July 10, 2002

2002-03 Indian Basketball Schedule

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner has announced a 29-game basketball schedule for 2002-2003.The schedule will include 15 games at the Show Me Center including two exhibition games.

Garner said he is pleased that the Indians will host two regional rivals on Saturday nights at the Show Me Center. On Saturday, Dec. 7, Southeast will host Southern Illinois, a traditional rival that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 last season, and on Saturday, Dec. 21, will host Southwest Missouri State, another traditional rival that should challenge SIU for the Missouri Valley championship.

"It will be great to play SIU and SMS at the Show Me Center and on Saturday nights," Garner said. "In fact, we will have eight Saturday night games at the Show Me Center this year which is the most in recent history. Besides SIU and SMS, we have key OVC Saturday night match ups with Eastern Illinois, Murray State, Tennessee Tech, Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay in addition to one exhibition game on Saturday night."

The non-conference schedule also includes the season opener at Arkansas State and games at Missouri-Kansas City, Arkansas-Little Rock, Creighton and Western Illinois. Arkansas State will be one of the top teams in the Sun Belt along with the UALR team that won 18 games last year and returns virtually the entire squad from last season. Creighton beat Florida in last year's NCAA Tournament and returns most of the players from that team. In addition, Southeast will play three games at an exempt tournament in New Orleans over Thanksgiving. The tournament will be played at Tulane University.

"All in all it will be a very challenging schedule that should be great for our fans at the Show Me Center," Garner said.