THE LATEST LINE: OVC HOOPS CONTAIN A FEW SURPRISES

The two teams at the top of the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball standings are really not all that surprising.

First-place Southeast Missouri State University could be labeled as something of a surprise, because it's doubtful many people expected the Indians to be doing quite this well, but they were picked to at least contend for the title.

Murray State, in second place and right on the Indians' heels, entered the season as the heavy league favorite, which is usually the case.

But there are two major surprises in the OVC so far and for different reasons.

Tennessee-Martin has been surprisingly good. Picked to finish last in the 10-team league, the Skyhawks were in third place and carried a four-game winning streak into Saturday's game at Eastern Kentucky.

Middle Tennessee has been surprisingly bad. Picked to finish fourth in the OVC, the Raiders entered Saturday's game against Tennessee State in last place.

One great attraction about college basketball, however, is that things can change in a hurry. So there is still plenty of time for UTM to fall back to the pack and for MTSU to reverse its fortunes.

But for the first part of the OVC season at least, things have been mighty interesting -- just as most of the league coaches predicted they would be.

* The first-semester grades are in at SEMO and the school's athletes once again fared extremely well in the classroom.

SEMO's student-athletes had a grade-point average of 2.877 for last semester, making their cumulative GPA 2.934.

SEMO's female athletes continued to lead the way with a 3.37 GPA for the first semester and they now have a 3.30 cumulative GPA. The male athletes had a 2.573 GPA for the first semester for a 2.699 cumulative GPA.

The women's volleyball team led the way last semester with a 3.536 GPA while other squads above 3.0 were women's soccer (3.490), women's track (3.408), women's softball (3.363), women's tennis (3.292), women's gymnastics (3.287) and men's track (3.037).

Cumulatively, soccer leads the way at 3.547. Others above 3.0 are volleyball (3.476), tennis (3.387), women's track (3.354), gymnastics (3.340), softball (3.252) and men's golf (3.025).

Kudos to all the SEMO student-athletes who do well with the books for proving that brawn and brains definitely can mix well.

* Belated congratulations to New Madrid County Central basketball coach Lennies McFerren for recently recording his 500th career victory, the majority of those coming at Charleston.

McFerren has always been one of the best and classiest prep coaches in the state.

* Nothing I saw during last Sunday's 49-37 romp over Minnesota makes me think the Rams will be vulnerable today when they host Tampa Bay for the NFC championship.

The Bucs' defense is very good but their offense is suspect. I envision another St. Louis romp as the Rams roll into the Super Bowl.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian