It is the middle of February which means we are finally getting a clear picture of the OVC basketball standings, as teams are settling into their respective positions in the conference standing and preparing for the conference tournament. 

Right? Wrong. 

The OVC women’s basketball standings are anything but solidified with just four games left to play. There is a three-way tie for first place in the conference and a tie for the final seed in the conference tournament. 

Make no mistakes, there is still plenty that can happen in the OVC over the final four games. 

Southeast Missouri, Tennessee-Martin and Belmont are tied for first place all with 12-2 conference records. Morehead State and Murray State are tied for the eighth seed in the conference with 5-9 records. 

The race for the conference’s No. 1 will be an interesting one as the three teams at the top of the standings have all taken turns beating up on one another throughout the season. 

Let’s try and breakdown what those three teams have done to one another this season… try and keep up. 

Belmont beat Southeast Missouri is their only meeting this season, but Belmont lost to Tennessee-Martin in their only meeting this season. Tennessee-Martin beat Belmont but lost to Southeast Missouri. Southeast Missouri beat Tennessee-Martin but lost to Belmont. 

Who is the best team amongst those three is nearly impossible to say at this point, so predicting which team will prevail with the one-seed likely lies with who has the easiest remaining schedule of the three: Belmont. 

Belmont’s remaining opponents; Morehead State (5-9), Eastern Kentucky (4-10), Tennessee Tech (10-4) and Tennessee State (1-13), have a combined record of 20-36 in conference play. 

Tennessee-Martin’s remaining opponents; Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville State (7-7), Southern Illinois Edwardsville (1-13) and Southeast Missouri (12-2) have a combined record of 30-26.

Southeast Missouri’s remaining schedule includes; Jacksonville State, Tennessee Tech, Eastern (9-5) and Tennessee-Martin. Those teams have a 38-18 combined record.

Belmont’s path moving forward is the easiest as it will avoid both Tennessee-Martin and Southeast Missouri, but the wild card both Belmont and Southeast Missouri’s schedules remains the 10-4 Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. 

The Golden Eagles are dangerous enough where they can beat anyone on any day and it would not be entirely shocking to see them hand losses to Belmont, Tennessee-Martin and Southeast Missouri. 

Heck, it may not even be totally crazy to say Tennessee Tech could be the one-seed by the time all is said and done. 

If the Golden Eagles beat at least two of the teams in front of them and the other one gets upset somewhere along the way, Tennessee Tech could very much be in play for the one-seed. 

The final conference tournament spot is tied up between Morehead State and Murray State, but Murray State holds the tiebreaker because they beat Morehead State in their lone meeting this season. 

That means Morehead State’s only path to the tournament is to finish the final four games with a better record than Murray State. 

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or jpbullock@eiu.edu.