Just when Murray St. looked like they would have to pull the OVC up by the bootstraps into the upper tier of low-majors, they got some help. Belmont jumped from the A-Sun to the OVC and probably moved the league into “mid-major” territory. The problem is that teams like Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech, Morehead St., and SEMO just didn’t have the years they had hoped for. But, that left the surprise teams like Jacksonville St., Eastern Illinois (led by the great Charlie Spoonhour’s kid) and maybe one of the biggest surprises in the country, Eastern Kentucky, to carry the load after the big two.
FINALS (March 9th – 30 points)
#1 Belmont vs #2 Murray St.
The game we all wanted for the OVC final is happening. Isaiah Canaan and Ian Clark dominated their respective semifinals, and now they will go head-to-head for all the marbles.
And, like a great CTC final should be – all 24 people have a horse in this race. Cheryl, GrossSr, Lazarow, LohseJr, PapaCim, and Waters all have Murray St. winning this one. Everyone else has Belmont. If Belmont wins, Gersh will take the 2013 OVC crown outright. If Murray wins, Cheryl and Lazarow will split the crown.
SEMIFINALS (March 8th – 20 points each)
#1 Belmont vs #4 Tennessee St.
The new OVC kid on the block, Belmont, won the OVC regular season and earned the double-bye to the semis. They will play their first OVC tournament game Friday night against 4th-seeded TSU. The Bruins are, yet again, one of the most underrated teams in America – not mid-major teams, but all teams. They finished 24-6 and are a top-40 team in most tempo-free ranking systems. They won a top-heavy OVC by two full games, including a sweep of second-place Eastern Kentucky. However, one of their conference losses came to the team they face tonight, Tennessee St., as the Tigers beat the Bruins by a dozen on Valentine’s Day. Tennessee St. looked pretty good against a somewhat inferior Morehead St. team on Thursday night, so this shapes up to be a pretty great opener to a terrific semifinal double-header in Music City.
All 24 entries have Belmont winning this game and going to the finals, with 18 of them picking the Bruins to win the tournament, so the 6 that didn’t pick them are TSU fans on Friday.
Belmont 82 – Tennessee St. 73
Tennessee St. jumped out to an early lead, but in the end that incredible Belmont backcourt was just that – incredible. Ian Clark led the way with 26 points; Kerron Johnson added 23 points, 7 assists, and 3 steals; and, J.J Mann chipped in with 13 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and 4 steals. The Bruins now await the last obstacle to another trip to the tournament. I fully expect Tennessee St. to play in a postseason tournament, so this is probably not the last we’ll see of Robert Covington, but if so, it was a heck of a career.
Everyone got this one right.
#2 Murray St. vs #3 Eastern Kentucky
The Racers of Murray St. were supposed to have an epic season. They were ranked in the preseason top-15, and Isaiah Canaan was an AP 1st-team All-American in the preseason. But, as often happens in sports, the results didn’t come close to the hype. Maybe people forgot about a great Belmont team joining the OVC or a solid Tennessee St. team. No one knew how good EKU would be, but still. The non-conf was lackluster and for this Racers team to lose SIX games in the OVC is basically unacceptable. But, they did get the 2-seed (despite finishing with the 4th-best conference record) because they won their division and earned the double-bye. Now, they are just two wins from erasing all that negativity and going back to the Dance. It starts Friday against a really good – and still underappreciated – EKU team that handled SEMO in a Thursday quarterfinal. Everyone wants a Belmont-Murray final, but that might not be the best basketball matchup.
Ten people have EKU upsetting Murray here (Alex, Caleb, Dave, Doogan, J, Lohse, Lynch, Mac, Rikey, and Scoot); two people (GrossJr and Teddy) have already lost this game with SEMO; the other dozen all have Murray St. No one has EKU winning this tournament, but six people (Cheryl, GrossSr, Lazarow, LohseJr, PapaCim, and Waters) have the Racers going back to the Dance.
Murray St. 81 – Eastern Kentucky 73
Isaiah Canaan proves many of the doubters wrong and puts the Racers on his back and absolutely dominates EKU single-handedly. Canaan went for 29 points, 6 assists, 4 boards, a steal, and a block. Saturday’s final against Belmont should be incredible.
A dozen people nailed this pick, with a half-dozen keeping alive their champion.
QUARTERFINALS (March 7th – 10 points each)
#4 Tennessee St. vs #5 Morehead St.
Morehead survived a feisty UT-Martin team on Wednesday night and now will take on a very solid Tennessee St. team in the quarters on Thursday night. The TSU Tigers are one of the more feared teams in the OVC simply because they boast one of the more feared players in the OVC – all-everything forward, Robert Covington. Covington is one of those power conference players that somehow ended up at a school like Tennessee St. The problem is that the supporting cast is questionable. He is good enough, though, to carry the team to where they want to go. Right now, all they want is a semifinal shot at #1 Belmont, and to do that, they will have to knock off Morehead.
More than half the field (Alexi, GrossJr, GrossSr, Lazarow, Lohse, LohseJr, Mac, PapaCim, Rikeym, RDoc, Stumpf, Teddy, and Waters) actually has Morehead pulling off the minor upset here. PapaCim has the most at stake, as he has Morehead going to the finals. Not one person has Tennessee St. going any further than the semis.
Tennessee St 88 – Morehead St. 75
The Tigers of TSU looked real solid on Thursday night, taking care of business against a game Morehead St. team. Robert Covington got his 21, but the supporting cast looked really good in this one, which is scary for the rest of the OVC, particularly #1 Belmont, who gets the pleasure of facing this team in Friday night’s semifinal.
Only 11 people got this one right. PapaCim took the biggest hit, losing a finalist here.
#3 Eastern Kentucky vs #6 SE Missouri St.
There were quite a few big surprises in the country this year, but if you were trying to list the biggest, you might have to look at the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. This band of unheralded underclassmen and JUCO transfers was picked 11th in the 12-team OVC and finished 23-8 (against a somewhat decent non-conference schedule) and 12-4 in the conference (the 2nd-best conference record, but because of a division system that grants the top two seeds to the two division winners, the Colonels slipped to #3). They even won at Murray St. and were an overtime thriller away from sweeping Tennessee St. However this tournament ends up for them, this season will be deemed a success, but I am sure they do not want it to end today. They open their conference tournament run against a SEMO team that played well on Wednesday in a 10-point win over EIU that wasn’t that close. The winner of this game will take a shot at Isaiah Canaan and the #2 Murray St. Racers.
Cheryl, GrossJr, GrossSr, Primm, and Teddy all have SEMO winning this game in a decent upset pick. GrossJr and Teddy even have them going to the finals, so this is pretty important for them. While no one has EKU winning this tournament, 10 people (Alex, Caleb, Dave, Doogan, J, Lohse, Lynch, Mac, Rikey, and Scoot) have them winning this game and then beating Murray to reach the finals.
Eastern Kentucky 84 – SE Missouri St. 69
Sophomore forward Eric Stutz (who was in the same high school frontcourt as Cody Zeller) went for 22 and 10 as EKU handled SEMO in Thursday’s quarterfinal to set up a really nice semifinal with Murray St. on Friday night.
Five people missed on their upset picks here, while GrossJr and Teddy lose a finalist with SEMO. Ten people keep a finalist alive with the EKU win.
OPENING ROUND (March 6th – 5 points each)
#5 Morehead St. vs #8 UT-Martin
It isn’t the same Morehead St. with Kenneth Faried earning his living in the NBA, but they did manage to win enough games to qualify for the conference tournament, which wasn’t guaranteed for much of the year, as they hovered around the cut line. UT-Martin, technically, didn’t win enough games to qualify, but because of the disqualification of Jacksonville St. due to grades, the Skyhawks will sneak into the OVC tourney. It is hard to know which UTM team will show up – the one that won AT Murray St. on Thursday or the one that lost by 33 to last-place Austin Peay just two days later. The winner here will be rewarded with a quarterfinal date with Tennessee St. on Thursday.
Not a single person wanted to take a shot on UT-Martin here, but if you are one of the 13 people that has Morehead winning again next round, you have a little more at stake here. If you’re PapaCim, you have a lot more at stake, as he has Morehead going to the OVC title game.
Morehead St. 73 – UT-Martin 66
Morehead St. survived 24 points from Mike Liabo and opened the OVC tournament with a hard-fought W. UT-Martin acquitted themselves well, as they stayed close all game, but just couldn’t overcome a massive size disadvantage all night. Morehead moves on to Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup with 4th-seeded Tennessee St.
Everyone got this one right, but some were more right than others, particularly PapaCim, who has Morehead in the OVC finals. They will have to play better than they did tonight if they want to beat TSU, let alone Belmont again on Friday.
#6 SE Missouri St. vs #7 Eastern Illinois
Jay Spoonhour – son of the legendary, Charlie – seemed to finally reach his guys at the 11th hour. EIU was sputtering along looking dead in the water, but something clicked about a month ago, and they made a furious run through February culminated by a 15-point win at SIU-Edwardsville on Saturday to get them into the tournament. SEMO, on the other hand, had hoped that they wouldn’t have been playing on this day at all, as they thought they had the talent to get one of the byes that came with a top-4 finish. But, the Bears just never really got going, finishing 8-8 in league play. The winner of this Opening Round affair will get #3 Eastern Kentucky in the quarters.
Eight people (Bry, Dave, LohseJr, Lynch, PapaCim, Scoot, Stumpf, and Waters) have Spoonhour’s EIU in the minor upset. Cheryl, GrossJr, GrossSr, Primm, and Teddy all have SEMO winning tonight and tomorrow night. GrossJr and Teddy actually have SEMO in the finals.
SE Missouri St. 78 – Eastern Illinois 68
SEMO went on an extended 33-16 run at the end of the first and beginning of the second to take a close game and put it away. They cruised from there and will move on to Thursday’s quarterfinal with Eastern Kentucky. A solid first season for Jay Spoonhour comes to a close, but this is not the last we will hear of this young EIU team.
The eight people backing the ‘dog are disappointed here, while GrossJr and Teddy are quite relieved that they didn’t lose a finalist in the opening round. Cherly, GrossSr, and Primm are also happy, as they have still have their semifinalist alive.
CTC UPDATE
Championship Picks
- #1 Belmont (18)
- #2 Murray St. (6)
Biggest Upsets
- R1 – #7 Eastern Illinois (many)
- QF – #6 SE Missouri St. (Cheryl, GrossJr, GrossSr, Primm & Teddy)
- SF – #6 SE Missouri St. (GrossJr & Teddy)
- Champ – #2 Murray St. (many)
Previous CTC Champions
- 2008 – Waters
- 2009 – Alexi
- 2010 – J
- 2011 – J
- 2012 – Alexi, Dave, Lohse, Rikey & Stri
2013 Scores
1). 70 (perfect) – Gersh
2). 65 – Bry
3). 60 – Alexi, Cheryl, Lazarow, Primm, RDoc
8). 55 – LohseJr, Stumpf, Waters
11). 50 – Alex, Caleb, Doogan, GrossSr, J
16). 45 – Dave, Lynch, Scoot
19). 40 – Lohse, Mac, Rikey
22). 35 – PapaCim
23). 30 – GrossJr, Teddy
