SportsLine Report
Conference Tournament Preview
Feb. 29, 2000
Fast Facts
First-round games in the OVC Tournament will be played at campus sites with the winners advancing to semifinal games Saturday night at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. The championship game is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Only the top eight teams in the regular season advanced to the tournament. The top four teams earned homecourt berths in the first round of the tournament.
First-round pairings: No. 8 Tennessee State at No. 1 Murray State; No. 5 Austin Peay at No. 4 Eastern Illinois; No. 6 Middle Tennessee State at No. 3 Tennessee Tech; No. 7 Tennessee-Martin at No. 2 Southeast Missouri State.
The Favorite
No surprise here. Murray State will be favored to win its fourth straight OVC Tournament and its ninth in 13 years.
Co-OVC regular-season champion Southeast Missouri State stands the best chance of dethroning the Racers. The Indians are still smarting from last year's tournament, when they lost the championship game on a buzzer-beater.
The Dark Horse
During the regular season, several teams displayed the talent to knock off the OVC's top two teams. The question is, can one of those teams win three straight in the OVC tournament? Well, maybe.
Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech and Eastern Illinois finished tied for third in the regular season. But Austin Peay was the only one to beat either of the co-champs. The Govs beat Southeast Missouri once, lost in the closing seconds in another, and battled Murray State into overtime only to lose.
The Stars
Murray State has two of the top candidates for OVC player of the year in senior point guard Aubrey Reese and senior power forward Isaac Spencer.
In the preseason, Spencer was chosen the league's player of the year by coaches and sports information directors, but Reese runs the show and won the OVC scoring title while Spencer was second in scoring and rebounding.
Austin Peay junior swing player Trenton Hassell drew plenty of NBA attention this season, and fortunately for Govs fans, he says he plans to stay on campus for one more year. Hassell ranked among the league's top five in scoring, rebounding and assists.
Eastern Illinois junior guard Kyle Hill and Tennessee Tech senior guard Josh Heard are two other top players to watch.
Who's Hot
Watch out for sixth-seeded Middle Tennessee State, which enters its final OVC Tournament having won nine of its last 11 games. The Blue Raiders beat Murray State twice and junior swing Fernando Ortiz is one of the flashiest players in the league.
Austin Peay, which has endured an up-and-down season, is on the rise entering the meet. The Govs have won two straight and eight of their last
nine games. With newcomer of the year candidate Joe Williams playing his best
ball of the season, the Govs have the talent to win it -- if they can get
past Eastern Illinois in a tough opening-round road game. Austin Peay put
together a six-game winning streak in February, so the Govs know they can
string some victories together.
Recent History
Everybody's chasing the Racers, who have won the tournament the last three years and been in the tournament's title game each of the last 10. In
the title game last year, Aubrey Reese's running shot from 15 feet lifted the
Racers to a one-point victory over Southeast Missouri State in the championship game. The Racers then battled Final Four-bound Ohio State before losing by 14 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Since joining the league in 1948, the Racers have posted a 42-24 record in the OVC Tournament. Eastern Kentucky is the only other current league member with a winning record in the OVC tournament, but the Colonels, 27-24 in
tournament games, didn't make the eight-team field this season.
Austin Peay won the tournament in 1996, while Tennessee State won it in 1993 and '94. Murray State won it from 1990-93. The Govs are 20-22 in OVC
Tournament games and Tennessee State is 8-10.
Tidbits
With 10 tournament titles, Murray State has won twice as many as any other current member of the conference. ... Middle Tennessee State, which has won five OVC tournaments, departs the OVC after this season and joins the Sun
Belt. ... Murray State has had the tournament MVP each of the last three
years (Aubrey Reese in 1999, and Chad Townsend the two previous years). ...
Austin Peay, Morehead State and Tennessee State have each won two OVC
Tournament titles, while Tennessee Tech has won one. ... Last year, Murray
State was seeded 13th in the South Regional and lost to Ohio State, 72-58.
... The previous year, Murray State was seeded ninth in the Midwest Regional
and lost to Rhode Island, 97-74. ... The last OVC team to win an NCAA
Tournament game was Middle Tennessee, which beat fifth-seeded Florida State,
97-83, in the Southeast Regional before losing to Virginia, 104-88 in 1989.
Who's headed to the Dance
Only the tournament champion receives an automatic bid, and with the OVC's lack of success in the NCAA Tournament and low RPI (No. 19), the league's chances of getting an at-large bid are oh-so-slim and rightfully so. Not since 1987 has the OVC landed two bids. In 1987, Middle Tennessee State won the regular season and Austin Peay won the tournament. MTSU received an at-large bid and lost to Notre Dame, 84-71, while Austin Peay upset Illinois, 68-67, before losing in the second round to Final Four-bound Providence, 90-87, in overtime.