Aside from the usual madness that comes along with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (and the fact that my bracket still has all four of its Final Four teams remaining), this year’s tournament got me thinking about the possibilities of Eastern basketball glory somewhere down the road.

I can’t help but wonder, as all these mid-major schools make their runs to glory, what it would take and how it could come to be that Eastern’s men’s basketball team could one day be in the same position.

The Ohio Valley Conference hasn’t had much success in the NCAA Tournament. Until this year’s Murray State squad, the last OVC team to win a game was in 1989 (Morehead State won the play-in game last season, but that doesn’t qualify as a tournament victory).

Seeing Murray State shock Vanderbilt on a buzzer-beater and take Butler to the brink was a sight to see when you consider that not two weeks prior, the Racers were on the brink of losing to our very own Panthers squad. It took some heroics at the end for the Racers to hold off Eastern 55-51 in the OVC Tournament semifinals.

Two years ago it would have seemed farfetched to think our basketball program could be on the verge of national prominence. The program was in shambles, finishing 7-22 and easily among the 10 worst teams in Division I.

Now, the idea doesn’t seem too crazy.

Head coach Mike Miller took the program to impressive new heights this season and hopefully he will be able to build off that success in years to come. Sure, the Panthers are never going to be among the ranks of the big conferences, and it’s unlikely they achieve the status of successful mid-major schools such as Gonzaga or Butler. But to become the next Murray State or St. Mary’s (Calif.) isn’t that crazy.

Of the original 65 teams that received NCAA Tournament bids, 16 of them have smaller enrollments than Eastern – Gonzaga, Butler, Murray State and St. Mary’s included. If these small schools can achieve national success, why not Eastern?

Granted, several of the smaller schools are privatized and have far more resources as far as expenditures they can dump into their programs, but there’s no reason our university’s athletic department can’t bring Eastern to some level of prominence. Athletic Director Barbara Burke has a vision to improve facilities. The basketball program appears on the right track for the first time in years, so the improving trend should continue. How cool would it be to turn on CBS next March and see the Panthers beating an SEC school at the buzzer?

Murray State fans know how cool that is. St. Mary’s, Gonzaga and Butler fans know what it’s like to root for a winner on a campus smaller than ours.

Maybe I’m dreaming big. But March always brings that out in basketball fans.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.