After returning from Saturday night’s game at Southeast Missouri, I sat down and began to crunch the numbers. With each men’s basketball team in the Ohio Valley Conference having just two games left on its slate, you’d think it would be easy to predict who will be holding which postseason tournament spots, but it’s far from simple.

The eight teams that are still alive for a tournament bid are clearly ranked in two separate divisions. Tennessee Tech, Murray State, Eastern and Austin Peay are the dominant teams in the league and all have winning records in the OVC. Southeast Missouri, Morehead State, Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin make up the lower tier of the conference. Despite having losing OVC records, these teams have all upset the top squads in the league this season.

So as I began to look at each team’s remaining schedule and started sorting out hypothetical situations in my head, I quickly had a huge headache on my hands. With each of the OVC’s top four teams separated by just one or two losses and with two of those teams still having to play each other, it’s extremely difficult to predict which teams will have which top four seeds.

Even if that was easy, figuring out who those teams would match up against in the first round is downright impossible. Three of the bottom four teams in the league are tied and the other is just one game back.

All I could really come to the conclusion of is if the standings remain in the same order they are now, Eastern would win the tie-breaker with Austin Peay and would receive the No. 3 seed because the Governors have lost both of their games with league-leader Tech while the Panthers have a win over the Golden Eagles.

Then I came to this conclusion: seeds in this year’s tournament really don’t mean anything. The top four teams will all obviously host first round games while the bottom four teams will be on the road. With the home court factor aside, it really doesn’t matter who plays who in this tournament because no team really has a dominant advantage over another.

“As you look at the league, there’s four teams in the upper division, but I can guarantee you none of us want to play anyone in the lower division,” Panther head coach Rick Samuels said following Eastern’s loss Saturday at SEMO. “When postseason tournament time comes, I really think it’s up for grabs, but the home court is soemthing that we hope makes a difference.”

Whether Eastern is the 1,2,3 or 4 seed, it really doesn’t matter because any way the Panthers look at it, they’re going to have a tough, dangerous opponent sitting on the other side of Lantz.

If the standings were to stay how they are now, the Panthers would host Morehead State in the first round, who the conincidentally happen to play at home this Thursday night. The Panthers could have, should have and would have lost to the Eagles on the road earlier this season if it wasn’t for the heroic efforts of senior point guard Matt Britton, whose four-point play in the final seconds rescued Eastern from the jaws of defeat.

Let’s say things don’t stay how they are now. The Panthers will still have a difficult opponent on their hands. If they play SEMO, they’ll be facing off against a team that beat them just last Saturday and nearly handed Eastern a defeat at Lantz behind a strong defensive effort.

If Eastern squares off against Tennessee State in the first round, they’d be playing the team that they definitely have the most difficult time matching up against. TheTigers play a four-guard offense at times and nearly beat the Panthers in Nashville earlier this season, losing 99-98 in a high-scoring affair.

And if Tennessee-Martin makes its way to Lantz Gym, Eastern would be taking on a team that embarassed the Panthers by 14 in Martin earlier this season. So, anyway you look at it, the first round really won’t be a cake walk for any team. The league’s top four squads will count on the home court advantage pulling them through that tough stretch.

And when the final four teams make it Nashville, it will be even more of a crapshoot.

“If you get to Nashville, it’s up for grabs,” Samuels said. “I really believe that. I’ve told our kids that on any given night just about any team in this league can beat the other team.”

So throw all the stats, records and rules of thumb out the window and may the best – or perhaps luckiest – team win.