With the ugliness behind, it's time to look ahead

The reasons have been well-documented, but any way you slice it, Southeast Missouri State University had a disastrous men's basketball season this year.

Now the daunting challenge for coach Gary Garner and his staff is to climb out of the hole left by a 6-22 record. It certainly won't be easy, but it definitely can be done.

It's convenient to think that the Indians, based on how competitive they were for much of the season, are close to being a solid team. I've even written as much.

But things aren't quite that simple. Any time you only win six of 28 games, you've got a long, long way to go.

Positives for the Indians are that they only lose one senior, Monte Gordon; their best player was a freshman, Derek Winans; their top four scorers will return; and they showed plenty of heart throughout the dismal campaign.

On the negative side, they are woefully short on overall athletic ability, lacking in speed, quickness and strength. No heart in the world will overcome those deficiencies.

The solution is to add considerable new talent -- namely a strong rebounder, an overall athletic player and probably a point guard -- in the upcoming recruiting period.

While it's fun to envision the Indians going from virtually the bottom to the top of the Ohio Valley Conference in one season, it's also not very realistic.

Sure, if everything breaks right and Southeast lands the recruits it covets, the Indians could possibly be a major OVC factor next year.

But improving to 12 or 13 wins and getting into the middle of the OVC standings next season would be a more logical progression and also quite an improvement. Then, one more strong recruiting class could very well result in an OVC title contender the following season.

One thing is for sure: Just how much better the Indians are next season will be determined as much in April -- when the spring signing period begins -- as during any other time of the year.

Garner and his staff certainly have their work cut out for them on the recruiting trail.

Congratulations to Winans for winning the OVC's freshman of the year award.

His was a great story this season, a local kid from a tiny high school (Shawnee, Ill.) becoming not only Southeast's top player but also one of the better players in the conference.

Watching Winans perform with such toughness and passion -- he had to rank among the league leaders in floor burns -- was definitely a treat for me.

Kudos to longtime Southeast sports information director Ron Hines, who finished the season having worked 631 straight games, the longest in Division I basketball.

Ron has not missed an Indians' game since 1980.

That is some kind of streak.

Southeast's women had a solid season, going 16-12, but it ended in disappointment with a first-round OVC Tournament loss.

While the Otahkians will return their top player in Lori Chase, they lose two key seniors in Veronica Benson and Pam Iversen, the squad's next-leading scorers behind Chase.

The Otahkians also lose their coach as Ed Arnzen has retired. Southeast officials say they hope to have a new coach in place by around the middle of this month, and the field of candidates should be trimmed for interviews soon.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian