Our opinion: Redhawks eye OVC tourney championship, NCAA berth

At 3:29 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, the SEMO Redhawks men’s basketball team was at a crossroads. On the floor to take on Western Illinois, the team was 11-10 on the season, 5-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

Two hours later, the Redhawks walked off the floor with a dominating 21-point win.

And they never looked back.

Six weeks and a 10-game win streak later, the Redhawks will be rolling into Evansville, Indiana, as the top seed in the OVC post-season tournament. They are 20-11 overall, with a gaudy 15-5 conference record.

Regular season OVC champs, SEMO still has work to do to clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, the “Big Dance” of “March Madness” fame.

Their No. 1 seed earned them a bye until the tournament semi-finals, where they will play the winner of two preliminary games. On the other side of the bracket is No. 2 seed Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. The Redhawks swept SIUE during the season — winning 80-64 at home and 83-68 at SIUE to seal the regular season OVC crown. They have no worse than a regular season split with any of the other teams in the tournament.

The semi-finals are Friday, with SEMO’s game starting at 7 p.m. If they win, the final game will be at 8 p.m. Saturday.

The entire tournament will be available on the ESPN networks, but Evansville is less than three hours away. Take off a little early Friday, and make the short drive to cheer on the team at the Ford Center. Then, hopefully, celebrate a tournament championship and NCAA automatic berth Saturday night before heading home on Sunday.

Sounds like a great weekend.

Go Redhawks!