Men’s Basketball: Ex-Plano star Brad Korn coaches Southeast Missouri State to first NCAA Tournament bid in 23 years

Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball coach Brad Korn is set to bust out his dancing shoes.

The former Plano star basketball player is normally spending the early part of March getting ready for the following season.

Not this year.

Not this March.

“We normally give the guys two weeks off because of NCAA rules,” Korn said last week. “I’m in more so of reviewing and self-reflecting at this point in the offseason and am putting the game plan moving forward for next season. It’s definitely been a different type of season.

“It’s a good problem to have. This is the first time in a while we’ve not had spring break.”

Korn sparked a quick turnaround in Cape Girardeau, Missouri - a small town that lies along the Mississippi River and known locally as the “City of Roses.”

In his third year at the helm at SEMO, Korn guided the Redhawks to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship by beating Tennessee Tech 89-82 in overtime on March 4.

Since then, Korn has dealt with a nonstop wave of texts, calls and interviews. The Redhawks (19-16) were the first automatic qualifier into the field of 68, earning the program’s second NCAA berth and first in 23 years.

The Redhawks will play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (23-10) in the First Four on Tuesday at 5:40 p.m. in Dayton, Ohio. The winner of the game will face top-seed Alabama in the South Regional in Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday.

But Korn is just worried about Tuesday, especially following the massive celebration on Selection Sunday.

“It will be all eyes on us,” Korn said. “I always thought we had the potential. I just give all the credit to the guys…People forget what you say, but they never forget how you make them feel. Our guys are going to remember this moment for the rest of their lives because of the work they put in, so they are rewarded for that.”

Before Korn’s arrival, Southeast Missouri State had produced 21 losing seasons in 29 years. But Korn helped shape the program into a quick winner, aided by a strong staff and his background coaching at Southern Illinois, his alma mater, and Kansas State.

Korn said the SEMO community has embraced being the talk of college basketball all of last week.

“It’s been great,” he said. “I was very familiar with the people and this region. They understand basketball. They want the team to have success. I’ve done so many interviews. It’s more of an opportunity to spread the word about what we have going on here and accomplished. Just seeing the sheer joy on the faces of the players and the staff makes it special to be part of this and to reach a common goal.”

Korn said he received 300-plus text messages in the immediate aftermath of winning the conference tournament title. The Redhawks won four games in four days to overcome the odds to earn a spot in the Big Dance. He admitted he was “pretty exhausted when we got back” from the OVC tournament.

“I have a lot of gratitude because a lot of people have helped me along the way,” Korn said. “It’s been really gratifying because we stuck with it and believed, showing good things happen to good people in a good place.”

Korn, 41, is not in unfamiliar territory in the Big Dance.

He’s always been a winner.

He guided Plano to a fourth-place finish in Class A in 1999 – the program’s lone state appearance. The 6-foot-9 Korn was an assistant coach at Kansas State during their 2017 Final Four appearance, and played on three NCAA Tournament teams as a player at Southern Illinois.

Korn, who has family living in Montgomery and Oswego, retooled the roster on the fly in the offseason, bringing in 10 new players.

“We put the team together, and the first time we saw them on the court was in June,” Korn said. “We knew we had some talent, some pieces, but it took some time to get them together. In July, we noticed our team is not bad. We thought we had a chance.

“Everybody who gets a coaching job has big dreams and you sell your vision. To see it come to fruition is special. I’ve been blessed to be a part of small knit communities.”