Men's tournament field is set, but little else is determined

~ All eight conference teams have a chance to finish in the top four; Murray State clinched at least a share of title.

The chase to determine the eight available spots for the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament often goes down to the final date of the regular season.

Not so this year. Although the order of finish is still to be determined, the eight tournament slots are spoken for.

That's because, with the OVC's 11 teams having either two or three games remaining, Eastern Illinois, Morehead State and Southeast Missouri State -- who hold down the ninth through 11th places in the standings -- have all been mathematically eliminated from finishing in the top eight.

And all eight squads that have already qualified are still in the running to place at least fourth -- important because the top four finishers earn home games in the first round of the tournament.

"There's still a whole lot of movement that is going to be left, depending on who finishes strong," Jacksonville State coach Mike LaPlante said during Tuesday's OVC coaches teleconference. "You want to have your team being one of the teams that is playing its best basketball at the end of the season."

Jacksonville State is one of those squads, as the Gamecocks have surged into fourth place.

Tennessee-Martin is another, as a five-game winning streak has vaulted the Skyhawks into seventh place, with an opportunity to still finish in the top four.

"This is a good time to be playing good basketball," Skyhawks coach Bret Campbell said. "It's got us in the thick of things."

While much of the OVC is still up for grabs, Murray State (18-5, 15-2) has clinched a tie for the regular-season championship.

Murray State needs to win just one of its final three conference contests -- at Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech, and at home against Tennessee-Martin -- to assure itself the outright title.

Somewhat surprisingly, Murray State had not won an OVC regular-season title since 1999-2000, when it tied Southeast Missouri State. The Racers have two OVC tournament crowns since then.

Samford (16-8, 12-5) is in great shape to finish at least second, while Tennessee Tech (16-10, 11-7) and Jacksonville State (12-11, 10-7) hold down third and fourth, with Austin Peay (15-12, 10-8), Tennessee State (10-13, 9-8) and Eastern Kentucky (12-13, 9-8) on their heels.

Tennessee-Martin (12-12, 9-9) also is still in the running for a top-four finish.

Tech wins without coach

Tennessee Tech remained just ahead of Southeast Missouri State in the OVC women's standings by winning without its coach.

Bill Worrell did not make the trip to Nashville for Saturday night's game against Tennessee State because he was serving an OVC-mandated suspension following his first-half ejection from Thursday's win over Jacksonville State.

The Eaglettes (18-6, 14-3) held off a second-half charge by the winless Tigers to post a 71-58 victory.

Tennessee Tech has a six-game winning streak.

Southeast Missouri State (16-7, 13-3) has been even hotter. The Redhawks own 10 consecutive wins after Saturday's 87-86 overtime victory at Eastern Kentucky.

The Redhawks, who rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit, claimed their first triumph at Eastern Kentucky, as the Redhawks had been 0-14 at McBrayer Arena.

While Tennessee Tech and Southeast Missouri State are fighting it out for the championship, the battles for a tournament home game and simply making the tournament are plenty fierce as only Tennessee State has been eliminated from contention.