If You Build It They Will Come (To The Show-Me-Center)

If you (SEMO) build a winner they (the fans) will come to the Show-Me-Center. Even the most jaded and cynical Redhawks basketball fan would probably agree with me.

I don't think I am off base by any stretch of the imagination. Did you see how packed the Show-Me-Center was last Wednesday night for a pair of high school basketball games? 7,121 filled the arena witnessing one of the best nights of basketball played on the parquet floor in years.

Not every fan in attendance had a rooting interest in the game. Sure the overwhelming majority have a connection to one of the four schools playing (Oran, Saxony Lutheran, Scott County Central, Sikeston), but I talked with many people that night who bought a ticket just to be part of the event and soak-in the atmosphere.

The buzz in the Show-Me-Center that night was not unlike that of the SIU Arena in Carbondale for a Southern Illinois Saluki men's basketball game. I know comparing SIU and SEMO is like comparing watermelons and olives, both are fruit but both compete on different levels. SIU has a larger budget and plays in a more successful conference (the Missouri Valley). Mentioning SIU tends to ruffle the feathers of some in Redhawks Nation. I guess it's an inferiority complex.

Not all that long ago both University's football and men's basketball programs were in the tank.
I won't bore you with the gory numbers (I'm having a good day and don't want to ruin my mood), but trust they were not good. Over the span of a few years Southern Illinois hired AD Paul Kowalczyck, men's basketball coach Bruce Weber and head football coach Jerry Kill...
Southern Illinois continues to thrive.

Southeast Missouri State has produced flashes of greatness unfortunately the flash faded.
During those briefs moments when the planets seemed to align and SEMO was winning football games and contending for a OVC championship in basketball there was ample support for both programs.

Remember the first few years under Gary Garner? The basketball team played home games in front of large (rowdy) crowds. Think back to some of the battles in Cape Girardeau with Murray State...remember the thorns in SEMO's side (Aubrey Reece and De'Teri Mays).

In a nutshell... If new SEMO AD John Schaffer can put the right people into position to lead the basketball team to bigger and better seasons I have no doubt fans will once again pour into the arena which sits a few hundred yards off Sprigg Street.

To quote a longtime D-1 assistant coach familiar with the plight of the Redhawks.
"SEMO is a gold mine....It's the best job in the OVC, I would take that job in heartbeat."

I hope someone soon finds gold. Like me I'm sure most Redhawks fans have the fever for gold and are tired of trying to polish fools gold.