Transfer making presence known
Michael Rembert won’t be in Ousmane Cisse’s way tonight.
SEMO’s 6-foot-9 junior center, who scored 19 points, had 12 rebounds and forced Cisse to foul out in SEMO’s 80-65 on Jan. 4, is out after straining ligaments in his knee Thursday against Morehead State.
The Panthers (8-18, 4-13 Ohio Valley Conference) said even with Rembert out they are still going into the game with the same mentality.
“It is not going to change anything,” Cisse said. “Most of the time when the best player is out, it pulls the team together. SEMO is still a dangerous team with pretty good wins in the conference.”
SEMO head coach Scott Edgar said losing Rembert, a transfer from Bradley in his first year in a Redhawk uniform, is a big blow to the team because he may be the most mature player they have.
“He’ll be the tallest assistant coach in the country,” Edgar said.
Rembert did not play in SEMO’s 66-61 loss to Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.
Rembert is one of two SEMO transfers who came from bigger programs that have made a difference in the OVC this year.
Rembert is SEMO’s third-leading scorer (10.3 points) and is the leads the team with rebounds (6 per game).
Oklahoma transfer and junior Brandon Foust leads SEMO in scoring and is second on the team in rebounding in his first year playing in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Eastern junior forward Bobby Catchings said the transfers might have brought a different work ethic coming from a bigger program.
“A lot of their influence has to do with confidence,” junior Jake Byrne said. “Confidence is a big thing. They come from bigger programs so they probably automatically think, ‘This is a smaller conference and we can come in and dominate.'”
Byrne said that mindset can be good or it can be bad because SEMO can come out too confident and it can work to the Panthers advantage.
Eastern head coach Mike Miller said both Foust and Rembert are talented and have become consistent performers.
But Miller stressed the whole team has played well as a unit since early January. The Redhawks (10-16, 8-9) are currently in sixth place in the OVC.
An Eastern win can only help its postseason aspirations.
A Panther loss and Eastern’s season will most likely end Feb. 24 at Samford.
And standing in the way are two transfers who have made their mark in their first year.
“It is not about where you come from. If you got a SEMO jersey on, we are going to get you,” Eastern sophomore guard Mike Robinson said. “I don’t really think too much about them coming from the bigger schools because, at the end of the day, you just got to put the ball in the hole.”
Transfer making presence known
Men’s basketball head coach Mike Miller look sdown court after being charged with a technical foul during Eastern’s 74-59 win against Tennessee Martin on Saturday night at Lantz arena. ( Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)
