A few last thoughts to wrap up the 2009 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament:
- Friday’s semifinals were contrasting matchups on the theme of the old and the new. With one of them, at least one of Austin Peay and Murray State has been in the conference semifinals the last 24 years, and in the last 23 at least one made it to the title game. On the other hand, Morehead State had not been to the title game in 25 years, while UT Martin has never been to it.
- Austin Peay might be the poster child for heartbreak in conference tournament play. The Governors, a consistent power in the conference, are now 4-13 in the OVC championship game. Many of those losses have been of the heartbreaking variety, much like the two they have suffered in the last three years. In 2004 and 2005, they lost to Murray State and Eastern Kentucky by six points each; in 2001 they lost to Eastern Illinois by one; in 1997 they lost to Murray State by three in overtime; in 1988 and 1989, they lost both games by three points.
- UT Martin will at least get to the NIT as a result of winning the regular season title. But they were certainly aiming for more in a historic season for the program, and head coach Bret Campbell was quick to talk about his best player, who got no support.
“Here’s a guy that came to play tonight, and everything he’s done and we can’t get him to the dance,” said Campbell.
- The real surprise among the lack of support for Hudson was that Marquis Weddle didn’t score. The sophomore guard is three points shy of 1,000 for his career, so he wasn’t a likely candidate to go scoreless.
- How’s this for taking care of the basketball: in the championship game, the two teams combined for just 21 turnovers. Morehead State had 12, while Austin Peay had just nine.
- The All-Tournament team was Lester Hudson (UT Martin), Drake Reed (Austin Peay), Wes Channels (Austin Peay), Demonte Harper (Morehead State) and Kenneth Faried (Morehead State). Faried was the Most Valuable Player.
