'Technically,' SEMO MBB has to control its emotions

The harsh reality in assessing the Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball program in its Ohio Valley Conference game today at Little Rock is such:

* The Redhawks will more than likely be very competitive

* Having lost 7 of 9 road tests this season, the probability of a win isn’t great, and

* The Redhawks will more than likely receive a technical foul (or multiple ones) at some point in the game

That isn’t a reporter being snide, it’s just how this team has handled itself throughout this season.

SEMO (6-10, 1-2 OVC) will face the Trojans (5-11, 1-2) at 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+) and it would be nice to see the Redhawks not be disciplined by the officiating crew for behavioral transgressions – for a change.

“We’ve got to do a better job of that,” third-year Redhawk coach Brad Korn said recently of his players controlling their emotions. “We can’t allow those types of things to affect the way we play.”

The Redhawks don’t lead the OVC in a single statistical category, with the exception of, technical fouls, and they dominate that category.

SEMO has been whistled for 16 technical fouls, while no other team in the league has been called for more than 11. Six of the OVC teams haven’t even reached double digits in the category as of yet.

Sophomore guard Phillip Russell received his eighth technical foul in Thursday’s road loss at UT Martin, which is more than four of the OVC programs have received as entire teams.

“Obviously,” Korn said, “we know Phil is an ultra-competitor.”

If that were the case, then Russell needs to understand that each of his misdeeds allows the opposition to score points at the free-throw line.

“Some of the stuff is just him playing the game,” Korn said. “I don’t want to say he is misunderstood with what he is saying, but it is not a malicious, true technical.”

Regardless, the calls against him result in the opponents having the opportunity to score “true” points.

In Thursday’s loss, Russell buried a 3-pointer with 45 seconds remaining that cut SEMO’s deficit to two points. How different would the situation have been had the Redhawks not allowed the Skyhawks to score three earlier points because of technical fouls?

“We’ve got to do a better job of cleaning that up,” Korn said. “I’m not making excuses…”

With all due respect, that is exactly what Korn is doing.

SEMO has played 16 games this season, and now is the time to “clean that up?”

Again, with all due respect, and not to be a jerk, but the fact is, the Redhawk program, its coaches, and its players, haven’t earned the right to act in this way.

As a program, SEMO has strung together eight consecutive losing seasons, and 16 of the last 17 seasons have been on the wrong side of the ledger.

No one in the program should be doing anything other than playing hard, keeping their emotions and words in check, and sprinting back on defense following every offensive possession.

“We have to learn how to control, myself included,” Korn said. “I shouldn’t have gotten a technical (against UT Martin), but again, sometimes your emotions boil over. Phil is a fiery player, he’s a competitor.

“It’s finding a way to win that war that is within your mind and not let it get to that.”