OVC Opening Night Opportunities

Taking on Three Ranked Teams

(St. Louis, MO) – Ohio Valley Conference teams are jumping right into the deep end of the pool. Four league members are battling ‘money conference’ foes and three of them are visiting Top Twenty-five squads. Opening night opportunities abound.

All eleven OVC teams begin their seasons tonight and nine of them are on the road.

Opening Night Opportunities – Ranked Opponents

Tennessee Tech travels to Knoxville for a game with the ninth ranked Tennessee Volunteers. An in-state upset of Rick Barnes’ team would send shockwaves through the Southeastern Conference and might be the top win in John Pelphrey’s career with the Golden Eagles.

Speaking of the SEC, league champion Morehead State opens at 24^th ranked Alabama. Both of these teams have undergone offseason retooling and an upset at Coleman Coliseum would be huge for the Eagles who play at Purdue on Friday.

Marty Simmons takes his rebuilt Eastern Illinois team on the short bus ride to Champaign, Illinois for a battle with Big Ten power Illinois. The Illini are ranked twenty-fifth. While not a ranked team, Lindenwood travels to another Big Ten destination to face Nebraska.

Four ‘money conference’ opening night opportunities.

Opening Night Opportunities – Next Level

Southern Illinois Edwardsville and Southern Indiana face Atlantic Ten teams and Southeast Missouri visits Grand Canyon. While not ‘money conference’ games, no doubt they are making money playing these games and have the opportunity to boost their individual profiles.

SIUE heads to a packed out UD Arena for a game against the 22-win Dayton Flyers. The Cougars bring four returning starters from their best-ever, Division 1 season into this contest. After its ‘first-ever’ D1 season USI opens at Saint Louis. Each of these rosters have been reshuffled. The Billikens have won at least twenty games in four of the last five seasons.

SEMO and Grand Canyon each participated in last year’s NCAA Tournament. The Lopes won 24 games and GCU Arena is a tough place for visiting teams to prevail.

Opening night opportunities abound for OVC teams. I’ll be in St. Louis for the USI contest, but we’ll be paying attention to all eleven OVC openers.

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