Published: February 15, 2008 02:12 pm         

Eagle basketball enters stretch run in OVC

The Morehead State men’s basketball team’s season is winding down and coach Donnie Tyndall is positioning for his program to earn its first Ohio Valley Conference Tournament home game since 2003-04.

The Eagles defeated Jacksonville State 82-68 in its last OVC Tournament home contest, before falling in the semifinals to Tennessee Tech (88-71).

Morehead State (12-11/9-6) has five conference games left in the regular season and currently sits in fourth place in the league standings. The top eight teams in the final standings advance to the OVC Tournament, with the top four seeds serving as first-round hosts.

“I believe that 12 wins in our league will possibly get a home game, and 13 definitely will,” Tyndall said. “When we look at our schedule, we have to win 3-of-5 to get a home game. These two games this week are imperative. We have already beaten both of them. EKU, we beat them, but they are playing as well as anyone in the league. Our last two games at home, it is imperative to have a great crowd. It can be the difference between getting a home game in the tournament or going on the road.”

However, the first order of business is this week’s Alabama road trip, when the Eagles will meet Samford (11-13/8-8) and Jacksonville State (4-20/2-14). MSU played Samford last night in Birmingham and will face JSU on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. The Eagles swept the two clubs earlier in the season when they made their trip to Morehead.

“Both teams are very capable,” Tyndall said. “Samford is one game behind in the win column, although they have a few more losses. They are a team that plays very well on their home floor. They dismantled Austin Peay on their home floor two weeks ago. We have got to guard the ‘three’ and make jumpers against their zone.

“Jacksonville State is a lot like Eastern Illinois,” he added. “They are a young team eager to get better. They are already out of the tournament picture, so they will play loose. They have already beaten Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State on their home floor. We are going to have to play extremely well in both games to come out with the win.”

The Eagles have been very successful this season at home, posting a 10-1 record. That mark is the team’s best ever at Johnson Arena and the most home wins since the 1956-57 club went 13-0. However, four of the Eagles’ final six games will come on the road, where the team is just 2-10.

That is not a major concern to Tyndall.

“We don’t need to approach those games differently than our home games,” he said. “With such a young team and playing a brutal non-conference schedule like we did, early on we didn’t know if we could win on the road. In the last three or four outings, we have played better. Our team has gained a lot of maturity from our recent games. I think we approach our road games the right way, but we have a lot of young kids who have had to go through a learning curve and we have done that. We have gotten better every road game and played with confidence.”

After returning from Alabama, the Eagles head to Richmond, Ky., to face arch rival Eastern Kentucky (13-10/10-5) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Morehead State won the earlier match up with the Colonels, 62-53 on Jan. 10.

The Eagles finish off the road portion of their schedule on Saturday, Feb. 23 with a game at James Madison (10-11) as part of the 2008 O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters.

First, the Bracket Buster is a great game for mid-major basketball. It is an opportunity to play a mid-major opponent similar to yourself. In our case, we will get a quality opponent to come to Morehead next year. It is good for fans and the teams,” said Tyndall. “They pair you with a team that has a similar record and RPI. When I got the job, out of 331 Division I teams, we were 325th. Less than two years later, we rotate between 109-215. We have climbed between 110-135 points in just two short seasons, which is putting us in a position to play a talented opponent. James Madison is in the Colonial Athletic Association, which is a heck of a league, with teams like Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion. Because of where we are right now, we happened to have drawn a very difficult opponent this season.”

Tyndall thinks that the final weekend of the regular season may be the most crucial in determining whether or not the Eagles end up hosting an OVC Tournament game. MSU will host Tennessee State (10-15/7-9) on Thursday, Feb. 28 and then league-leader Austin Peay (17-9/13-3) on Saturday, Mar. 1. Both games will tip-off at 7:30 p.m.

The Eagles lost both earlier match-ups with TSU and Austin Peay. Tennessee State defeated MSU 59-53 on Jan. 3 in Nashville, Tenn., and Austin Peay won its meeting with the Eagles, 67-63, on Dec. 6 in Clarksville, Tenn.

Tyndall thinks these meetings will be different.

“In both (cases) we had yet to win a road game when we played (them). Our team was still finding its way and playing with a lot of confidence,” said Tyndall.

The two foes feature contrasting strengths and styles of play.

Against Tennessee State we have to control their guards. Bruce Price is going to be a First-Team All-OVC selection and Gerald Robinson has a great chance to be the Freshman of the Year. We will just need to contain them,” Tyndall added. “Austin Peay has been the best team in our league for two years in a row. They are a veteran team, whose strength is in its post play with (Drake) Reed and (Fernandez) Lockett. Their power forward (Reed) was the preseason Player of the Year. We have to limit them to one shot and keep them off the boards. The two teams are the exact opposite. We have to guard the dribble against Tennessee State and defend the post against Austin Peay. They are two very talented teams.”

The OVC Tournament begins on Tuesday, Mar. 4 with first-round games. The following weekend, Mar. 7-8, the four winners advance to the semifinals in Nashville. The conference tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.