Southeast Missouri State University's 1996-97 men's basketball team qualified for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in its first season of eligibility for the event.

And for much of the year, the Indians were in the hunt for an extremely high OVC finish and even a conference championship.

But three straight losses to end the campaign certainly put a damper on what looked for quite a while like it might be a breakthrough season for the Indians.

After having to endure something akin to probation during their first five seasons of NCAA Division I and OVC competition -- the eight-year rule that kept Southeast out of the league tourney -- coach Ron Shumate boldly proclaimed that Southeast basketball was back and said the Indians would contend for the OVC championship.

For the longest time, Shumate's statement about challenging for the conference title appeared to be right on the money.

Fairly late in the regular season, Southeast hosted Murray State and an Indian victory would have elevated them to the OVC's top spot.

Despite losing that contest, the Indians entered their final two regular-season games needing just one victory to finish among the league's top four teams and thus earn a home game for the first-round of the conference tournament.

But then, almost inexplicably, things fell apart. After being extremely impressive during their final two home games -- beating two of the OVC's better teams, Tennessee Tech and Middle Tennessee State -- the Indians were hammered in their last two road games, falling to Tennessee-Martin and Eastern Illinois by a combined 53 points.

That meant a first-round tournament road game and Southeast made a quick exit from the tourney with an 89-74 loss at Middle Tennessee Tuesday night.

So Southeast ended its sixth Division I season with a 12-18 overall record. The Indians 9-9 OVC mark tied them with Eastern Illinois for fifth place in the 10-team league.

"Going into the season, my expectations for this team were very high," said Shumate. "We played some really tough competition early in the season which we felt would help us get ready for the conference.

"We competed well in Puerto Rico (where the Indians lost three highly competitive games against major competition), then we came back and played some real good ball. We won five in a row at one point."

Shumate said he has no real explanation for what happened in the last three games of the season -- all of which were extremely important.

"Things just fell apart and I don't know why," he said. "It was a very disappointing way to end the season. We didn't lose the (OVC) tournament in Murfreesboro (Tuesday). We lost it at Tennessee-Martin and Eastern Illinois. We kind of collapsed that one weekend."

According to Shumate, statistics don't lie. He pointed to several glaring stats that he said basically define the Indians' ultimate record.

"We shot 44 percent from the field, 62 percent from the free-throw line and 29 percent on 3-pointers," he said. "That's very poor and it's something we've got to take care of and improve.

"We had 553 turnovers and 395 assists. Your turnovers should be half as many as your assists. That stat really jumps out at you. And we had 220 steals to 285 steals for our opponents. That's not a very good stat."

Still, with only one senior on this year's roster -- forward Reggie Crisp, who averaged 4.6 points per game -- there certainly appears to be sufficient talent to do well in the OVC next season.

But in order for that to happen, the Indians will certainly have to become more consistent and definitely become more consistent playing together as a team.

When the Indians played together offensively -- working the ball around for high-percentage shots -- and got after things defensively, there is no question they were among the more physically talented teams in the OVC.

But, like most squads, the Indians were not very good when they forgot to make the extra pass on offense and didn't work hard on defense. That's basically what happened in the season-ending three-game slide.

"I don't think our focus was very good a lot of times," acknowledged Shumate.

The Indians will return virtually all of their key players from this season, led by 6-foot-10 junior center Bud Eley, who led the team in scoring (17.9 points per game), rebounding (10.3 rpg) and blocked shots (37).

Two others players averaged in double figures, 6-4 junior guard/forward Calvert White (13.0 ppg) and 5-10 sophomore point guard Allen Hatchett (10.2 ppg). White led the team in steals with 58 while Hatchett led the squad in assists with 89, although he also led in turnovers with 118.

Others who saw considerable action (playing an average of more than 18 minutes a contest and starting many), in addition to Crisp, were 6-8 sophomore forward David Montgomery (7.9 ppg), 6-6 junior forward Richard Lyte (6.6 ppg), 5-10 junior guard Lakeo Keller (6.6 ppg) and 6-7 junior forward Devron Kirksey (4.2 ppg).

Also seeing plenty of action late in the season was 6-1 sophomore guard Dante Bryant, one of the leading receivers for Southeast's football team. Bryant averaged just 2.3 points but really came on toward the end, scoring 18 points in the last two games.

Playing lesser roles off the bench were 6-7 junior forward Travis Smith (1.9 ppg) and 6-3 sophomore guard John Economos (0.9 ppg) while 5-10 freshman guard Shaun Cole (1.4 ppg) played only sparingly, as did 5-10 freshman guard Aron Rauls (0.3 ppg), a walkon.

Keller, who was effective at times sharing point-guard duties with Hatchett, suffered all season long with a chipped bone in his foot that caused him to miss 14 games, including the final five.

Being counted on to help next year is 5-10 Kahn Cotton, a highly-touted point guard who sat out this season but practiced with the squad after transferring from Idaho State.

The Indians have so far signed only one player for next year, guard Nathan Owen, who is a senior at Cape Central High. Southeast figures to sign at least a few more players.

"Despite the disappointing end to the season, the future looks bright," Shumate said. "Our top five scorers return next season and our staff is working hard to fill in some of our weaknesses.

"Kahn is an excellent point guard who should really help us, but he hasn't scored a point or had an assist for us yet."

Added Shumate, "We'll be back next year with a veteran team that should contend for the OVC title."