Basketball team down in numbers after injuries, dismissals

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team is in last place in the Ohio Valley Conference, with a 0-6 record in OVC games and 2-16 overall this season.

"We've been struggling lately, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we've had so many distractions over the course of the season," coach Rick Ray said. "Now recently we've had some personnel issues with guys out and injured, not having enough bodies."

Southeast has been shorthanded for much of the season, only competing with nine players while junior guard Antonius Cleveland is out with a wrist injury.

"It's hard not being there," Cleveland said. "I believe the things we lack are things I can help with. Rebounding and experience, you go from a junior in the lineup to a freshman, it's tough."

Cleveland leads the Redhawks in minutes per game, points, rebounds and blocks.

"He's our guy that we feel is the one guy who can just break down a defense and create his own offense," Ray said. "We've got a lot of guys who can be good players, but he's the one guy who's a threat to create his own offense and finish at the rim because of his athleticism."

Junior guard Jamal Calvin has also been dealing with injuries this season, and has been limited to only 10 games played. Calvin has started the past three games for Southeast.

"He went from being out to injury to being a guy who plays 30 minutes a game, that's not easy," Ray said.

Southeast dismissed three sophomore players on Dec. 11, guards Marcus Wallace and J.T. Jones and forward Ladarius Coleman.

"Our program was unfortunately not a good fit, and I want these young men to have the best opportunity to be successful," Ray said at the time.

Only senior guard Isiah Jones and junior forward Joel Angus III have started in all 18 games this season.

Many players who have been brought into the lineup have little or no experience at the Division I level.

"The inexperience factor plays in in two ways," Ray said. "First of all is all the guys never playing Division I college basketball on our roster. I think the other inexperience factor is that we have guys who have been role players last year who are now asked to be prominent guys. I think that's a tough step to take."

One of the young players the Redhawks have been forced to rely heavily on is freshman point guard Eric McGill.

"He's playing by far the most difficult position there is in college basketball at the point guard position," Ray said. "It's really hard to come in as a freshman who lacks the physicality that most of the players he's playing against has."

McGill is averaging 30 minutes per game in OVC games, tied with Jones for the second most on the team.

"He's done a really good job at stepping in and handling those point guard duties, I think he's well on his way to being an All-OVC Freshman Team member.

Ray said freshman forward Tony Anderson, the tallest player on the team at 6 feet 9 inches, has improved his play recently by taking smarter shots.

"I think the biggest thing that's changed for him is shot selection," Ray said. "He's now starting to understand the difference between a good shot and a bad shot. When Tony takes good shots it has a great chance of going in."

Anderson has scored in the double digits in each of the past four games, including a game-leading and career-high 17 points in the Redhawks' 74-60 loss to Jacksonville State on Jan. 13.

Ray said he hopes the extra minutes for the young players translates into a good experience moving forward.

"Each guy needs to continue to develop and get better, and that's going to help the team," Ray said. "I think we fell short of doing some things and, to me, the most important thing is that we continue to understand you've gotta play harder, tougher and smarter than the other team. If we put those things together, we're going to be successful."