Southeast Missouri (0-1) at Vanderbilt (1-0)

Game Information
Date: Sunday, November 10, 2024
Tip-Off: 12 p.m., CT
Location: Nashville, Tenn.
Facility: Memorial Gymnasium (14,316)
Series: Vanderbilt leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: VU 83, SEMO 65 | 11/6/19
Last Meeting in Nashville: VU 83, SEMO 65 | 11/6/19

Head Coaches
Southeast Missouri: Brad Korn (53-74 overall; 53-74 at SEMO; 31-42 OVC)
Vanderbilt: Mark Byington (221-137 overall; 1-0 at VU; 0-0 SEC)

Follow the Redhawks
Video: SEC Network+ (Andrew Allegretta, Shan Foster) 
Live Stats: VUCommodores.com
Radio: Real Rock 99.3 FM (Erik Sean)
X: @SEMOMBB
Game Notes: Southeast Missouri (PDF) 

Southeast Missouri Probable Starters
Rob Martin, G
Troy Cole, Jr., G
TJ Biel, G
Teddy Washington, Jr., G
Brendan Terry, F

Redhawks Travel to Vanderbilt
•    Southeast Missouri travels to Vanderbilt for its second-straight road game of the young 2024-25 season Sunday. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m., CT at Memorial Gymnasium. 
•    Vanderbilt is the second Southeastern Conference opponent Brad Korn faces as SEMO's head coach.
•    The Commodores are the only Power Five Conference school on the Redhawks 2024-25 schedule. 
•    This is the second-straight year where SEMO starts a season with back-to-back road games.
•    The Redhawks began the 2023-24 campaign with trips to Grand Canyon (L, 67-88, Nov. 6) and Butler (L, 56-91, Nov. 10).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Series Notes
•    Southeast Missouri and Vanderbilt meet for the third time in 2024-25.
•    VU holds a 2-0 lead in the all-time series between the teams.
•    The Redhawks last faced the Commodores during their 2019-20 season-opener on Nov. 6, 2019. VU won that game by a score of 83-65 at Memorial Gymnasium.
•    Prior to that, VU picked up its other win over the Redhawks in Nashville on Dec. 5, 2001 (76-71).
•    Rick Ray, who is in his first year as an assistant coach at VU, was SEMO's head coach when the Redhawks last played the Commodores.

Against the SEC
•    The Redhawks are 1-22 all-time against the current Southeastern Conference membership.
•    Southeast Missouri's only win over a SEC team came against Arkansas in 1924-25 (28-21).
•    SEMO played Arkansas (1-8), LSU (0-1), Ole Miss (0-2), Missouri (0-9) and Vanderbilt (0-2) in its basketball history.
•    The Redhawks last meeting with a SEC opponent was at Missouri on Dec. 4, 2022 (L, 96-89).

Power Five Schools
•    Sunday will mark the second time Brad Korn coaches against a Power Five Conference opponent in his Southeast Missouri career.
•    Korn's 2022-23 team played at Missouri on Dec. 4, 2022 with the Tigers prevailing, 98-89, in Columbia, Mo.
•    SEMO has never defeated a Power Five school and has dropped 35 in a row against such opponents.
•    The closest the Redhawks came to knocking off a Power Five school was in 1999-2000 (L, 64-61, vs. LSU, first round of the NCAA Tournament, Mar. 16) and 1997-98 (L, 59-62, at Colorado, Nov. 16).

Southeast Missouri Ties
•    Vanderbilt has two coaches on its staff that previously coached at Southeast Missouri.
•    Rick Ray, who is in his first year as an assistant coach with the Commodores, was SEMO's head coach for five seasons from 2015-20. Ray accumulated an overall record of 51-104 and 27-59 in the Ohio Valley Conference as the Redhawks head coach. 
•    Ray has nearly 30 years of coaching experience and was an assistant coach at Colorado for four years prior to arriving in Nashville.
•    Jon Cremins, also in his first year as an assistant coach at VU, was in the same role at SEMO under then-Head Coach Dickey Nutt from 2012-14. Nutt is currently the assistant to the head coach at Missouri.
•    Cremins was with first-year Commodores Head Coach Mark Byington during three of his previous stops, including James Madison, Georgia Southern and Charleston.

Redhawks Drop Season-Opener
•    Southeast Missouri dropped its season-opener at Missouri Valley Conference preseason favorite Bradley, 88-60, on Nov. 4.
•    SEMO opened a season on the road for the seventh-straight year and 18th time in 19 seasons.
•    The Redhawks fell to 13-21 in season-opening contests during their NCAA Division I era.
•    SEMO also went to 3-2 in such games under Head Coach Brad Korn.
•    The Redhawks last season-opening win was a 64-61 victory at South Florida on Nov. 7, 2022.

Welcome to NCAA Division I Basketball
•    Five players saw their first basketball action at the NCAA Division I level during Southeast Missouri's season-opener at Bradley (Nov. 4).
•    Forward Brendan Terry and guard Troy Cole, Jr. each made their first career starts as Redhawks, while Damarion Walkup, Saxton Hoepker and Elliot Lowndes came off the bench.
•    Terry (Pensacola State College), Cole, Jr. (Highland CC), Walkup (Olney Central College), Hoepker (Southwestern Illinois College) and Lowndes (John A. Logan College) are all junior college transfers.
•    Fellow newcomer Teddy Washington, Jr. also made his first career start as a Redhawk. SEMO is Washington, Jr.'s second Division I school after spending the 2023-24 campaign at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Ward Establishes New Career-High
•    Guard BJ Ward became the first Southeast Missouri player to reach double figures in the scoring column this season when he registered a career-high 17 points at Bradley (Nov. 4).
•    Ward came off the bench to score 14 of his points in 11 minutes during the first half alone.
•    He made his first two shots on 3-pointers to get SEMO within seven (15-8) with 14:42 remaining in the opening stanza.
•    Ward finished at 7-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-5 from downtown along with one assist and three steals.
•    It was the fourth time he scored double figures in his career.
•    Ward surpassed his previous career-best of 13 points vs. Tennessee Tech on Feb. 8, 2024. 

Walkup Starts Strong
•    Damarion Walkup scored 11 points off the bench in his Southeast Missouri debut at Bradley (Nov. 4).
•    Walkup made three field goals, including two from 3-point range and knocked down 3-of-4 free throws in 26 minutes.
•    His 26 minutes were third-most against the Braves behind starters Teddy Washington, Jr. (28) and Rob Martin (27).
•    Walkup scored SEMO's first points of the 2024-25 campaign on a layup with 18:38 left to play in the first half.

Ohio Valley Conference Update
•    All 11 Ohio Valley Conference schools were in action the opening night of the season on Nov. 4.
•    OVC teams went a combined 5-6 the first day of the 2024-25 campaign.
•    UT Martin edged Illinois State, 67-65, on the road for the surprising win on opening night.
•    Little Rock, SIU Edwardsville, Tennessee State, UTM and Western Illinois are the OVC teams who tipped of the season with a win.

About the Program
•    Southeast Missouri begins its 118th season of basketball in 2024-25.
•    This year marks SEMO's 34th as an NCAA Division I program.
•    The Redhawks first moved to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1991-92.
•    SEMO has a total of nine winning seasons at the NCAA Division I level.
•    The Redhawks won one Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title (1999-2000), two OVC Tournament crowns (1999-2000, 2022-23) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament twice (1999-2000, 2022-23).
•    SEMO has an all-time NCAA Division I record of 385-563 and is 213-328 in the OVC.

Year Five for Korn
•    Brad Korn is in his fifth year as Southeast Missouri's head coach.
•    Korn's position at SEMO is his first as a head coach.
•    He led the Redhawks to their first Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in over two decades during the 2022-23 campaign.
•    SEMO became the first #5 seed to win the OVC Tournament winning four games in four days along the way.
•    Korn is 53-74 overall and 31-42 in the OVC.
•    He was hired as the seventh head coach in SEMO's NCAA Division I era on Mar. 23, 2020.
•    Korn has coached in eight NCAA Tournaments -- seven as an assistant coach and one as a head coach -- during his career.

About Vanderbilt
•    Vanderbilt is under the direction of first-year Head Coach Mark Byington. Byington was named VU's head coach on Mar. 25, 2024.
•    Byington takes over the Commodores' program after leading James Madison to its most successful four-season stretch in over 30 years.
•    He opened 2023-24 by leading the Dukes to a victory at #4 Michigan State, as they would spend eight weeks in the Associated Press top 25 poll throughout the course of the season. He would go on to lead the school to the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship, a win over fifth-seeded Wisconsin in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and a 32-4 overall record. 
•    After taking over a program that had recorded four straight losing seasons, Byington guided James Madison to an 82-36 mark over the next four seasons.
•    Byington earned his first win as VU's head coach when the Commodores throttled Maryland Eastern Shore, 102-63, on Nov. 4.
•    VU, which went 9-23 overall and 4-14 in the SEC a year ago, was picked last in the 16-team SEC Preseason Poll ahead of 2024-25.