Eastern showed almost anything can happen in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, sticking with top-seeded Tennessee Tech down to the final seconds.

It just almost happened, and that is exactly how the rest of the tournament will go because of the parity in the OVC. Let’s take a look back at the recent past of the OVC.

In the past five seasons the OVC regular-season champion won the OVC tournament two times.

When Eastern won the OVC tournament in the 2000-01 season, it played Austin Peay. The OVC regular season champion that year was Tech. This, of course, means the regular-season champion didn’t even make it to the OVC finals.

Every Ohio Valley Conference men’s basketball coach I’ve talked to cannot say enough about parity in their conference.

When you look at some of the upsets late in the season, there’s no wonder OVC parity is the talk of the conference. Maybe this year is no exception to the whole OVC parity argument. Maybe OVC coaches have been saying the same thing year in and year out, and I just don’t know about it.

But here are some more facts.

Murray State (11-5) is the only OVC team that didn’t lose to a conference foe with a sub .500 record. Tennessee Martin (3-13) won six games all year, but on Feb. 12 it beat Tennessee Tech (12-4), and a week later it beat Tennessee State (9-7).

Jacksonville State (2-14) finished last in the OVC, but one of its wins was against second place Eastern Kentucky (11-5). The only sub .500 team Samford (10-6) lost to was Eastern (7-9).

Southeast Missouri (9-7) lost to Morehead State (5-11). Tennessee State lost to three sub .500 teams: Eastern, Jacksonville and Martin.

Austin Peay (9-7) lost to Eastern.

What does all this mean?

It means…

A) I just rambled off a bunch of statistics, and nobody is reading this anymore.

B) Nothing because we’re talking about the OVC here, and nobody really cares about the OVC.

C) Pick this one because it’s the answer. Isn’t it obvious? It means anything can happen in the OVC tournament.

Any of the four remaining teams could be marching on to the NCAA tournament.