As ironic as the name Ohio Valley Conference is, you’ll find a lot of teams from Tennessee and Kentucky in the conference – zilch from Ohio.

You’ll also find a couple out of place teams from Missouri and Illinois. Well, it used to be just one out of place team in Illinois, which was Eastern.

However, with the edition of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville officially this season, Eastern gets a friendly in-state rival.

Yes, Eastern already has Illinois State; but a rivalry out of conference is not quite the same as one in conference.

Even though traditionalists will stick to the Illinois State-Eastern rivalry, I think it’s only fair to accept the school down in Edwardsville as a new rival.

Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville is a blossoming institute of higher education. Its enrollment is growing rapidly, as The Daily Eastern News reported early in the fall. Its campus is flooded with students searching for a close by big city to escape to (St. Louis). Also, their basketball program is blossoming, especially on the women’s side.

As a professor of mine pointed out, it’s awesome for Eastern to have an in-state conference rival. Although this professor is no sports wiz, she does understand how important it is to have that companionship in your conference.

We are not the only two excited about the arrival of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville into the conference, though. Even Eastern women’s basketball head coach is excited about the addition.

When I asked him about how he felt about Edwardsville’s program Monday night, he said he thinks Edwardsville will be an upper echelon team in the OVC. The reason? They’ve done everything the “right way” in transitioning into the OVC.

“They’re good – they’re gonna win a lot of games at home,” Sallee said.

Sallee said Edwardsville has prepared themselves to be successful in this transition by playing games against OVC opponents in the years past even though they didn’t count for anything.

“They have the pieces and know how to compete in this league,” Sallee said.

The reason the Cougars know how to compete in the OVC is because they already have. Successful or not, Edwardsville has learned about its opponents in the conference by playing them.

Sallee said Edwardsville’s coach has done a great job preparing the team for this season, especially by bringing in the right players.

Sallee picked on Edwardsville freshman Katie Hempen, who scored 12 points against Eastern Monday night. Sallee said Hempen is going to be a good player in the OVC.

“She’s a special player,” Sallee said.

The addition of Edwardsville to the conference is great all around. It gives Eastern an in-state conference rival, it adds another team to the slew of high quality basketball teams in the league and, not to mention, adds a great home court.

Maybe one of the most exciting aspects of adding the Southern Illinois program is their home court.

Eastern left Monday night with a three-point win, but Sallee said there won’t be many teams in the OVC that can go to that home court and win.

Let us all welcome Edwardsville with open arms – a team who has done things the right way and will be a competitor in the conference immediately.

I can’t wait for Feb. 18, when the Cougars come to Eastern where I can see them up close and personal.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7942 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.