CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (WSIL) -- Former Saluki player and now current SEMO Head Basketball Coach Brad Korn was named the OVC Coach of the Year.
He led the Redhawks to their best one-year turnaround in program history.
SEMO was picked seventh in this year's OVC Preseason Poll and went 20-11 overall and 15-5 in conference play en route to winning the outright OVC regular-season title and claiming the OVC Tournament's #1 seed for the first time in program history.
SEMO was 10-10 midway through the 2024-25 campaign when it ripped off 10-straight wins for its longest winning streak during its NCAA Division I era and longest in 35 years. The Redhawks went from 9-22 overall, 4-14 in OVC play and not making the OVC Tournament in 2023-24 to finishing first with a +11 increase in both overall and conference victories.
The Redhawks' 15 OVC wins tied a school record and the +11 margin surpassed the program's previous +10 increase from 2015-16 (5-24) to 2016-17 (15-18).
Korn's 2024-25 squad went undefeated in February (8-0), 9-1 during the second half of OVC play and enters the league's postseason tournament after going 17-5 in its last 22 games. The 20 wins are the most in a season with Korn at the helm and give SEMO its third 20-win season in program history along with the 1998-99 (20-9) and 1999-2000 (24-7) teams.
Korn guided SEMO to two-game sweeps over five OVC opponents, including SIU Edwardsville, Southern Indiana, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech and Western Illinois this year.
SEMO opens up OVC Tournament Play as the #1 seed as it awaits to learn its opponent. The Redhawks first game of the tournament is at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
