Winless Indians remain upbeat

Entering this season, Southeast Missouri State University had compiled a sparkling 62-28 record over the past three years. Only 42 of the nation's 311 NCAA Division I basketball teams won more games than the Indians during that time.

But right now, the above accomplishment is of little comfort to Southeast coach Gary Garner, whose 0-4 squad is off to the program's worst start since the 1950-51 team began the season with nine consecutive losses.

"I don't know that I've ever started off 0-4. It's very frustrating," said Garner during his weekly media conference Monday. "The important thing is that we continue to work, and our guys are working hard.

"Any time you lose, you're going to hear negative comments. This is where the concept of family really comes into play."

Garner, whose team will be a heavy underdog Wednesday night when it visits Southeastern Conference member Vanderbilt (5-2), said the Indians' attitude has remained upbeat and their effort strong.

"The attitude is good. It's as good as you can expect it to be at 0-4," he said. "Any other team in the country that's 0-4, their attitude is probably not as good as us.

"There's not a lot of margin for error with this team. We're making a lot of fundamental mistakes, but it's not for a lack of effort. And it's not just one player. It's just a lack of experience."

Garner said it prior to Saturday's Western Illinois game and he said it again Monday: Southeast desperately needs a win.

"It's amazing what a win would do," he said. "When you're winning, you have so much confidence. Nothing would do more than a win right now."

Garner realizes it will be extremely difficult for the Indians to break through against Vanderbilt, which is off to a solid start and is coming off Sunday's 80-75 win over nationally ranked Western Kentucky. But he also suggested that Southeast must go into every game with the idea that it can prevail.

"There are 27 regular-season games. We're 0-4 and we definitely won't be favored at Vanderbilt," he said. "But you never know when that first win will come."

Shooting, inside woes

While the Indians' overall lack of talent and experience has made it difficult for them to match up well with most opponents so far, Southeast's most glaring deficiencies have been poor shooting and a lack of strong inside play.

As a team, the Indians are shooting 40.4 percent from the field, including a dismal 26.2 percent from 3-point range.

"Shot selection is really important. That has a lot to do with it," Garner said. "And we're not getting enough easy baskets. We're having to grind too much."

Garner said another thing hampering the Indians' offensively has been the fact freshman Brett Hale, regarded as Southeast's best pure shooter, is having to play out of position as the starting point guard until Kenny Johnson becomes eligible the second semester.

According to Garner, having to concentrate so much on running the team and having to play so many minutes has affected Hale's shooting. He has hit just three of 18 3-point attempts for 16.7 percent and is shooting just 33.3 percent from the floor overall.

"Playing out of position is affecting Brett. I know it is," said Garner. "He's our best shooter and when he finally gets to play his natural position he'll improve his shooting."

As for the inside play, not only are the Indians being outrebounded by an average of nearly eight per game, strong inside players have had their way with Southeast in virtually every game so far.

"We're getting hurt a lot inside. We're not very strong inside," Garner said.

Garner was encouraged that the Indians battled Western Illinois even on the boards Saturday night. Both squads had 36 rebounds.

"We did our best job on the boards in that game," he said. "We've worked hard on rebounding and we just have to continue to work on it."

Winans honored again

For the second straight time, Southeast redshirt freshman guard Derek Winans has been named the Ohio Valley Conference Rookie of the Week.

Winans scored 40 points in two Indian losses, including a career-high 29 points against Arkansas-Little Rock. He is Southeast's leading scorer on the season at 19.3 points per game.