Belmont to the OVC

re-published from my article in the Alestle, writing the SIUE reaction as well as my reaction for next week.

When SIUE is a fully certified member of the Ohio Valley Conference they will have additional company.

Friday, Belmont University President Bob Fisher announced the school in Nashville would become the 12th member of the OVC in 2012. The announcement was made by Fisher, alongside OVC commissioner Beth DeBauche during a press conference in Nashville.

Fisher said the OVC has had flirtations with Belmont in the past.

"It's kind of like how in sixth grade someone's friend came to me and asked if she liked me and I said 'I don't know, does she like me?'" Fisher said. "From the very beginning the OVC was a place we thought was a great place but we ended up somewhere else."

Turns out, the 63-year old OVC had some interest after all.

"The OVC Board of Presidents has spent some time looking at the future of the conference and what we wanted the OVC to look like years from now," DeBauche said. "We are a really good, stable league, but with that in mind, if there is an opportunity for value membership expansion it would be considered."

Adding an additional team to the league was not a priority for the OVC, but DeBauche said Belmont was a fitting exception.

"The OVC wasn't actively looking to add members, but we would discuss it if there was a make-sense good fit relationship for us to move forward with. It's a variety of different factors that came into play and the OVC Board of Presidents saw value in adding to the league."

Belmont was attractive to the OVC for a variety of reasons, including its location, academic reputation and athletic success. In men's basketball, Belmont, which spent the past 10 seasons in the Atlantic Sun Conference, advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2006, 2007, 2008 and this past March as a No. 13 seed, losing to No. 4 Wisconsin 72-58 in the second round.

Tennessee Tech President Bob Bell, a member of the OVC Board of Presidents said the conference, also headquartered in Nashville, seems like an obvious fit for Belmont from a geographical standpoint.

"This is a great day for Belmont, a great day for Nashville and a great day for our region," Bell said. "Nashville is our corporate headquarters. We host our landmark basketball tournament here in Nashville. Many of our schools have significant alumni bases here in Nashville and Belmont is going to bring an exciting level of competition to the conference."

Belmont has won the Atlantic Sun's academic award seven of the past eight seasons.

The transition to the OVC works differently for Belmont, an already certified team, than SIUE, which joined straight out of NCAA Division II.

Belmont will play out its final season in the Atlantic Sun this upcoming year, and will take on a $200,000 penalty for leaving the league early in what is typically a two-year process to switch.

"We are saving twice that much in travel, and those numbers really matter to all of us," Fisher said referencing the university's Board of Trustee members on hand for the announcement. "A two year cycle is just way too long for us to be a lame duck in the league. A year from now we will be full members of the OVC."

Aside from Belmont's traditional rival Lispomb, also located in Nashville, the Atlantic Sun spans Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The OVC also features a Nashville school in Tennessee State.

"Our longest trip [Southeast Missouri State] is the same as our shortest out of Nashville trip in the Atlantic Sun [East Tennessee State]," Fisher said.

Fisher hopes Belmont can continue its "Battle of the Boulevard" rivalry with Lispomb despite the switch. To avoid Friday's announcement being a surprise, Fisher said he called Lipscomb's President Randolph Lowry Thursday to break the news.

"We have a long storied rivalry with Lipscomb, and I spoke with Dr. Lowry making sure it didn't catch him by surprise," Fisher said. "We are excited at the prospect of continuing to play Lispcomb (Is this the right spelling or the one before?) and we know this is a good decision for Belmont, Lipscomb and Nashville."

While Belmont is different than SIUE, being a private school with just under 6,000 students, it is similar, because it does not play football and instead plays men's soccer, a sport the OVC does not sponsor.

Like SIUE, football is not happening at Belmont. (I assume Belmont doesn't count club sports either? Haha)

"Football is not on any burner, there was a burner but something vaporized it and it is not there," Fisher said. "The OVC doesn't need us to play football."


Belmont's men's soccer program competes in the Atlantic Sun, but the broken relationship with Belmont and the conference may have the team looking for a new home as well. SIUE's soccer program, which was fast-tracked and without a conference upon joining NCAA Division I joined the Missouri Valley Conference in December 2008.

"Our men's soccer program is our only program that will not find a home in the OVC," Fisher said. "The OVC houses football, not European football. We have not solidified that yet, but we will play men's soccer and find a home for men's soccer."

SIUE has split the two games it has played against Belmont since making its own transition in men's soccer, winning a 2-1 game at Korte Stadium in September and losing on the road in 2008.

The addition of Belmont in men's basketball is intriguing to those who follow the OVC.

The conference has won an NCAA tournament game each of the past three seasons. Morehead State won an opening round game in 2009, Murray State defeated Vanderbilt in 2010 and this past March Morehead State defeated Louisville to advance to the third round.

"The health of our basketball programs are in better position than ever," DeBauche said. "Our goal in the future is to get the best seeds possible and at-large bids [into the NCAA tournament]. We want to take advantage of the success we have had in the postseason and the admission of Belmont adds to the fabric of that."

The OVC is comprised of SIUE, Morehead State, Murray State, Southeast Missouri State, Eastern Illinois, Jacksonville State, Tennessee Tech, Tennessee State, Austin Peay, UT Martin and Eastern Kentucky.

Calls to SIUE men's basketball head coach Lennox Forrester, women's basketball head coach Amanda Levens and Director of Athletics Brad Hewitt were not returned as of 3:30 p.m. Friday.

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Another frustrated Wednesday Word

by Allan Lewis, Alestle Sports Editor
Good morning sports fans, time for another exciting Wednesday, and you know what that means (or you may not, because this is only the second installment of this particular blog...) THE WEDNESDAY WORD! So, let's get at it.
Normally, I start out by talking about the SIUE men's basketball team, but spare that for later on. Let's talk about the ladies first, because they are actually worth talking about.
Much of what I have to say was talked about in great lengths on this very blog by my colleague and residential women's basketball beat master Aren Dow last week, but I cannot help but re-emphasize what he had to say in my own words. Their performance Tuesday night and within the Ohio Valley Conference where they are 3-1 gives additional incentive.
This team is feisty. No game is over until 40 minutes of basketball have been played. If the SIUE men's team is down 10 points with 10 minutes left in the second half, chances are they are going to lose the game by 30 points, and I will get very angry and throw things across the room.
With the women, not so fast, Charlie.
Tuesday was not one of those nights like Witchita State, Valpo or UT Martin. The scoreboard read close throughout, and in the end, the team with more determination and desire for a win was going to get it. It was not one of those games decided by sheer skill, but rather one where mental basketball would win out. SIUE did everything right to get their sixth victory of the season.
Ashley Bey provided the senior leadership with 12 points, 6 assists, 5 steals and 5 rebounds.
Melia Duncan provided the sharpshooting from both inside and outside the three-point circle, scoring 18 points (7-12 from the field, 3-5 from three), nearly matching her career high of 20 set not-so-long-ago in the South Dakota game. The girl can straight up ball.
Raven Berry gave SEMO fits inside the paint and ended her night in double figures with 12.
All in all, the Cougars showed why they will be serious OVC contenders in the coming years, and when the going got tough, they were able to hold a death-grip on their lead until the final buzzer sounded.
The Cougars were out-rebounded, but it didn't seem to matter because they were on the ball like hawks the entire game. With their opponents ironically donning the name Redhawks, SIUE forced 24 turnovers and capitalized off of them for 26 points. The turnovers gave SIUE 12 more opportunities for field-goals, and while the shooting percentage was relatively low, (40 percent) they were able to make up the difference with their solid defensive presence leading to easy buckets in transition on the other end.
So, all in all, a great effort for the women, I will make my way out to more of your games in the future because your performance has sold me.
I feel as if the next section in this post deserves it's own blog post, but it is Wednesday, so I cluster it all together, so STOP. Clear your head and get ready to read about the SIUE men's basketball team from an objective, non-sugar coated, non "Oh, it's a transition year" bullcrap approach.
I will start with the following: Cougar basketball has been in my life for a long time, going back to when I was a kid, which makes this team even that much more important to me. I cannot say enough of how proud I am of SIUE going forward and making the decision to play D-I ball the first year of my education here. If we didn't go D-I, I would have transferred out a long time ago, and would not be having as much fun with my job as I am now.
Those are facts. Facts that make tearing this team apart come out of keyboard strikes in the name of love, and with hope.
SIUE men's basketball is at a young time in it's adult life, and there are hurdles not even Kayla Brown could jump. Fact is established, enter emotional tangent.
My grandparents were season ticket holders for the longest time during the Division II era, until Cassens and Sons stopped giving their employees a ridiculous amount of free tickets. I saw IPFW's last visit to SIUE as members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. I was there for the Jack Margenthaler days and seven win D-II seasons. I remember the beginning of the Marty Simmons era, along with the turnaround, the elite eight and the call to Evansville. I remember Wendy Hedberg before her volleyball assisting days, leading the women's team to the NCAA tournament, and Misi Clark cementing her place in the SIUE record books, much like Ashley Bey has been doing lately. In the day, the women were the story, and some similarities are emerging here on an entirely different level. 
It pains me as much as anything to watch this team lose, because I was an SIUE fan long before I was a student.
Flashforward to the present.
When you think of Southeast Missouri State basketball, what comes to mind? Is it those NCAA rules they broke in 2009, or that pristine 2-26 record last season to accompany their 339th position in the RPI?  Perhaps it was the Cougars 70-69 overtime victory capped by Aamir McCleary's buzzer beating layup last season.
The first two hold true. SEMO still sucks. They are a 7-15 team. They are improved, but it is still a fact. Anthony Allyson, Sam Pearson and Cameron Butler have grown up a little as juniors, to help SEMO win a few games, and freshmen guard Derek Thompson has put together a good season, but SEMO is still SEMO, while SIUE has went the opposite direction. Tuesday's 68-49 loss in Cape exemplified this to almost the same degree as the women's victory did to legitimize their recent success.
The Cougars are not losing, they are getting blown out. A 19 point-loss in college basketball is characterized as a blowout nationally, but here at SIUE we have grown accustomed to 30, 40, even 50 point losses over the past two seasons to make 19 not seem so bad.
A19 point loss is a 19 point loss, and that, my friends, is a blowout.
Tuesday wasn't SIUE reaching rock bottom in the OVC: that deed occurred in the form of a 16-point loss to 3-17 UT Martin, a team which almost lost to D-III Westminster. Everyone in the conference seems to be taking part in SIUE's introductory roast.
We were all optimistic about this year. Hell, I wrote on here we would win 11 games, largely due to a number of teams on the schedule coming out of the OVC, Summit League, Atlantic Sun and Independents with low RPI's. I never factored us all of a sudden, becoming one of them - if not worse than them, but it is happening, it can be saved - but it is happening.
Okay, we are not New Jersey Tech and their 51 game losing streak. We are not the team they eventually beat Bryant: another newcomer in the D-I world, currently 0-22. We, after all, have won three games this season.
The level of concern comes into play when finding a solution to our misfortunes. I am sure the coaching staff is not in the dark about the problems shaping up. They are the most knowledgeable people in the world when it comes to their team and their players, and should be able to find ways to correct things.
Sometimes it's simple. We can't rebound? Box out and fight for the basketball. We shoot too many three-point shots without the shooters to do so consistently? Don't shoot 25 of them a game. We don't have the big guys to feed at the post? Get a little more movement in the offense, set screens and find the open man, and maybe create opportunities for the big guys on back-door cuts. We need a firecracker in the lineup? Play LeShaun Murphy.
It's hard for the fans not to get frustrated to a large extent with this team, because we want to win now. Like I have said before, the players are trying their asses off, but there is only so much they can do with the skills they posses. You have to have the athletes to get the job done, and right now, to put it blatantly, we don't.
Did Princeton complain about being the little guy in the Ivy League in the 1930's? No. They perfected their own offense: one that has evolved over generations and would work perfectly at SIUE. The kicker is, it worked.
Needless to say, As far as SIUE basketball goes, here are my feelings: in musical form.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3dgB_ocQs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Somewhere, in my ramble there was a basketball game played to trigger all this built up emotion. Let's talk about that!
The officiating, as I noticed watching the game on pixelvision and as Alex Helton reiterated as we vented frustrations on the Red Storm Facebook Group following the game played largely into the hands of the host Redhawks.
Mark Yelovich was called for a technical foul early in the first half, one purely fueled by emotion, something this team is desperately lacking. When I think of a technical foul,  I think of Bob Knight throwing chairs, not a player pissed off at themselves for missing shots they usually drain. Players are going to clap their hands and yell "$#!+" or "$*#%" in situations like that. This is not middle school basketball, and just because it's the OVC doesn't mean everyone has to be a Southern gentleman. It happens.
The referee who whistled Yelovich for the technical, Kevin Mathis, is actually the king of technical fouls. Some D-I refs go a year without calling one. Mathis has called 13 violations this season alone in 29 games, and he has had 32 players foul out under his watchful eye. Since 1996, Mathis has issued 165 technicals.
Mathis' call put the wheels in motion, and set the game up in SEMO's hands. It was just a 7-3 game at the time, and although SIUE managed to keep the game close into the 20's, it clearly set the tone for what was soon to come. Forrester benched Yelovich for a lengthy time, and the bench tired out. Once Yelovich stepped back onto the floor, he was pressing. Yelovich wanted to take the game into his own hands, and as the best player on the floor he has the right to do that. He took shots when he had the opportunity to pass and create open looks. For my money though, I'll take Yelovich on a fade-away jumper any day.
The technical call had the eyes of the officiating crew squarely situated on number 33 in red. Yelovich earned his second foul with 9:02 left on the clock, and another trip to the pine. In a minute's span in the second half he received three and four. Number five came when the Cougars desperately needed him on the floor trying to recapture momentum on the offensive end, where he dished the ball off while contested beneath the basket to avoid drawing a charge, and was whistled for it anyways.
A number of off-the-ball offensive foul calls on the Cougars also played into the hands of SEMO, and despite both teams drawing an equal 23 fouls in the game, SEMO earned the more important whistles.
As harsh as I have been, the Cougars have managed to correct a few issues and come away with some positives.
They out-rebounded SEMO 34-32. This coming after doing the same to Murray State (44-31) in a big loss earlier in the week. SIUE even had nine on the offensive end, so it appears the boards are starting to be a little kinder to the Cougars.
It all came down to exactly what happened against Murray, and why the Princeton offense, again would be helpful to this team. SIUE had six assists the entire game and shot 30 percent. Those are the only two telling stats in the boxscore. The 20 turnovers played a huge factor, but the Cougars forced 15.
No fast break points and a huge disparity inside the paint were factors, but that was namely because the Cougars operated at a mythological pace and took too many bad shots from the outside, going 4-20 from beyond the arc, with Cody Rincker going 3-7 and Anthony Mitchell 1-1 to make up the other. Not everyone is Cody Rincker from that territory.
Speaking of Rincker, he turned in a career game, with 13 points, and made all four of his free-throws, the first he has attempted all season. Yelovich was the only other player in double figures with 10.
So, what does SIUE take from this game?
They need McCleary healthy. His presence after going down with a hip injury against Murray State was sorely missed, as was Yelovich's, spending the majority of the game benched with foul trouble. They need to take good shots, and not shots for the sake of taking shots. They need to take better care of the basketball. In hindsight, the things that went wrong were minor mistakes, but those are what separates great teams from good teams, and good teams from bad teams.
A 30 percent night from the field will not get it done no matter how many rebounds you pull down, no matter how many minutes your best player plays. Adjustments can, and will be made.
We will get through this together, Cougar Nation. I promise.
Time for some random tidbits to close out this exhaustive essay:

• The NCAA Is apparently talking about upgrading it's Division I tournament from the 65 team format we all know and love to include 96 teams. Nothing is imminent at the moment, but it all rests on the NCAA's contract with CBS Sports, and it's contract with the NIT. Money is a huge player in the decision-making process here.
• There are more teams competing at the D-I level now than ever before,  in fact, there are 347 of them, including the newest foresome SIUE, South Dakota, North Dakota and Seattle. You can argue with more teams comes a bigger need to install more teams into the NCAA but it shouldn't work like that.
• A quarter of the teams in the country should not be dancing. It would make the first round a meaningless carousel of erasing mid-majors, and weakening the importance of a bid. Arizona, Kentucky or Georgia finish 18-14 in a year and don't get a bid? Too bad . They don't deserve it anyways. Best case scenario for the NCAA's is to eliminate an at-large bid and stop singling out lower tier conference winners in the play-in game atrocity, or make a day out of it and add 3 more games so teams can  fight for those 16 seeds. 31 more teams pushes it all too far.
• ESPN is starting to anger me more than ever before. I love sports analysis as much as the next guy, but they could do a documentary on Dwight Freeney's leg or Kobe Bryant fighting adversity and resiliently taking down the Lakers scoring record... Oh, and for the record: the Lakers lost. Who beat them? An OVC alum! So congrats to Lester Hudson, formerly a UT Martin Skyhawk with the Memphis Grizzlies for attempting, yet failing to shut the worldwide leader up.
• Speaking of Freeney, there's this thing Sunday, I don't know if you have heard about it, but it's called the Super Bowl. Who ya got? I've got the Saints.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

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