Southeast men's recent play encouraging

Even though the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team lost to visiting Tennessee Tech 87-80 on Saturday night, the Redhawks' strong recent play has at least positioned them nicely for the second half of their Ohio Valley Conference schedule.

The Redhawks have won four of their past six games, and they still have four of their next six OVC contests at the Show Me Center.

It's a shame Southeast couldn't build on Thursday's 92-78 home triumph over Tennessee State -- the game was not nearly as close as the final score -- because that performance was particularly impressive.

It's hard to recall a more dominant stretch by a Southeast squad than what the Redhawks put together in the first half as they used a 25-4 run to open up a 42-12 lead 13 minutes into the contest. The Tigers never recovered.

Despite Saturday's setback -- in which Southeast held an 18-point first-half lead -- the Redhawks have at least put themselves in a position to contend for a top-four OVC finish, which would mean a home game in the first round of the conference tournament.

If nothing else, the final half of the OVC season should be plenty exciting and entertaining for Southeast fans.

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The Southeast women's basketball team has resumed its winning ways after losing at Austin Peay last weekend.

Southeast bounced back with victories over Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

That gives the Redhawks 10 wins in their last 11 games as they continue to remain on the heels of OVC leader Murray State.

Southeast, 8-2 in the conference at exactly the halfway point of its league schedule, trails the Racers by just a half-game.

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It was good to see former Southeast women's basketball coach B.J. Smith back at the Show Me Center Saturday night.

Smith took part in the banner ceremony honoring last year's team -- coached by him -- that won the program's first OVC regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Division I tournament for the first time.

Not surprisingly, Smith received a standing ovation from the large crowd when he was introduced.

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While the OVC men's basketball race is highly competitive, with not all that much separating the top seven or eight teams, Austin Peay is making quite an early statement during the first half of the league schedule.

The Govs, despite being picked sixth in the preseason poll and having no starter taller than 6-foot-5, have won eight consecutive games -- six straight in the conference -- and lead the OVC at 8-1.

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I was saddened by the death of former Southeast speech professor Joe Low, who passed away Jan. 10 in Tuscon, Ariz., at age 70.

I didn't know Dr. Low as a speech professor, but got to know him quite well through his enthusiastic support of Southeast's athletic programs.

He even served for some time as the university's NCAA faculty representative for athletics.

Dr. Low was just a great all-around guy, and he definitely left us much too soon. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

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I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to today's NFL conference championship games.

Hopefully I won't jinx them, but on paper both look like great matchups.

In the NFC, you've got Chicago hosting New Orleans.

The Bears have been the conference favorite to reach the Super Bowl ever since getting off to that blazing start, although late in the season some warts began to appear, namely a banged-up defense and the inconsistent play of quarterback Rex Grossman.

Chicago wasn't dominant in slipping past Seattle in overtime last weekend, but Grossman did play well, which had to be encouraging to Bears fans.

The Saints have been America's darlings all year, as they came out of nowhere to give hurricane-ravaged New Orleans something to rally around.

New Orleans also wasn't dominant in holding off Philadelphia last weekend, but the Saints have a high-powered offense that can give any defense fits.

Over in the AFC, you've got Indianapolis hosting New England in a matchup that the national media wasted no time hyping ever since it became reality.

The storylines in this one are endless.

Will Peyton Manning finally reach his first Super Bowl, after the Colts were heavy favorites entering the playoffs last year and have been touted as top contenders in other seasons?

Will the Indianapolis defense, shredded much of the year, continue to shine in the postseason?

Will the Patriots -- winners of three of the past five Super Bowl titles -- continue their dynasty, after they were pretty much an afterthought for much of the campaign?

Will New England's Bill Belichick continue to reign as the NFL's resident coaching genius, and will the Patriots' Tom Brady continue to stamp himself as among the best big-game quarterbacks in NFL history?

Hopefully we'll have two great games, although often times when seemingly titanic matchups are built up too much, they never live up to the hype.

And today's contests will have to go some to equal what took place last weekend in the conference semifinal round.

Hopefully they will.

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For the first time since the Big 12 Conference was formed, the University of Missouri basketball team is off to an 0-4 league start.

The Tigers' torrid nonconference record -- built primarily against a schedule of lightweights, although they did have an impressive home win over Arkansas -- in their first season under coach Mike Anderson seems like only a distant memory now.

But I said all along that I doubted whether the Tigers had legitimate Big 12 upper-level talent, and there's nothing Anderson can do about it right now, although strong recruiting should change that in the future.

Still, even without having the type of personnel to challenge for a high Big 12 finish, the Tigers probably shouldn't have lost at home to equally-rebuilding Iowa State and a Kansas State squad that is also somewhat trying to find its way under a new coach.

Based on those results, it wasn't very surprising that MU dropped its first two Big 12 road games, against ultra-talented teams Texas and Kansas.

However, the Tigers displayed plenty of grit Monday night against fifth-ranked Kansas, holding a late lead before dropping a surprisingly close 80-77 decision.

When the season started, most people assumed it would be extremely difficult for the Tigers to reach the NCAA tournament, with an NIT bid being a much more realistic goal.

Nothing that has transpired so far has changed that line of thinking.

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Did anybody happen to catch Tuesday's Big 12 basketball game between Texas and host Oklahoma State?

It was incredible, easily the game of the year so far this season, with Oklahoma State outlasting Texas 105-103 in triple-overtime.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.