The head coaches in the Ohio Valley Conference are approaching the final two weeks of the conference season with a mixture of apprehension and excitement.

With three teams tied for second place, two teams tied for fifth and one game separating the sixth, seventh and eighth-place squads prior to this week’s games, the OVC’s playoff picture is far from set.

“This is the craziest I’ve ever seen any conference,” Eastern Kentucky head coach Travis Ford said. “It’s up for grabs.”

Ford said Samford is the one team with total control of its destiny. By sitting one game ahead of any other team in the league, the Bulldogs’ plan is simple: win each of the remaining four games, win the regular-season title and earn the top seed in the conference tournament.

But the teams at the top aren’t the only ones implementing plans.

Jacksonville State, tied for 10th in the OVC, still has a slim chance to earn a position in the post season tournament, Gamecock head coach Mike LaPlante said.

“As long as we’re still mathematically in it that’s something we’ve got to hang on to,” he said. “It’s a way to keep our kids motivated.”

The Gamecocks’ post season hopes probably ended Tuesday night, when they lost 73-65 to Austin Peay.

This weekend’s games give teams a chance to move up the standings, but Ford said his Eastern Kentucky team won’t have an easy road ahead of it.

The Colonels host Southeast Missouri, winners of seven-straight games, tonight and the Panthers on Saturday evening.

“We’ve got our hands full,” Ford said.

Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said the weekend games won’t separate the packs, but they will have an impact on the OVC post season.

“There are a lot of playoff-significant games,” he said, “and they won’t just impact the head-to-head records but the tiebreakers too.

“It appears very obvious that there are going to be a lot of ties.”

And that’s what makes this year in the OVC unlike others.

“This is a very different year,” Samuels said. “We’ve seen some bunching of teams before where a few teams are bunched together in the middle. But this year, the whole league’s bunched together.”