When OVC conference play was ready to start I thought Tenn. St. was the best team in the league. They had a 9-3 non-conference record against a pretty good schedule. Their first conference game was at Murray St. in a game I thought they were jobbed by the refs. The refs called every little touch a foul and 4 of the Tenn. St. starters fouled out with a total of 35 fouls being called on the Tigers. They called 23 on Murray. That game seemed to take the starch out of the Tigers and they lost their next game at home against a Kennesaw St. team they should have mopped the floor with. The Tigers have two outstanding players in OVC first team and defensive player of the year Tahjere McCall and OVC second team forward Wayne Martin. This is a solid defensive and average at best offensive team.
SEMO is led by two outstanding players also. First team OVC selection Antonius Cleveland and OVC second team and freshman of the year Denzel Mahoney. SEMO has the fire power to beat any team in this tournament. They have 7 players that are shooting 40% or greater from the arc in conference games. But like all teams that rely on the 3 point shot when they're not falling they are in trouble. That's what happened in their last loss to Austin Peay. That and Austin Peay making everything they threw up. TSU won the only meeting this year between the two at home 65-62. That was very early in the conference season when SEMO's 11 new players were still learning how to play together. SEMO's main problem is defense. They aren't a very good man to man defensive team so coach Ray has them play a 1-3-1 zone most of the time. The problem with that (which happened against Austin Peay) is the opponent can get good looks from the corners if the wings are slow to drop down. But this doesn't help TSU that much because they aren't a 3 point shooting team. They are next to last in 3 point fg per game. I think this is one of those games that will be close the whole way and could very well come down to the last shot.
5* #574 SEMO +6 -120