While many of the college basketball world were watching the game considered the greatest rivalry in the sport between Duke and North Carolina, a potentially more critical game was being played in Evansville, Indiana.

That’s because the game in Evansville was between the top two teams in the Ohio Valley Conference.   In this game that was going unnoticed by many, regular season champion Murray State beat runner-up Belmont 68-51 to finish the season 26-5 and claim the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Both Duke and UNC will be high seeds on Selection Sunday, but today belongs to the Racers.  Because with Murray State’s victory, they become the first team to get their invitation to the 2018 NCAA Tournament.  And while there is always a lot made out of rivalry games, Murray State faced the harsher reality of many small conference teams.  Despite only losing 5 games the entire season and being the best team in your conference, your tournament hopes become a one game season – win and you are in, lose and it is all taken away.  To make matters harder for Murray State, that one game was against one of the two teams from the conference that beat them in the regular season.

The Racers were up to the challenge – and ran away in the second half to claim the title.   Congratulations to the Racers for claiming the first spot in the Big Dance!!!!!