THE LATEST LINE: SMART MONEY SAYS ANDERSON WILL BE NAMED SEMO COACH

The wait -- and it hasn't been a long one -- is almost over.

Within about a week -- give or take a couple of days -- Southeast Missouri State University's new head men's basketball coach will be named.

The four finalists named Friday to come to Cape Girardeau for on-campus visits this week really weren't a surprise. In fact, I had listed three of them as prominent coaches interested in the job just a few days after it came open.

The four are: Missouri assistant Kim Anderson, Iowa State assistant Sam Weaver, Purdue assistant Bruce Weber and Fort Hays (Kan.) head coach Gary Garner, a former head coach at Drake.

Weaver, a former SEMO assistant under recently dismissed coach Ron Shumate, and Garner are the only two with collegiate head coaching experience, Garner having by far the most.

Neither Anderson nor Weber has been a college head coach before, but -- like Weaver -- both are highly respected top assistant coaches at three of the nation's high-profile basketball programs.

The trend in recent years at programs like SEMO's is to hire an assistant from a major program even if he doesn't have head coaching experience.20Fellow Ohio Valley Conference member Murray State, for example, did it a few years ago with ex-UCLA aid Mark Gottfried.

Based on their backgrounds and what they've accomplished in their careers, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the four.

Anybody who has followed my weekly football predictions over the years knows just how wrong I can be, so don't take this to the bank.

But it says here that Kim Anderson will be SEMO's next basketball coach.

* How about that Kelly High baseball team.

While other area squads were much more highly touted during the season, the Hawks are left standing as the only local team still alive in the state playoffs.

Kudos to the Hawks on a great playoff run as the get ready for this week's Class 2A Final Four in Columbia.

* Also major congratulations to a pair of local athletes who recorded impressive double victories over the weekend during the state track meet.

Cape Central's Laura Lukens won both the 4A shot put and discus titles while Perryville's Celeste Ramsey captured the 3A 1,600 and 3,200 titles.

Congrats also to Perryville's boys 4x800 relay team that won a state title.

* Micoe Cotton, who spent the past season as the head JV and assistant varsity boys basketball coach at Cape Central, was recently named head boys basketball coach at Malden High.

* Charleston product Matt Whiteside has been pitching with the Texas Rangers for the past several weeks.

Whiteside started the season with the Rangers' Triple A team in Oklahoma City before being recalled, only to be sent back down again. But the reliever was brought back up to the major leagues a few weeks ago.

* Former Cape Girardeau resident John Schneider has qualified for the prestigious World Long Distance Triathlon Championships, to be held in Nice, France, on June 8.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian