THE LATEST LINE: SEMO BASKETBALL AGAIN FUELS OPTIMISM, EXCITEMENT

The actual games won't begin for more than a month, but that doesn't mean the excitement and anticipation haven't already long been building for the 2000-2001 Southeast Missouri State University basketball season.

SEMO held its annual media day Thursday and the Indians will begin official practice Saturday.

Sure, coach Gary Garner's Indians lost plenty of talent from last year's breakthrough season that featured a 24-7 record, an Ohio Valley Conference regular-season co-championship, an OVC Tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament. All were firsts in the history of the program.

Gone off that stellar squad is the entire starting frontcourt of power forward Roderick Johnson, small forward Mike Branson and center Brian Bunche. That trio featured the Indians' leading and third-leading scorers from last year (Johnson and Branson), along with their top two rebounders (Johnson and Bunche).

But don't kid yourselves. The cupboard is far from bare. While the above three won't be easy to replace, everybody else off last year's team is back, including second-leading scorer and top assist man Michael Stokes and fourth-leading scorer Antonio Short, who could very well form the OVC's premier backcourt.

Throw in the fifth-through-seventh top scorers from last season (Amory Sanders, Nyah Jones and Emmanuel McCuthison), add three other returnees (Drew DeMond, Matt Morris and Tim Scheer), tack on two players who were with the program a year ago but did not play (transfer Daniel Weaver and redshirt Demarcus Hence) and blend in three touted recruits (Monte Gordon, Terry Rogers and Joel Shelton)and you can see that Garner has plenty of pieces to work with.

And if there is one thing that Garner has demonstrated during his three seasons at SEMO it's that, if he has something to work with, then fans can expect good results. You don't take over a struggling program and go 58-29 -- including 44-16 the last two years -- without being a fantastic coach.

There is no doubt the Indians will face their share of question marks up front, which Garner readily acknowledged Thursday. He knows the frontcourt will likely hold the key to the season because he believes the backcourt will be stellar.

But that cheshire-cat grin Garner wore as he glad-handed boosters and mingled with reporters at media day seemed to indicate that he sensed another very good -- and perhaps even special -- season lies ahead.

* Special congratulations to Jackson tennis player Kim Anderson for winning the Class 4A district singles title Thursday and qualifying for state.

Kim also qualified for state last year as a freshman but a serious knee injury kept her from competing. She worked extremely hard to rehabilitate and all that extra effort has definitely paid off.