OVC MAY FLIP AFTER TONIGHT'S ACTION

As wild and wide open as Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball has been this season, why not a coin flip?

If the results from three games on tonight's final date of the regular season go as expected, then that's exactly how Southeast Missouri State University's opponent for Tuesday's first-round OVC Tournament contest will be determined.

By a coin flip.

"I guess that would be fitting, considering how the league has gone this year," said a grinning Southeast coach Gary Garner, whose squad will carry a four-game winning streak into tonight's regular-season finale against Morehead State, set for a 7:30 tipoff at the Show Me Center.

Here's a quick rundown on who Southeast might play Tuesday night (the game will definitely be on the road):

If the Indians (17-11 overall, 7-8 OVC) beat Morehead State (12-14, 6-9) -- which they will be favored to do -- then Southeast will finish in fifth place in the nine-team OVC and, as the No. 5 seed, play the No. 4 seed in the first round of the OVC tourney.

But determining that No. 4 seed is where things could get interesting, if two other games tonight hold true to form.

Murray State is in second place in the OVC at 11-5 as the Racers, who cannot catch first-place Tennessee Tech (12-3), have finished their regular season.

Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay are tied for third at 10-5. If the Panthers beat visiting Eastern Kentucky tonight and Austin Peay wins at Tennessee State -- both are solid favorites -- then there will be a three-way tie for second through fourth.

Tie-breaker system

The first tie-breaker to decide the OVC Tournament seedings is head-to-head competition, but that would be thrown out in this case because Murray State, Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay have all split the two games against each other.

The next tie-breaker is how the teams did against the No. 1 seed, which will be Tennessee Tech. Murray State and Austin Peay both lost twice to the Eagles while Eastern Illinois split with them, so the Panthers would gain the No. 2 seed.

Then things would get really wild to determine the third and fourth seeds. After head-to-head competition and records against the No. 1 seed, the tie is broken by the teams' records again the remaining highest seeded squads, all the way down to No. 8 if necessary.

But Murray State and Austin Peay (assuming the Governors win tonight) will have done exactly the same against every OVC team. Their five losses will have been against Tennessee Tech (twice), Eastern Illinois, Tennessee-Martin and each other. So that tie-breaker would be a wash.

And the final tie-breaker? You guessed it -- a coin flip. If necessary, that would take place at the OVC offices in Brentwood, Tenn., which is just outside Nashville, after all of tonight's games are completed.

Of course, all of the above could be rendered moot if things don't go as expected tonight. And Garner is certainly taking nothing for granted for his team against the dangerous Eagles, who very nearly beat the Indians on Jan. 27 in Morehead, Ky.

In that game, the Eagles had a 17-point lead with just under 13 minutes remaining. But the Indians stormed back to force overtime and they went on to squeeze out a 74-71 victory.

"We can't really worry about a coin flip or who we might play or any of that," Garner said. "Morehead State is a good team and we're going to have our hands full tonight.

"We've concentrated on taking it one game at a time and trying to finish the season strong so we can go into the OVC Tournament with plenty of confidence no matter who we play."

The Indians have certainly been able to right the ship after struggling for much of the OVC season. Their four-game winning streak -- Southeast's longest of the campaign -- has included three consecutive league victories.

"We've been playing a lot better and we're getting more confident all the time," said Garner. "When we were in our slump in January, we lost our confidence. Now we seem to have gotten it back and we really want to go into the OVC Tournament on a positive note."

Morehead State is led by the OVC's highest-scoring freshman, Ricky Minard, a 6-foot-4 swingman who is averaging 16.9 points per game.

Also averaging in double figures for the Eagles are 6-7 junior forward Kyle Umberger (13.2 ppg) and 6-1 senior guard Greg Hendricks (11.5 ppg) while 5-11 sophomore guard Marquis Sykes leads the OVC in assists with 5.5 a contest.

INDIAN NOTES: The team suffered a blow Friday when it was learned that senior guard Amory Sanders, the nation's leading 3-point shooter at 56 percent, will miss the remainder of the season after tearing a tendon in the little finger of his shooting hand during Thursday's win over Eastern Kentucky. Sanders will have surgery on the finger next week...Senior point guard Michael Stokes has moved into eighth place in career assists at Southeast. And Stokes' 267 assists are the highest total ever for a two-year Indian player.