Southeast Missouri’s Josh Earley looked for space to operate against Morehead State on Friday night in Evansville, Ind. Earley finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
OVC photo
The best chance for an NCAA Division I men’s basketball program from Kentucky to automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament has slipped by the wayside.
No. 1 seed Morehead State suffered an upset loss in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Friday night in Evansville, Indiana.
The Eagles — who won the OVC regular-season title outright for just the second time ever and the first time in 39 years — lost in the tournament semifinals to No. 5 seed Southeast Missouri State (SEMO), 65-58.
Morehead State failed to score for more than six minutes down the stretch of Friday night’s game, and the Eagles missed 10 of their final 11 shots in the contest.
The Eagles were outscored by 12 in the second half against a SEMO team playing its third game in as many days in the conference tournament.
Morehead State senior guard Mark Freeman — the 2022-23 OVC Player of the Year — led all players in the game in scoring with 21 points.
SEMO was to play No. 2 seed Tennessee Tech in the OVC Tournament championship game at 8 p.m. EST Saturday. The game was to be broadcast on ESPN2.
Tennessee Tech is coached by University of Kentucky “Unforgettable” John Pelphrey, also a former star at Paintsville High School. Pelphrey coached South Alabama to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and Arkansas in 2008 but was seeking his first berth in four seasons at Tennessee Tech on Saturday.
Tracking Kentucky schools on the road to the NCAA Tournament
Since 1964, every NCAA men’s basketball Tournament has featured at least one team from the commonwealth.
Thoughts of that streak being in jeopardy have been quashed by Kentucky’s resurgence in recent weeks, but four Kentucky-based schools (including the Cats) still harbor hopes of qualifying for the 68-team NCAA Tournament field.
Here’s a check-in (in alphabetical order) with all eight NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs in Kentucky as the NCAA Tournament field comes into picture.
▪ NCAA Tournament outlook: None. Bellarmine was in the third season of its four-year transition period after moving from Division II to Division I. As such, head coach Scott Davenport’s Knights are still ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.
But unlike last year — when Bellarmine stunningly won the ASUN Tournament and the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament had to go to regular-season champion Jacksonville State — the Knights’ season has already come to an end.
But before their season ended, the Knights provided the first buzzer-beating moment of conference tournament season.
In a first round ASUN Tournament win over North Florida on Monday night, graduate student guard Juston Betz made a turnaround jumper with 0.4 seconds left to win the game.
Eastern Kentucky’s Cooper Robb (5) drives to the basket against North Alabama during their ASUN Tournament quarterfinal game Tuesday night in Richmond. Silas Walker swalker@herald-leader.com
▪ NCAA Tournament outlook: Kentucky has one game remaining before next week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville, and the Wildcats’ margin for error is back to being thin.
UK lost on Senior Night on Wednesday night at home to Vanderbilt, and potentially lost star freshman guard Cason Wallace for longer with a left leg injury.
A season-sweep over Tennessee highlights UK’s résumé, but Kentucky is back to worrying about possibly being a double-digit seed for the Big Dance.
Kenny Payne will need a miracle run in the ACC Tournament to lift his Louisville Cardinals into the NCAA Tournament this season. Timothy D. Easley AP
▪ NCAA Tournament outlook: Louisville’s only hope of making the NCAA Tournament after a historically bad season is to win the ACC Tournament. It would be more likely for a meteor to strike Earth tomorrow.
No. 5 seed Southeast Missouri State knocked off No. 1 seed and tournament favorite Morehead State on Friday night in Evansville, Ind. OVC photo
▪ NCAA Tournament outlook: None. On paper, Morehead State had the most direct path of any Kentucky-based school to automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
But the Eagles lost at the first time of asking in the OVC Tournament on Friday night, dropping a semifinal game against Southeast Missouri State.
Two of Morehead State’s five losses to OVC opposition this season came to SEMO.
▪ NCAA Tournament outlook: None. The Racers’ season ended Friday night in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Tournament quarterfinals: No. 7 seed Murray State lost to No. 2 seed Drake, 74-62.
It was a season of transition for the Racers after a switch in valleys from the Ohio Valley Conference to the Missouri Valley Conference.
Steve Prohm’s second turn as Murray State head coach saw Murray State win their first ever game in the MVC Tournament with a commanding win over Valparaiso before the defeat to Drake.
Prohm returned to Murray State after six seasons as the head coach at Iowa State.
During the 2021-22 season, Murray State went 18-0 in league play in its final season in the OVC before winning the OVC Tournament, as well as an NCAA Tournament first-round game against San Francisco.
Former Henry Clay star Marques Warrick is leading Northern Kentucky in scoring this season with 19 points per game. Bryan McEldowney Northern Kentucky Athletics
▪ NCAA Tournament outlook: Northern Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament hopes hinge upon winning the Horizon League Tournament, so it’s a good thing the Norse have somewhat perfected this task.
Northern Kentucky has won the league tournament in three of the past six seasons and lost last season’s title game by just one point to Wright State.
This season, NKU is the No. 4 seed in the league tournament and took the first step toward another championship by defeating No. 5 seed Oakland, 81-74, at home Thursday night.
Next up for NKU is a tournament semifinal on Monday night against No. 1 seed Youngstown State, the regular-season champion of the Horizon League.
Youngstown State has never made the NCAA Tournament at the Division I level.
NKU junior guard Marques Warrick (Henry Clay) leads Northern Kentucky in minutes per game and points per game.
Western Kentucky Coach Rick Stansbury missed several games this season because of health concerns but is back to try to lead the Hilltoppers to a postseason run. Grace Ramey AP
▪ NCAA Tournament outlook: Like Kentucky, Western Kentucky still has one more regular season game to go before the Conference USA Tournament in Frisco, Texas, next week.
The Hilltoppers’ 8-11 conference mark would leave WKU as a significant underdog in a conference tournament that will also feature both Florida Atlantic and North Texas, who are both in the top 52 of the NET rankings.
Western Kentucky hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2013.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 10:53 PM.
Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas.Support my work with a digital subscription
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