New Coaches Making Progress

(St. Louis, MO) – The Ohio Valley Conference had huge upheaval among the head coaching ranks. How are those coaches building their respective programs and who is making the most progress?

Teams At The Bottom

Jon Harris and Rick Ray took over programs that were in great need and this season’s successes haven’t been realized often enough in the win column.

Southeast Missouri’s Ray has now won two straight games, but it has been a struggle for the former Mississippi State head coach and the Redhawks. SEMO is the lowest scoring and poorest shooting team in the OVC. Their best player Antonius Cleveland has just returned to the lineup.

After last week’s two wins, Ray and his squad seems to be gaining some upward steam. Ray says having Cleveland back in the lineup is huge for many different reasons.

 

 

Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Jon Harris is remaking the Cougars with a hodge-podge of parts. Some hold overs from Lennox Forrester’s team, a highly touted freshman and several veteran transfers. That mix has taken a while to gel, and the results haven’t been encouraging.

The Cougars have lost nine of their last ten games, but coaches and fans look for encouragement where they can find it. Four of those losses have come by five or fewer points and two of those defeats came in overtime. The Cougars are 0-5 in OVC road games. They play their next four at home.

That highly touted freshman, Carlos Anderson has been good all year, but is growing into an upper echelon player as the season wears on. Harris says Anderson has had a solid freshman season and his team is growing and has a chance to make some OVC noise.

 

 

The Redhawks and Cougars meet in Edwardsville on Thursday night.

Teams In Transition

Two successful programs are breaking in new coaches with solid pedigrees.

After four great years under Steve Prohm and an extended run of success prior to that, Murray State lost an NBA first round draft pick and Prohm. Racers’ first year coach Matt McMahon hasn’t had the instant success of some of his predecessors, but is working to shore up the weaknesses created by graduation losses and the departure of Prohm. MSU is just 10-10, but their 4-3 record in OVC play places them in first place in the weakened West Division. McMahon says his team is still growing, but suffered a season ending injury to their freshman center Brion Sanchious.

 

 

Eastern Kentucky lost a highly touted coach in Jeff Neubauer and replaced him with former Kentucky Wildcat Dan McHale. The Colonels are only one game worse than the Racers (3-4), but they are last in the powerful East Division.

McHale’s team has two outstanding newcomers in freshman Nick Mayo and senior Jarelle Reischel. Those two combine to score over 33 points and grab over 12 rebounds per game. Mayo has won the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Week’ award seven times.

McHale says his team is still looking for that one seasonal surge that will help them climb the East Division ladder. McHale says his team is a ‘work in progress’ but the margin of error is so small that his team has an opportunity to move up.

 

 

Murray State travels to EKU on Wednesday.

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