Coach Nutt uses team camp to generate interest

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt and his staff didn't have to leave Cape Girardeau to take a look at about 400 high school athletes.

That's how many players participated in the Redhawks' annual team camp held Friday and Saturday at the Show Me Center and Student Recreation Center.

Nearly 40 squads representing four states took part in the third and biggest team camp since Nutt took over Southeast's program.

"It's a great turnout and there are a lot of good teams and good players here," Nutt said during the camp.

That's especially important because Nutt, like other college coaches, uses team camps as a recruiting tool.

"We've got all these young men on our campus for two days," Nutt said. "It's a good recruiting opportunity for us and it's the big reason we hold these camps.

"It's great for our university as well as our basketball program. Even the guys we're not interested in, they're getting a look at our campus and our community and a lot of them might end up going to school here."

A few of them might end up playing for the Redhawks some day as well.

"We're recruiting several of the players here," Nutt said.

Although Nutt is prohibited by NCAA rules from naming players the Redhawks are recruiting, Charleston all-state guard Greg Tucker is among them.

Tucker is being pursued by several Ohio Valley Conference programs, including Austin Peay, Murray State and Tennessee Tech in addition to Southeast.

Another potential recruit for the Redhawks is guard Jared White, who will be a senior at De Soto High School and has been attracting interest from a variety of mid-major programs.

The highest-level prospect at the camp was 6-foot-8 forward Nolan Berry, who will be a junior at DeSmet Jesuit High School in suburban St. Louis.

Berry recently attended the NIKE Elite 100, which included approximately 100 of the nation's top players from the 2013 and 2014 classes. He already has received scholarship offers from several major programs.

One more camp

The Southeast men's basketball program will hold its second and final summer camp Monday through Wednesday.

The individual half-day camp is for ages 6 through 16.

Ages 6 through 11 will participate from 8 a.m. to noon. Ages 12 through 16 will participate from 1 to 5 p.m. Cost is $90.

Nutt said there still are openings in the camp. For more information, call Luke Scheidecker at (816) 813-3090 or visit gosoutheast.com.