- who hardly got off the bench last year -- turned into the squad's leading scorer, junior college transfer forward Missy Whitney has been arguably the OVC's top newcomer, and junior college transfer guard Ashley Lovelady has joined the trio of Daugherty, Whitney and Nixon as a double-figure scorer.

Add in solid contributions from various reserves, great team defense and rebounding, and expert leadership from acting head coach John Ishee and assistants Lisa Pace and Jenni Lingor, and it's added up to 24-7 record and a trip to the "Big Dance" of the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

Amazing.

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Congratulations to everybody associated with the Southeast women's program for their incredible accomplishments.

Like I have written several times before, it will be an absolute travesty if Ishee does not get the permanent coaching position. It's actually something of a travesty that he hasn't been promoted already.

And while passing around the kudos, don't forget Smith. He might be gone from Southeast, but he is certainly not forgotten because he and his staff put this team together.

Smith said all along -- even when Southeast was picked fifth in the OVC preseason poll -- that he firmly believed the Redhawks had enough talent to contend for another championship.

He was right on the money.

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The Southeast men's basketball team perhaps did not do as well as many fans hoped as coach Scott Edgar's first season ended with an 11-20 overall record and a 9-11 OVC mark.

Still, the Redhawks more than doubled their conference victory total from last year, when they went 4-16.

Southeast's sixth-place OVC finish -- out of 11 squads -- was pretty much where the Redhawks were predicted to wind up as the league coaches and sports information directors voted them fifth in the preseason poll.

Several comments on the semoball.com blogs have been critical of Edgar's first season. I wrote on my blog that I have no way of knowing what kind of program Edgar will develop at Southeast, but I urge people to give him time to put his stamp on things.

One year, particularly when Edgar mainly used players that were recruited before he got to Cape Girardeau, is not even close to being long enough to judge a coach.

Considering the Redhawks lose only one key senior -- Terrick Willoughby -- and will add expected impact transfer Calvin Williams from Colorado, along with the fact they will be in the second season of Edgar's system, next year should be a much better indication of where the program is headed.

In the meantime, cut the man some slack.

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It looks like former Southeast men's basketball coach Gary Garner will return to the coaching ranks, this time on the professional level.

Garner, who spent nine years at Southeast before being let go following the 2005-06 season, is soon expected to be named an assistant coach of the new NBA Development League team in Des Moines, Iowa.

This sounds like a good move for Garner, and I'm happy for him, because he once told me he and his wife Barbara might eventually consider relocating to Des Moines, where he spent much of the 1980s as the coach at Drake University and where one of their two sons is an attorney.

By the way, until this year, Drake had not posted a winning record since the 1986-87 season -- when Garner coached the Bulldogs.

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Former Central High School boys basketball coach Derek McCord has led an impressive turnaround at Dyer County (Tenn.) in just his first season.

Dyer County, which has struggled in recent years, captured a regional championship Thursday night and will play Monday night for a berth in the state tournament.

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This is a great time of the year if you're a college hoops junkie, like I am, what with all the conference tournaments being contested.

I especially enjoy following the postseason events of the smaller leagues, where the stakes are as high as they can be because generally only one team advances to the NCAA tournament -- the squad that wins the conference tourney.

It makes for some truly riveting championship games, most of which are televised by ESPN.

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With NCAA Selection Sunday just a week away, some of the mock brackets I've seen have Southern Illinois as high as a No. 3 or No. 4 seed, which would be the loftiest ever for the Salukis.

Regardless of how SIU fares in the Big Dance, it has been an amazing season for the Salukis, who at No. 11 in the polls have their highest national ranking in school history.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.