I can hear you.
“Who’s it gonna be?” you say.
You haven’t been paying attention to the Ohio Valley Conference. You don’t know who’s in line for the potential automatic bid.
“Any chance they get two bids?” you ask yourself.
You’re waiting.
Two can play at this game.
“Is Jacksonville State good this year? Austin Peay? Or is it just Belmont and Murray again? Where is Murray, anyway?”
You fool.
Murray State is obviously in the Ohio River Valley. They don’t name conferences after nothing.
***
The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament is all too often an exercise in frustration. The double-stepladder makes it tough for the favorite to lose, and the favorite’s often pretty good, because, you know, Murray State and Belmont. We haven’t seen an OVC team in the NIT since 2017, and while that was a lot of fun, you can’t just stop by every now and then and then disappear for years at a time. That’s a bad friend right there. The Ohio Valley Conference is a bad friend.
But we are forgiving, us NIT fans. We’d take Belmont back with open arms if they came. We wouldn’t even ask them to apologize. Just put a scare into a three-seed for us. You know. The old gimmick.
***
As you may have gathered from these vignettes, Belmont did, once again, win the OVC’s regular season championship, meaning if they lose at any point between now and Saturday (i.e., Friday or Saturday, because with the double-stepladder they have a double-bye and won’t play today or tomorrow), they’re coming with us. And you know who’s leading them?
That’s right.
Casey Alexander.
The 2019 NIT runner-up’s head coach who looks suspiciously like a basketball that got three wishes and asked to be turned into a man.
I’m sure there are other stories in the OVC, but they’re dwarfed by Alexander’s bid to finish what he started at Lipscomb last March. With no at-large possibilities, it’s the only show in town, and I can think of no greater showman than the guy who held his own in the midst of a Gregg Marshall/Shaka Smart/Jamie Dixon set of NIT Final Four coaches.
Last year, he proved he belongs with them.
This year, he’ll try to make the people ask whether those guys belong with him.
***
Note: As we mentioned yesterday in the Atlantic Sun preview, we’re thinking a lot about Nashville, including Belmont, and the surrounding area as they grieve and begin to recover. For whatever thoughts and prayers are worth—and we don’t believe they’re worth nothing—ours are with those affected by this week’s disasters.
