Ohio Valley Conference Championship Preview
The first ticket to the NCAA Tournament will be punched today in Evansville, Indiana at the Ford Center as Little Rock and Morehead State battle it out in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship.
The Ohio Valley Conference is always the first conference to punch a ticket to the big dance as the usual one-bid league plays their championship game on the first Saturday of the conference tournament season. This year, we are going to witness a heavy-weight battle between the Little Rock Trojans and the Morehead State Eagles.
Morehead State has been dominate all season long, the Eagles have won 17 out of their last 21 games. You may remember earlier in the season when they had IU on the ropes at Assembly Hall where they very well could have won that game, but ultimately lost 69-68.
The Eagles are led by guards Riley Minix, Jordan Lathon, & Kalil Thomas:
Riley Minix: 20.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1 block per game
Jordan Lathon: 15.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1 steal per game
Kalil Thomas: 12.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game.
On the season, the Eagles are 25-8 and 14-4 in the Ohio Valley. Their only losses in conference came to Little Rock in a 69-68 close game, UT Martin in an 88-82 close game, SIUE 61-48, and USI 80-73. The USI loss was the Eagles only bad loss on the season as their four non-conference losses came to IU 69-68, #24 Alabama 105-73, #3 Purdue 87-57, and Penn State 74-51. All Power Conference teams and they nearly snuck a win past one.
This would be Morehead State’s 4th NCAA Tournament Appearance since 2009 and their first since 2021.
For Little Rock, this is their second year in the Ohio Valley since leaving the Sun Belt in 2022. Their first year in the OVC was lackluster to say the least. The Trojans finished just 10-21 and 6-12 in conference. They haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2016 when they finished 30-5 on the season and 17-3 in conference. You may remember that team because they knocked off Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in a 85-83 Double Overtime thriller as the 12 seed.
This season, Little Rock is 21-11 overall and 14-4 in conference. The Trojans had a tough non-conference where they dropped games to UIC, Northern Illinois, George State twice, Central Arkansas, and Jacksonville State. They started to find their strength in conference after a rocky start. In their first four games in the OVC, they started off 1-3 dropping games to Tennessee State, Eastern Illinois, and UT Martin. However, they turned it on and only lost one more game for the rest of the season which was a close 68-66 loss to SIUE. The Trojans are 13-1 in their last 14 games, peaking at the right time of the year.
The Trojans have four players averaging 10 or more points per game:
KK Robinson: 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.2 steals per game
Jamir Chaplin: 14.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1.3 steals per game
Deantoni Gordon: 11.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game
Bradley Douglas: 10.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game
This is a well rounded team that runs the bench deep. They have 8 players that have played in at least 26 games and 5 of which that have played in 31 or more games.
These are two hungry teams that are both looking to go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in several years. On the season series, the Eagles and Trojans faced each other just one time which ended in a 69-68 Trojans victory at home.
The game will be on ESPN 2 this evening at 7pm CDT. Make sure to tune in to see which one of these teams could punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament and enter the status of a potential bracket buster!