CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The reigning Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Champion Southeast Missouri basketball team took the court for the first time at the SEMO Recreation Center Monday.
The start of the 2023-24 season is exactly 42 days away and SEMO will have 30 scheduled practices before its opener at Grand Canyon on Nov. 6.
SEMO carries a lot of momentum into this year after winning its first OVC Tournament title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over two decades.
In 2022-23, the Redhawks went 19-17 overall and 10-8 in the OVC. They became the first #5 seed in OVC Tournament history to win the event and did so by posting four victories in four days. Along the way, SEMO ousted the top two seeds in #1 Morehead State and #2 Tennessee Tech to earn the right to hoist the trophy.
Brad Korn begins his fourth season as SEMO's head coach and his 15-man roster includes two returning starters and 10 underclassmen.
Guards
Dylan Branson and
Aquan Smart are the starters back from last year's squad, while
Josh Earley is the other most experienced returnee from a year ago.
Branson averaged 6.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in 32 contests and 27 starts.
Smart scored 7.4 points and added 3.1 rebounds per contest in 32 games and 25 starts. He also ranked second on the team with 48 steals.
Earley, meanwhile, is SEMO's top scorer back from 2022-23. He averaged 7.7 points and 5.1 boards in 31 games off the bench.
Adam Larson,
David Idada,
Evan Eursher,
Gavyn Elkamil,
Kobe Clark and
Mason Hanback are the rest of the returnees.
Clark was the Redhawks top rebounder with 8.7 boards per game although he played in 19 contests due to injury.
Larson ranked third on the team with 39 three-pointers made over 34 games and three starts last season.
Eursher saw action in 25 games and Hanback played in 10 as freshmen.
Elkamil and Idada will make their SEMO debuts. Elkamil missed the 2022-23 season with a shoulder injury, while Idada sat out the year due to NCAA Division I regulations.
This year's newcomers are transfers
Rob Martin,
TJ Biel and
Braxton Stacker, and freshmen
BJ Ward,
Marqueas Bell and
Asa Barnes.
Martin spent the 2022-23 season at Missouri Valley Conference member Indiana State, where he played 12 games. He was the Missouri 6A Player of the Year as a prep at Christian Brothers High School.
Biel makes his NCAA Division I debut after playing one year at Vincennes University and one at Triton College. He averaged 9.3 points and 4.1 rebounds at Triton in 2022-23 and was an All-Region 24 honoree after averaging 11 points and 5.5 rebounds the year before at Vincennes.
Stacker played his freshman campaign at fellow OVC member Murray State. He scored eight points and had four rebounds in 12 games off the bench last season. Stacker attended Cardinal Ritter High School, where he was a two-time All-State selection and was the Missouri Defensive Player of the Year in 2020-21.
Ward joins the Redhawks from Chaminade College Preparatory School which made back-to-back trips to the Final Four of the Class 6 State Tournament. He scored 14.8 points per game and led the team with 195 assists and 33 steals as a senior.
Bell was named to the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Class 6 All-State Team at Park Hill High School. He scored 20.7 points and averaged 5.1 rebounds per game as a senior. Bell is the younger brother of Ronnie Bell, formerly a wide receiver at Michigan now with the San Francisco 49ers.
Barnes was a First-Team All-Greater Wichita Athletic League pick at Wichita Southeast High School. He is the younger brother of
Israel Barnes, who was the Redhawks third-leading scorer with 10 points per game in his only season at SEMO in 2022-23.
