After claiming top honors in the MIAA conference with a 9-1 league record, the 1960-61 Indians received the honorable duty of hosting and consequently winning the NCAA Southwestern Regional.

The Indian team then took full advantage of the regional victory by winning its quarterfinnal and semifinal games in the NCAA Small College Tournament to earn a spot in the NCAA title game.

The team, then under the direction of Charles Parsley, faced off with Wittenberg University in the championship. The Wittenberg Tigers out of Springfield, Ohio, came out with intense defense and a controlled offensive style to slow down the Indians' attack. What resulted was a 42-38 victory for Wittenberg, holding Southeast to its lowest offensive point total of the season.

Southeast standouts, Vivan Reed and Carl Ritter were held to a combined total of jusut nine points in the contest, but still managed tomake the all-tournament team, while the Indians' leading scorer for the contest was guard Ron Gray who dumped in 15 in the losing cause.

The Indians ran up a 17-game winning streak through the middle portion of the season, and recieved a national ranking as high as 14th before the NCAA Tournament. The team captured the first MIAA basketball title in 18 years for the school while finishing with an impressive 25-3 record.

Both Ritter and Gray were named to the MIAA all-conference first team while Bill Giessing and Les Hemmer claimed second team MIAA honors for the team on the road to an impressive second place finish in the nation.

The Road to the NCAA Finals

W  99-68  vs. Colorado College
W  87-84  vs. Southern Illinois-Carbondale
W  67-41  vs. Chicago University
W  81-69  vs. South Dakota State
L  42-38  vs. Wittenberg University