THE LATEST LINE: SEMO TRIP BETTER THAN IT APPEARED

Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team returned home Thursday after spending four nights on the road.

The Indians, on the surface, had a bummer of a trip as they lost both games, including a dismal 70-49 setback against Southern Illinois at the Trans World Dome in St. Louis.

But the Indians still figure to carry plenty of confidence into the 1999 portion of their schedule -- thanks to an impressive performance at Oklahoma State.

SEMO gave the nationally-ranked Cowboys all they wanted and then some before falling 75-64. The game was actually much closer than that, the score being tied with eight minutes left.

OSU's highly-respected veteran coach, Eddie Sutton, said afterward that he expects SEMO to win a lot of games the rest of the season.

That would definitely bode well for the Indians, who entered the weekend in first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 3-0 record.

And now begins the all-important 1999 portion of the Indians' schedule. There are no non-conference games left. It's all league action the rest of the way, starting Monday when Morehead State comes to Cape.

When the season began, a lot of people -- including SEMO coach Gary Garner -- believed that second place in the OVC was up for grabs between several teams, including the Indians. Murray State, as usual, rated a heavy favorite for the top spot.

After the early stages of conference play, nothing has really happened to change those opinions. Murray State, off to a big start, still ranks as a solid favorite to win the title, although I'm sure stranger things have happened than the Racers falling short.

And a variety of teams should be in the mix for upper-division finishes. SEMO, in fact, looks to have a couple of legs up in that regard because the Indians already own road wins over Tennessee State and Austin Peay, the preseason Nos. 2 and 3 teams in the OVC.

But really, it's much too early to start projecting conference finishes. The best thing any team can do is try to concentrate on one game at a time -- which Garner always preaches -- try to rack up as many wins as possible and then see where the cards fall.

* Although I was on the road with SEMO and missed most of the U-High Christmas Tournament, it turned out -- as many people had figured -- to be extremely unpredictable.

This was the first time in several years that you couldn't really feel certain that some of the higher seeds would reach the finals. And that's what happened.

Charleston, the perennial power but only the fourth seed this year, emerged as champion once again, beating Jackson in the finals. No matter what the situation, you just can never count the Blue Jays out.

Also bettering their seeds quite a bit were No. 6 Cape Central, which finished third after beating top-seeded Scott City, and No. 10 Oran, which placed fifth.

* The Big 10 Conference was not thought to be all that strong during the season but bowl games have proved that belief wrong.

League teams went 5-0 in bowls to clearly establish the Big 10 as the nation's best conference this season.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian