Semifinal Day is the Best Day – Part One

OVC’s Top Four Teams Square Off

(St. Louis, MO) – College tournament time is special, but semifinal day is the best day of any conference championship weekend. The Ohio Valley Conference semifinals are tonight in Evansville.

With the OVC’s top four seeds reaching the semifinals tonight’s contest are extra special. There are more subplots in this tournament than an episode of the Bachelor. A champion is attempting to defend while a big underdog seeks to shock the OVC world. Two perennial powers are seeking the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament during their final OVC season.

SEMO the Biggest of Underdogs

Southeast Missouri (14-17) faces top-seeded and nationally ranked Murray State. The 7:00 pm tip at Evansville’s Ford Center will not be the ‘neutral site’ game as it is titled. Ford Center has become known as ‘Murray North’ because of the large Racer fan base that makes the trip to Evansville.

Odds makers have MSU as a 15-point favorite.

Player of the Year K.J. Williams and guards Tevin Brown and Justice Hill were all-OVC performers and pose a huge problem for the upstart Redhawks. While Murray swept the regular season games between the two, but the two met during the season’s final game and the Racers escaped Cape Girardeau with a two-point win.

This game could be closer than some think.

Morehead Trying to Repeat

Morehead State is the forgotten member of the OVC’s ‘big three’. While Murray and Belmont are gathering big headlines, it is the Eagle team that is this tournament’s defending champion. Preston Spradlin’s team (22-10) has won 20 games for two straight seasons, but have struggled during the closing weeks of the season, losing four of its final seven games.

Double-double machine Johni Broome and point guard Ta’lon Cooper are the well-known Eagles, but Skylar Potter and Tray Hollowell are double-digit scorers who do damage for MSU.

Murray State Hunting Seeds

Nationally ranked Murray State (28-2) hopes to sweep this tournament to garner a favorable NCAA Tournament bid. With a sweep, they could land as high as sixth or seventh in the Big Dance. A loss in Evansville could drop them as far as an eight or nine in a March Madness bracket.

Murray and Belmont’s Final Appearance

With the Bruins and the Racers leaving for the Missouri Valley Conference these two OVC standard bearers want to go out on top. The Racers won the championship in 2018 and 2019, with the Bruins (25-6) capturing the crown in 2020. Belmont is 12-6 all-time in this tournament and Murray is 72-39.

Casey Alexander’s Bruins split with Morehead and were swept by the Racers. They were undefeated against every other OVC team.

The fan bases of these two programs don’t like each other. If each of the future MVC teams reach the final, the atmosphere will be special.

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