Murray State swept their Appalachian rivals over the weekend, beating Morehead 70-62 and EKU 66-56 at home to capture the OVC title. On one level, of course, this is meaningless -- the OVC title that really matters to most people is the one you get for winning the tournament, because only that one gets you into the NCAAs. But that's a shame, really, because Murray's accomplishment over a very difficult 18-game schedule should not be disregarded. In my opinion, whatever happens in the OVC Tournament -- and it should be a doozy, one of the best OVC Tourneys in years -- Murray is the true conference champion.
Final Standings (Conference Games Only):
Murray St: 14-4
Morehead St: 13-5
Austin Peay: 13-5
Tennessee Tech: 12-6
Tennessee St: 10-8
E. Kentucky: 9-9
UT-Martin: 6-12
SE Mo. St: 6-12
E. Illinois: 4-14
Jacksonville St. 3-15
I agree. Congratulations, Murray State. Also, I want to reiterate that I think the regular-season and tournament winners of each Division I conference should get automatic berths into the NCAA basketball tournament--with the remaining seeds (64 minus regular-season plus tournament winners minus repeats) decided during an open, broadcast-live-on-CSPAN meeting of the NCAA-tournament committee. Also, I think those repeats--the ones who win both the regular-season and conference titles--should be slotted into the top seeds. Then the committee could seed the rest (during its open meeting). This goes for both men and women.
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