THE LATEST LIN: IT WAS FAR FROM PRETTY, BUT SE CAGERS NABBED INITIAL VICTORY

Well, it wasn't all that pretty, but Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team got its first win of the Gary Garner era Friday night when the Indians beat Central Methodist 94-78.

Sure, the Indians didn't play all that great, which is not too surprising considering they were playing a lower-division team they were supposed to beat handily, which always makes for a scary situation.

But you have to give the visiting Eagles plenty of credit. They came in with nothing to lose and played an impressive game, led by Meridian (Ill.) High product Wes Goldsmith's 33 points. He put on quite a show in front of family and friends.

But the bottom line is that the Indians escaped an upset bid by a pretty solid NAIA squad that looked at this contest as its game of the year. Last year's SEMO team was not as fortunate (we all remember the shocking early-season loss to NAIA foe McKendree).

Now the 1-1 Indians can turn their attention to one of the bigger game on the early-season schedule -- Wednesday's home contest against highly-regarded Bradley of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Bradley will be one of the highest-profile programs to play in Cape Girardeau since SEMO moved up to Division I in the 1991-92 season.

The Show Me Center figures to be -- and should be -- noisy and full when the Indians face the Braves right before Thanksgiving.

* Whether or not John Mumford will return as SEMO's head football coach next season is a hot topic of conversation around town these days.

In fact, for the past several weeks, I have rarely been asked by fans about the team itself -- only about Mumford's job status.

Frankly, I don't really know if he'll have his contract renewed after this 4-7 season that came on the heels of last year's 3-8 record, although sources have told me recently that they believe nothing will be done regarding that situation until after a permanent athletic director is hired by next summer -- which would mean Mumford would return for at least one more year.

I don't want to get into whether or not Mumford deserves to be allowed to continue and try to build SEMO's football program on the I-AA level. He'll be the first to tell you that he's disappointed in his 27-51 coaching record with the Indians since the school moved up from Division II seven years ago.

But in fairness to Mumford, he hasn't exactly been dealing with a full deck of cards because SEMO does not dole out as many scholarships as most of the other top OVC programs and the Indians have some of the worst facilities in the league, namely outdated and decrepit Houck Stadium, which sure can't help a program's recruiting.

I will say this: To Mumford's credit, he has never publicly used the above as an excuse for his program's struggles and he's been nothing but a class act in any kind of dealings I've had with him over the years.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian