Southeast Missouri State Redhawks

The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks play their home games at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, a modern arena that's one of the nicer venues in the Ohio Valley Conference. SEMO has quietly built one of the league's more competitive programs in recent years, mixing physical, defense-first basketball with steady coaching continuity. The Redhawks have become a team OVC rivals circle on the schedule. Their rise has coincided with some of the best seasons in program history.

SEMO basketball claimed its first Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title in 1999-2000 under head coach Gary Garner, then broke through again with a run of championships a quarter-century later. In 2022-23 the Redhawks became the first No. 5 seed ever to win the OVC Tournament, capturing four games in four days, and followed it with an outright regular-season title in 2024-25. The program has never advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament but has established itself as one of the league's most consistent modern contenders.