Strides on offense key for Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team vs. Alabama A&M

Rick Ray hopes that when his team takes the court for its third road game in a row against an experienced Alabama A&M squad at 7 p.m. today it will be as a team that has grown on the offensive end.

The first-year Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach sees that as the key to his team's success and has some concerns about the Redhawks potentially facing a zone defense for the first time this season against the Bulldogs in Huntsville, Alabama.

"I don't know if that'll be the same approach they'll take with us, but against Tulane, they used a lot of 2-3 zone defense. And anytime you see a zone, you worry about your guys' mindset," Ray said. "I think you've got to be careful. Most people think you've got to shoot your way out of a zone, and we can't do that. We've got to make sure we're still trying to get paint touches by throwing the ball inside and penetrating the ball inside. If the end result of that paint touch is a 3, that's great, but we can't go out there and just start launching 3s. That's not our strong suit at this point in time."

Southeast is 10 of 39 from 3-point range through its first two games this season.

The Redhawks shot 31.3 percent and 34.8 percent from the free-throw line when they opened their season with an 84-53 loss at Dayton, which was picked to win the Atlantic 10 conference. The Flyers followed that up with an 80-48 win over Alabama.

Southeast lost to Evansville 80-65 on Sunday to drop to 0-2 on the season.

The Redhawks shot 42.4 percent from the floor and were led by junior transfer forward Joel Angus III with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

"I think if you look at it, I think I've seen improvement each time we've stepped foot on the court," Ray said. "I was disappointed with the way we started out in the first half at Dayton, but I told our guys that it was the end result of us not taking care of the basketball. We had 12 turnovers in the first half at Dayton and only had three the second half and only lost that second half by 1. Then if you look at what they did to Alabama, it's obvious that Dayton's a really good basketball team.

"But I was encouraged by the way our guys seemed to make strides and steps in a short amount of time, especially when you talk about picking up on a new offense and a new concept and with three of our main guys that should contribute to our basketball team out."

Junior guard Jamaal Calvin continues to serve his four-game suspension for a violation of athletic department policies and procedures, but redshirt-junior forward Trey Kellum and sophomore G/F Ladarius Coleman will be available for tonight's game after missing the first two for a suspension of violations of policies and procedures during the 2014-15 school year.

"It's all about their approach to being back. They've got to come back with the right mindset," Ray said. "They can't come back thinking they're a savior of our basketball team. They've got to come in and just be a part of our team. We've got to make sure that we're careful about [thinking] just because we have those two back that that means that we automatically are a better ballclub."

Southeast defeated Alabama A&M 85-51 last season.

Ladarius Tabb led the Bulldogs with 16 points last year. Tabb, a 6-foot-5 G/F, was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference's Preseason Player of the Year.

He averaged a team-leading 17.9 ppg and 8.0 rebounds as a junior. The Bulldogs went 9-19 and 8-10 in conference.

Tabb had 22 points in A&M's season-opening 68-67 overtime win at Tulane on Friday.

He was 7 of 14 from the floor and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line to go along with a team-high nine rebounds.

"I think he's an explosive kid," Ray said. "He's a guy that really does a great job of getting to the free-throw line. He's a guy that draws contact, draws fouls. He's a guy that can not only create for himself but also for others, so he's an experienced scorer."

Nick West, a 6-10 senior forward, was the Bulldogs' second-leading scorer a year ago, averaging 12.4 points and 7.7 rebounds.

He was held to six points but had 10 rebounds at Southeast last season.

West had 20 points and eight rebounds against Tulane.

Jarekious Bradley led Southeast with 17 points against the Bulldogs in his senior season. Guard Antonius Cleveland had eight points against A&M last year.

"We've got to make sure that we secure the basketball and take care of the basketball. I think when we've done a good job of that that our offense has been better," Ray said. "And I think obviously that helps our defense because I don't care how good you are defensively, when you're running down turnovers with the opposing team, you're going to lose that battle. To me that's got to be our focus, making sure that we're securing and taking care of the basketball on the offensive end, and that helps our defense."