COLUMN: Sophomore Jamaal Calvin sparks Southeast men in win over Austin Peay

After home loss to Eastern Kentucky on Jan. 10, Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt spoke at length about how his team needed to start doing the "little things" better.

He promised there'd be changes and promised he would figure out how to make a team that didn't "get it" understand the importance of what he was talking about.

The Redhawks won their next two games against Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech -- teams with matching 2-8 Ohio Valley Conference records after Saturday night's games -- but there wasn't much that changed from what I could tell. There was no obvious uptick in energy or sudden bonding of the team that was visible on the court.

Southeast lost its next two games after that -- at UT Martin without suspended start Jarekious Bradley and at home against an SIUE team that hadn't won on the road all season -- and Nutt was back in a familiar position. His team still didn't get it.

"Forty-eight hours ago we really challenged our team," Nutt said following his team's win at Austin Peay on Saturday. "I told my staff, 'The hardest part of our job is going to be in the next 24 hours in pushing buttons, making changes, challenging the passions, and I credit my staff. My staff did a super job of putting a lot of energy into guys. The biggest thing that I told them at the beginning of practice on Friday is that I'm going to push buttons, and we're going to keep pushing buttons until we figure out something that's going to help us and help us win games."

Enter Jamaal Calvin, a sophomore guard who hadn't even made it off the bench in three OVC games this season and had played just three minutes in two others.

Calvin provided a spark, and much needed outside shooting, in early minutes against SIUE on Thursday, and Saturday he got the start.

He made two 3-pointers in about 15 seconds less than two minutes into the game and was 4 of 6 shooting for a team-high 11 points in the first half against Austin Peay.

"I thought Jamaal Calvin really got us out of the block," Nutt said. "I thought he played well with a lot of energy, played with that passion that I'm looking for."

Pick your word for it, but the whole team had more energy, passion, enthusiasm and effort from the start of the game. The players actually looked at each other between plays, they talked to each other, even encouraging and congratulating each other from time to time.

It's something we've rarely seen from the Redhawks this season. It's not that they're usually at each other's throats during games or anything, they just don't usually talk much outside of necessary defensive communication and the huddle.

Perhaps that not important to the success of every basketball team, but Nutt has been stressing that -- what he encompasses as being a "good teammate" -- as one of the most important "little things" he wants to see.

I asked why he thought we finally saw it on Saturday.

"I think you had to push different buttons," Nutt said. "I think it started with Jamaal Calvin. You know, Jamaal Calvin is our natural cheerleader. Here's what you love about Jamaal -- if Jamaal plays one minute, 39 minutes or doesn't play at all, he's still the biggest cheerleader that we have. This is what I told them -- I said, 'Isn't it funny how things work? When you're the biggest cheerleader and you're the best teammate, when it's your turn, you're the one that thrives. That was a difference. That was a difference in our team right now."

Calvin didn't score in the second half, but played 30 minutes in game for just the second game in a row and the second time all season.

He certainly isn't the only Redhawks who deserves credit for the team's win on Saturday night, but it seemed to start with him.

"We do see it here and there where we don't seem as a team as much," said Calvin, who added that Nutt had been stressing that point to the players. "Today we did focus on that. We need more high-fives, more talking because when we do that we play better with each other. We look a lot better and we move better as a team on defense and offense, so all together we did talk about it, and it was good for us. I'm glad we got the win."

The victory was a much-needed one for the Redhawks, who will need another late-season turnaround to assure themselves of a spot in the OVC tournament.

While it was encouraging to see the team following Nutt's instructions for the night, the reality is that Southeast's win came against another team with just two conference victories.

As Nutt noted, it's much easier to be enthusiastic when shots are falling and you have the lead.

The toughest test the OVC has to offer will come when the Redhawks travel to Murray State on Thursday. Will they be able to be good teammates and a good team when they face a great team in the Racers, who are undefeated in conference play?

I look forward to the Redhawks answer to that question, but in the meantime they can prepare for the challenge with a better feeling about their chances.

"We played like a team tonight," Nutt said. "That's the team that we obviously envisioned night in and night out. It hasn't been that way, but we're one game at a time right now. Obviously we're do or die every game right now. We're not going to put that kind of pressure. I told our guys, 'Just play, just play. Just play with passion. If you'll play with passion, I can live it.' I thought we did that tonight."