With so many teams traveling long distances this week, the long 20-game conference schedule is a hot topic.

Mike Sutton, the head coach at Tennessee Tech, was the most outspoken of all the Ohio Valley Conference coaches during Monday’s teleconference.

“I haven’t talked to one coach who likes our schedule,” Sutton said. “There are some better alternatives. We need to find the best way to do not just [do] the easy way.”

Sutton said he is a proponent of sending every team to the conference tournament at season’s end, rather than just the top eight teams in the current format. He also said the OVC is too big and cutting back on some times might improve the league as a whole.

Sutton may get his wish with Samford officials contemplating a change to the Southern Conference.

Tillette said one of the advantages is there are more private institutions in the Southern Conference. All the schools in the OVC are public universities except for Samford.

A lot of miles ahead for Alabama schools

Jacksonville State head coach Mike LaPlante and his players are going to travel 1,100 miles this week when the Gamecocks play three games in five days.

LaPlante’s team hosts Tennessee State on Tuesday in Jacksonville, Ala., and then will get on a bus immediately to travel to Charleston to play the Panthers on Thursday night at Lantz Arena.

The Gamecocks then travel back to Alabama to play Murray State on Saturday night.

“I’m still trying to figure out who at the league office has it in for me,” LaPlante joked. “You’re playing Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and have to make the farthest trip possible.”

But LaPlante is trying to make the best of the situation. He won’t make excuses about his team’s situation.

“We’re going to bring our pillows and blankets and get some rest through the night,”

LaPlante said. “We have to accept it and handle it and give ourselves a chance to win.”

Samford also has to travel a long distance. The Bulldogs will travel from Birmingham, Ala., to Charleston on Saturday to play the Panthers in a game that will be televised on ESPN2.

The busy week comes at an even worse time for Samford and head coach Jimmy Tillette. He said this week is Samford’s first week back from winter break and the transition is going to be rough on his players, especially since they only had basketball to worry about the past month.

“I always fear this week because (my players) have been like professional players the last month, just practicing and playing video games all day,” Tillette said. “But their world is going to change going back to class.”

Reinforcements for TSU

Tennessee State head coach Cy Alexander may have more depth on his team shortly.

Alexander expects Mississippi State transfer Jerrell Houston to be eligible to play within the next two weeks. The sophomore forward sat out last year but some incomplete assignments in a biology class have kept him off the floor this season.

“He’s 6-foot-8 and he can take it inside, he can take it outside,” Alexander said. “He is that talented. He is an (Southeastern) athlete, that’s for sure.”