After the Automatic Bid, Then What?

(St. Louis, MO) – Undefeated Wichita State will represent the Missouri Valley Conference in the NCAA Tournament and Eastern Kentucky is carrying the Ohio Valley Conference flag into that 68 team battle, by virtue of their victories last weekend.  But what about other post season hopefuls from those two special leagues?

The first two teams to accomplish a post-season destination are Missouri State (MVC) and Murray State (OVC) and they will be playing each other! Wednesday, we learned the Bears will be hosting the Racers on Wednesday, March 19^th as part of the 32 team CollegeInsider.com Post Season Tournament (CIT).

Missouri State has had a resurgent season with 20 wins and Murray State is a perennial mid-major power. It will be the Bears first foray into post season play since 2011 when they participated in the National Invitational Tournament. In 2010 they were the champions of the CIT. Cuonzo Martin coached both of those MSU teams.

Current Head Coach Paul Lusk told missouristatebears.com, “We’re very excited to be playing in the postseason and to be playing a quality program. Murray State has a great basketball tradition and will be a good opponent.”

Murray State was the West Division Champion of the OVC and has never played in the six-year-old tournament. The CIT is made up exclusively of non-BCS programs and is played entirely at campus sites.

East Carolina is the defending champion. No OVC team has ever played in the finals of the tournament. Along with the MSU championship, Bradley of the MVC finished second in the inaugural 2009 tourney.

Other teams from these leagues that could continue play this season are Indiana State (23-10) and Illinois State (16-15) from the Valley and Belmont (24-9), Morehead State (20-13) and Southeast Missouri (18-14) in the OVC. The Valley’s Northern Iowa has already chosen not to play in a post-season tournament.

Do Good