Dec. 27, 2006

BASKETBALL GAME INFORMATION

Saturday, Dec. 30, 6:00 p.m.

Southeast Missouri @ Purdue

Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Ind

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 6 p.m.

Southeast Missouri @ Eastern Kentucky

McBrayer Arena, Richmond, Ky.

Thursday, Jan. 4, 7:30 p.m.

Eastern Illinois @ Southeast Missouri

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri State is 3-10 overall and 1-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Redhawks have lost five straight and seven of their last eight.

Prior to a Thursday night game at Indiana State, Purdue is 10-2 overall with losses to only nationally ranked Butler and Georgia Tech.

Prior to a game at Kentucky on Saturday, Eastern Kentucky is 8-3 overall and 3-1 in the OVC.

Prior to a Thursday night game at Eastern Michigan and a Jan. 2 home game vs. Murray State, Eastern Illinois is 5-8 overall and 1-4 in the OVC.

THE COACHES: Southeast Missouri is under the direction of new head coach Scott Edgar, an assistant at Tennessee last season, who has served as head coach at Duquesne and Murray State. He has also been an assistant at Tulsa, Arkansas and Alabama-Birmingham. His collegiate head coaching record is 111-105 in his eighth season.

Matt Painter, former coach at SIU-Carbondale, is 45-26 in three years as a collegiate head coach and is 20-21 in his second season at Purdue.

Jeff Neubauer is 22-19 in his second season at Eastern Illinois.

Mike Miller is 11-29 in his second season at EIU and is 98-108 in his eighth year as a collegiate head coach.

THE SERIES: Purdue leads the series 1-0. Eastern Kentucky leads the Southeast series 14-13 while the Redhawks lead the Eastern Illinois series 17-14.

LAST SEASON: Southeast split two games with both Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois. The Redhawks beat EKU 68-62 at the Show Me Center and lost 80-51 in Richmond. Southeast beat EIU in Charleston 72-60 but lost at the Show Me Center 60-49.

**REDHAWKS NOTES**

1-4 IN THE OVC: The Redhawks are 1-4 in the OVC after beating UT Martin 81-79 at the Show Me Center before losing road contests at Tennessee State and at Tennessee Tech and home contests to Jacksonville State and Samford.

FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTE: Freshmen continue to gain more and more playing time. Freshmen average 68.2 minutes per game out of a possible 200. Roderick Pearson leads the way, averaging 20.2 minutes per game.

PEARSON IS HOT: Freshman Roderick Pearson has started the last three games and has averaged 10.6 points per game while shooting 47% from the field, 50% from three and 88% from the line.

RHODES STEPS UP: Freshman Marcus Rhodes is the Redhawks third leading scorer in OVC games only with an average of 12.3 points per game.

TALENTED TRANSFERS: Two highly touted transfers lead Southeast in scoring and rebounding. Brandon Foust, a transfer from Oklahoma, averages 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Michael Rembert, a transfer from Bradley, averages 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Rembert had a career high 20 points vs. Jacksonville State.

JOHNSON MOVES UP: Junior guard David Johnson is the Redhawks leading scorer in OVC games with an average of 14 points per game. He has fully recovered from hernia surgery that forced him to miss all but three games last season. Johnson, who had 20 points against UT Martin, averages 10.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game on the season.

RAYTOWN DUO: Roderick Pearson and JaJuan Maxwell are both from Raytown, Mo. (a suburb of Kansas City), but played at rival high schools. Pearson, a jet quick guard who started the Jacksonville State game, played at Raytown South while Maxwell, a versatile 6-6 player, played for Raytown High School.

Pearson averages 6.0 points per game with a high of 28 points vs. Samford, while Maxwell, who had a career high 11 points at Evansville, averages 5.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

PARADOSKI INJURED: Junior point guard Paul Paradoski suffered a knee injury during practice on Tuesday. X-rays and an MRI were negative but he missed the last three games. Paradoski resumed practice on Dec. 26 and is expected to be available for the Purdue game.

FREE MISSES HURT: The Redhawks are shooting just .588 from the free throw line. In the 70-67 loss to Jacksonville State, the Redhawks made just 19-35 free throws.

REDHAWKS AWARD: The Southeast coaching staff bestows a Redhawks Award any time a player has points, rebounds and assists that equal 25 or more. Brandon Foust received a Redhawks Award when he had 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists vs. Alaska. David Johnson received the award after 20 points, four rebounds and four assists vs. UT Martin. Michael Rembert was honored after the Jacksonville State game when he had 20 points, five rebounds and one assist.

CONNECT-RITE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Members of the media select a Southeast Connect-Rite Player of the Game after each Southast home game. The winners are listed below.

UC-Riverside - Michael Rembert

IPFW - David Johnson

UT Martin - David Johnson

Jacksonville State - Michael Rembert

Samford - Roderick Pearson

FOUST HONORED: Brandon Foust was named to the Top of the World Classic All-Tournament team. He currently leads the team in scoring with 11.6 points per game and is tied for the lead in rebounding with 5.4 rebounds per game.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: The Redhawks are 2-3 at the Show Me Center this season and are 202-85 (.704) since the facility opened in 1987.

REDHAWKS ADD ST. LOUIS RADIO STATION: The Southeast Basketball Network has added 1380 ESPN Radio in St. Louis. The network operated by Mississippi River Radio, will be anchored by 100,000 watt K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau. Other network stations include KSIM, Sikeston;, KWOC, Poplar Bluff and KMAL, Malden.

Erik Sean will be the play-by-play voice of Redhawks basketball with Todd Bonacki adding commentary at home games and Ron Hines adding color during the road games.

Scott Edgar RADIO SHOW: Scott Edgar will have a weekly radio show on KGIR, 1220 AM in Cape Girardeau. He will be on from 7-8 p.m. each Monday with host Erik Sean. They will talk Redhawks basketball and take calls from listeners.

REDHAWKS BASKETBALL WITH Scott Edgar: Edgar will have a weekly television show on WQWQ-TV, the Heartland's CW. The show will be seen at 11 p.m. each Monday night and will be hosted by Heartland Sports Director Todd Richards. The show will also be shown on Charter Cable, Channel 11, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at both 8 and 9 p.m.

LIVE VIDEO STREAMING: Southeast fans will be able to watch Redhawks OVC basketball games on the internet through the Ohio Valley Conference's new premium web site, OVCSports.TV.

OVCSports.TV can be accessed by logging on to the OVC Web site, www.ovcsports.com, and is made possible through a partnership with XOX Technologies,, a leading provider of sports technology. Subscriptions are available on an annual, seasonal and per-event basis.

SID STREAK: Southeast SID Ron Hines has worked 769 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980.

NEXT FOR THE REDHAWKS: Following the games with Purdue, Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois, Southeat will go on the road to play at Murray State on Monday, Jan. 8 and at Austin Peay on Saturday, Jan. 13.