The regular season has ended, and it is time for the Top 8 teams in the OVC to head to Nashville to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It's time for Music City Madness. The OVC will kick off its conference tournament on Wednesday night with Morehead State taking on SEMO followed by Eastern Illinois taking on SIUE. The winners of Wednesday night's games will go on to play UT Martin and Belmont in the next round. Murray State is the #1 seed and Eastern Kentucky is the number #2 seed. Last year Eastern Kentucky won the tournament and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Colonels lost to Kansas in the first round of the big dance, but they are looking to reclaim the automatic bid and make a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
The first game of Morehead State vs SEMO is one that heavily favors Morehead State. The Eagles defeated SEMO earlier this year on the road by 13 points. The Redhawks have been playing a little bit better since then, and have definitely been better at free throws since earlier in the year. The Eagles are coming off of a three game winning streak, while the Redhawks are coming off a dominating win against Austin Peay, who is one of the worst teams in the OVC. Before SEMO played Austin Peay they were on on a three game losing streak. I know that SEMO has the talent to compete with the Eagles, but Morehead State seems to be on another level at the moment. I don't see SEMO getting past the Eagles on Wednesday, but it will be a close game. I think Morehead State comes away with a four point victory.
The second game of the first round will be Eastern Illinois vs SIUE. This is the only game that I see the lower ranked seed getting a victory over a higher ranked seed in this tournament. The EIU Panthers beat the SIUE Cougars in the first meeting of the year at home by three points. The second meeting between the two teams saw SIUE blowout the Panthers at home by 17 points. I think SIUE are a better team than EIU. EIU started the year off hot, and was considered one of the teams to beat, but they have fallen off that ride and I think the Cougars will advance to the second round. I don't think SIUE will blowout the Cougars again. This will be a very competitive game, but I see SIUE coming away with the win by a two point victory.
I don't see any other surprises throughout the rest of the tournament. I see the Top 2 seeds fighting each other for that automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Murray State is currently ranked 25th in the country and they are undefeated in conference play. I think the Murray State Racers will be too much for the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, and be the undefeated, undisputed OVC Tournament Champions.
Be sure to subscribe to the blog to get alerts on new posts. For more news and predictions, you can:
Like the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sportscognition
Follow me on Twitter @SportsCogBlog
No comments:
Post a Comment