Former Redhawks assistant builds national power

POPLAR BLUFF -- The Jefferson College women's basketball team rolled into Three Rivers Community College on Wednesday night, steamrolled the Raiders 82-50 and rolled out.

24-0.

No. 1 in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll for nine weeks.

At the helm for the Vikings: Kevin Emerick, the former women's assistant coach at Southeast Missouri State who was part of one program-changing season in 2004-05.

On the court, under coach B.J. Smith, that season marked the school's first 20-win campaign on the Division I level and propelled the program to its current run of postseason appearances.

ALEX ABATE ~ Daily American RepublicJefferson College coach Kevin Emerick works the sideline during Wednesday's game at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff.

Behind the scenes, things were unraveling that led to a 29-month investigative process with the NCAA and penalties that erased the accomplishments of the 2004-05 season and the 2005-06 campaign that included the first Ohio Valley Conference title and NCAA Division I tournament appearance.

Emerick's correspondence with Southeast administrators -- former compliance officer Alicia Scott, former athletic director Don Kaverman and president Kenneth Dobbins -- late in 2005 led to the university asking for an NCAA investigation that opened in February 2006.

His role has left some supporters of the program still blaming him for the black cloud and the vacation of records.

"I don't know that anybody would say that," Emerick said. "Just because I was aware of problems, as were some other people at SEMO, doesn't mean that we had anything to do with the problems there.

"My concern was for the players, and I was aware enough of what was going on that my concern was this was going to affect the players and the program. Even through a lot of people's best efforts, we couldn't stop that from happening, and that's the unfortunate part."

Emerick, in his third season at Jefferson, had plenty of positive things to say about his experience at Southeast.

"We had good fan support, we had a good coaching staff, we had great kids," Emerick said. "Obviously, there were some issues there and things that I was aware of that were the reasons I left. It doesn't mean I had a bad experience at all.

"B.J. was a good coach, and I'm sure Wanika [Owsley] and I learned some things from him that we use today."

Owsley, who completed her career at Southeast as a member of the no-longer recognized OVC championship team of 2005-06, is Emerick's assistant head coach.

Emerick has put together a powerhouse team, led by 6-foot-2 All-American Danielle Adams. She averages 21.8 points per game and scored 26 points to go with 12 rebounds in just 26 minutes Wednesday night with college coaches from Louisville watching.

Adams "just barely didn't make grades" to get into Missouri, Emerick said, and is being recruited by schools in many of the major conferences.

"She's a really good kid, she's got no ego," Emerick said. "She's a great player some nights, she's a good player every night and she's made a big difference in our program."

Adams said the decision to attend Jefferson, located in Hillsboro, was a last-minute decision to join some of her AAU teammates from the Kansas City area already headed there.

"He's a great coach; I couldn't ask for a better one," Adams said of Emerick. "He pushes us as hard as he can to win a national championship."

Emerick likes the weapons and depth he has at his disposal for his fast-paced style.

"We just have good players, and it's been fun to coach these kids," he said. "We like to get up and down the floor. For our kids to get a scholarship at the next level, they've got to be skilled offensively when they leave our place."

Emerick said his target recruits are players who may be low-level Division I or high-level Division II who hope two years of juco seasoning can improve them to mid-major status.

He believes, despite the name association that might come from his days at Southeast, he could walk into a living room in the region and make his pitch.

"Could we go to those areas and get kids? I think so," Emerick said. "Jack [Childress] has a pipeline with those kids. He locks it up down here."

Among the local players on Childress' team at Three Rivers: Notre Dame grad Meridith Medlin, who scored 11 points Wednesday as a starting guard; starting guard Brittney Peet from Scott County Central; and guard Kaci Menz from Delta.

Medlin, who plans to attend Southeast next year but doesn't plan to play basketball, thought the Raiders weren't as far from Jefferson's talent as the score indicated. An 18-1 deficit in the first 10 minutes didn't help.

"They did have some bigger girls, but I thought we could have matched up better with them than we did," Medlin said. "We could not make anything, and that kind of hurt us right there. They have good shooters, but I deep down feel like we can hang with them. We're going to be better prepared when we play them in their house."

The Vikings, who lost in the national quarterfinals 64-62 to eventual national champion Gulf Coast of Florida, would like to finish this season going further, though Emerick knows anything can happen once teams get to the tourney in Salina, Kan.

"We're not talking about being undefeated," Emerick said. "What we're talking about is trying to keep that No. 1 seed going into the national tournament. If we're fortunate to go through the region season and not lose and we stay at the No. 1 seed, that's a real advantage at the national tournament.

"Once you make it to Salina and you're in that final 10, anything can happen. The ball bounces this way or that way and anything can happen. There's a lot of good teams in the country. I don't think it's a failure if we don't win a national championship."