'Mid-Major Jones' -- A Closer Look at the Teams in the OVC and MAAC Conferences
Posted by Scott Flaskerud on Thursday, February 13, 2014 at 12:00 AM
By Scott Flaskerud / February 13, 2014
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First and foremost, I want to offer an apology to my dental clinic, specifically the receptionist Dawn -- she is the sweetest and most understanding human being none of you have ever met for canceling my much canceled and rescheduled dental appointment for a teeth cleaning. Please do understand that I had every intention of finally honoring this visit today, but upon getting out of my shower minutes before the would-be visit and turning the shower sprocket handles down to zero, I unfortunately found that water was still streaming out of the water spigot to the bathtub. And the water continues to flow even now, just to the right of me – the water continues to flow like a novelty living room gift that sits on a coffee table and continuously flows water down it's artistically crafted novelty flanks of plaster for the sensory amusement of humans.
Having considered this unstoppable water flow from my bathtub a “real-life situation,” I sadly called sweet Dawn to cancel my dental appointment once again. With the make up date “TBD,” as they say in sports. And hours later, I sit here now, with only the sounds of my novelty perpetual flowing water bathtub faucet to keep me sane.
But this is, in theory, a college basketball piece, so please do allow me to tell you about some “mid-major” conferences in which the teams have a 100% 'for real' shot at being the World National Freaking Champions of the Universe, or the NCAA or whatever. Unlike college football, per say, which is completely stupid and not worth your time.
But college basketball is! Check these freaking teams and conferences out, why not?!
Best Team Name: I'd definitely have to call it a tie between the Austin Peay Governors and the Tennesse-Martin Skyhawks. While the Governors are someone you'd like to freshen their drink, the 'Skyhawks' are not unlike 'land-cows,' in that you get a good idea of which earth element they are most comfortable in and likely to be found.
Meanwhile, the class of the Ohio Valley Conference is found at the top of its two divisions. In conference play, the Murray State Racers lead the West Division at (9 - 2), a comfy three games ahead of the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars -- the Belmont Bruins lead the East Division at (10 - 2) with an almost as comfy lead over the (7 - 3) Morehead State Eagles.
I got to see these two division leaders have at it last Thursday night on ESPN-U in a tantalizing (99 - 96), 99 points to 96 points, people(!), win for Belmont, but first some background on these puppies:
For the past couple years, the Murray State Racers has been this year's Wichita State Shockers -- which is to say, the mid-major team that was still undefeated in February and everybody knew (hoped) that them getting into the tournament was a done deal/foregone conclusion no matter what happened in their conference tourney. The Racers have since graduated off their once-in-a-lifetime class of special players (Isaiah Canaan, etc. and such) and are basically just another OVC team at this point -- but they're still the best in the west and when they win this division they're going to be double-byed into the conference semi-finals come OVC tourney time. That would lead you to believe that a matchup with them and Belmont in the Final, for all the dancin' marbles on the table, would be in line.
The Belmont Bruins are new to the OVC. When they used to reside in the Atlantic Sun Conference, for the past half-decade or so, they ruled the conference and would represent the A-Sun in the tourney every single year. You could honestly set your watch to it – it was a done deal, pig's in the poke. And more importantly, even though they've drawn the 15 & 16 seed slots on the bracket because of their poor conference strength... they have never been blown out by the Duke's of the world in that first round of the tourney. Belmont, a Tennessee school, has always brought it's best (insert Nashville music reference here) dance... to The Dance.
For those of you who will be filling out brackets in March, let me put it to you this way:
Joe Lunardi currently has Belmont slated as a 14-seed on his bracket, against 3-seed Iowa State. (For those of you who don't know who Joe Lunardi is, he's the Mel Kiper of predicting the March Madness bracket. For those of you who don't know who Mel Kiper is, he's the Jesus of predicting the NFL draft. For those of you who don't know who Jesus is, he's the only begotten son that the Christian God gave to the world to save us all. For those of you who don't know who God is... well... I mean... who does, right?)
Mind you: Iowa State hasn't been projected to seed this high since their epic loss to 15-seed HAMPTON back in the day when the Cyclones were a 2-seed.
Anyhoo, alls I'm saying is... if Belmont gets to the dance and they get a 14 seed...
Slippery slopes and onions!
The Ohio Valley Conference

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