To say the Ohio Valley Conference has struggled in men’s basketball non-conference play is an understatement.

The league, currently ranked 30th of 31 Division I conferences by realtimerpi.com, started conference play this past Saturday, with Austin Peay’s 79-76 win at Tennessee Tech.

The league has compiled a 27-45 record in non-conference games through Sunday night. The 27 wins represent the fourth-lowest number of wins among all conferences in Division I.

However, the 45 losses represent the most losses in the most games by any conference in the nation.

By comparison, three conferences have won less than 27 non-conference games.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference is 11-46, the Ivy League is 21-34 and the America East Conference is 26-38.

Only one of the 11 teams, Murray State at 3-2, has a winning record. League favorite Austin Peay came away from non-conference play with a 2-4 record, with two of its losses at Vanderbilt and Memphis.

“I hope that it’s helped prepare us and expose some of the things we need to work on,” said Austin Peay head coach Dave Loos. “I think we learned something about our team in all of those (road) games.”

The struggles on the road have been even less favorable for OVC schools. The league is 4-31 away from home.

“I think the first month with everybody in our conference has been extremely challenging,” said Southeast Missouri head coach Scott Edgar, whose team, along with Samford, has defeated Evansville out of the Missouri Valley Conference. “But my teams are usually not as good in early December as they are in late January.”

Shattered backboard delays game

Saturday’s game between Austin Peay and Tennessee Tech was delayed for more than an hour after a dunk shattered a glass backboard at the Eblen Center.

Tech’s Amadi McKenzie and Daniel Northern combined for the dunk after a missed shot in the first half. Tech head coach Mike Sutton said it was not the first time he had seen the 6-foot-7, 230-pound McKenzie break a backboard.

“At least I wasn’t under this one,” Sutton said. “I’ll give him 3 and a half (shattered backboards). He’s already done 3 backboards. I was under two of them in the past in practice. The other was in pickup game. (But Saturday’s) was just regular, middle-of-the-road type of dunk.”

Samford guard might be lost for season

Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette said he is fearful that starting guard Curtis West is done for the year because of a torn labrum.

West, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior, injured his shoulder during Saturday morning’s practice, Tillette said.

West dove for a ball, and a teammate landed on his shoulder. West could not lift his arm above his head, and an MRI was scheduled for Monday, Tillette said.

“The trainers are somewhat pessimistic about his return,” Tillette said.

Hanna Arena set for OVC debut

ESPNU will televise Thursday night’s game between in-state rivals Jacksonville State and Samford at the first-year Pete Hanna Center, the new arena for Samford.

Tillette said he hopes for a larger-than-normal crowd at the 5,000 seat arena.

The Bulldogs have averaged 817 fans during their first three games at the new building.

The Hanna Center is the first new arena to open in the league since Murray State opened the Regional Special Events Center in 1998.

“I think that’s going to be a great asset to their program,” said JSU head coach Mike LaPlante. “From our standpoint, going into a road game, it doesn’t really matter what arena you play. But it will be an adjustment to play in a new arena.”