The Stetson men's basketball team returns to action on Monday night, hosting Southeastern in the second of three straight games at the Edmunds Center.  The Hatters (1-1) and the Fire (7-1) are set to tip-off at 7:00 p.m.

Heading into the contest with the NAIA opponent, Stetson head coach Casey Alexander isn't as concerned with Monday night's result as he is with the quality of play.

"The biggest thing is how we play the game," Alexander said. "That's what I was most pleased with in the FAMU game.  In the big picture, we were good.  There's plenty of room for improvement, but people who watched the game should have seen that we had a team trying to do things a certain way."

The Hatters defeated Florida A&M by a score of 88-66 in their first victory of the season on Nov. 13, leading by as many as 27 and never trailing from start to finish.  It marked Stetson's first win of 20 points or more since a 59-39 victory over Kennesaw State on Feb. 14, 2009, but Alexander was more impressed with his team's concentration and attitude. 

"I'm still pleased with our desire to do things right," Alexander continued.  "I think our effort was good, which is where all good teams start.  But they're also trying to execute what we want to do on both ends of the floor, and then a step beyond that, execute a game plan that's specific to our opponent."

That opponent this week is already 7-1 on the 2012-13 season, and comes to DeLand riding a five game winning streak.  Southeastern recently went a perfect 3-0 in the Hersha Hospitality Classic in Pennsylvania, defeating Florida Christian College, King's College, and Valley Forge Christian College.

"They're in a very similar spot to where we were last year, Alexander said.  "They have a brand new coach, and they've got a lot of new players, so they're probably trying to find themselves.  They've played a lot more games than we have, though, so they're more experienced this season than we are.

"We will prepare in the exact same fashion as we do for any team.  All of our focus for this Southeastern game will be to take another step in the direction of playing the way we want to play.  Regardless of who our opponent is, it's our mission to play that way for as many of those 200 minutes as we can."

Monday night will mark the first meeting between Stetson and Southeastern in the all-time history of the programs.  The Hatters are perfect against the Fire's league, The Sun Conference, holding a combined record of 5-0 against Embry-Riddle, Johnson and Wales, and Webber International.

Fans can watch the game for free on HatterVision and ASun.TV with play-by-play from Robbie Aaron.  The call can also be heard on WSBB 1230 AM in New Smyrna, 1490 AM in DeLand, or www.myam1230.com.  Live Stats, the @StetsonMBB Twitter feed, and Hat-Alerts are also available for in-game updates.