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USATSI

The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament begins on Wednesday, March 5, in Evansville, Ind., as the top eight teams in the conference face off for an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Currently, only one team -- Southeast Missouri State -- is projected to make the tournament in Jerry Palm's latest bracketology update on CBS Sports. Southeast Missouri State is the No. 1 seed in this tournament and SIUE is the No. 2 seed. Neither team will play until the semifinals. No. 3 Tennessee State and No. 4 Little Rock also have byes, and those teams will first play in the quarterfinals. No. 5 Tennessee Tech, No. 6 Lindenwood, No. 7 Morehead State and No. 8 UT Martin round out the eight-team field. Lindenwood is eligible to compete in and win the tournament, but as the university is reclassifying to Division I this year, it is not eligible for the NCAA Tournament. Should Lindenwood make a run and win the OVC Tournament, the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament would go to the conference tournament runner-up. 

Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Schedule

First Round

No. 5 Tennessee Tech vs. No. 8 UT Martin
No. 6 Lindenwood vs. No. 7 Morehead State

Quarterfinals 

QF1 - No. 4 Little Rock vs. Tennessee Tech/UT Martin
QF2 - No. 3 Tennessee State vs. Lindenwood/Morehead State

Semifinals 

SF1 - No. 1 Southeast Missouri State vs. QF1 winner
SF2 - No. 2 SIUE vs QF2 winner     

Final

SF1 winner vs. SF2 winner

Southeast Missouri State is the favorite with +160 odds, according to FanDuel. SUIE is second at +240, Little Rock is +390 and Tennessee State is +480. After those four teams, UT Martin has the next-lowest odds at +3000.  

SEMU is led by guard Rob Martin, who leads the team in both points (14.5) and assists (4.6) per game. He's also a great 3-point shooter, making 40.8% of his attempts beyond the arc. SUIE's Ray'Sean Taylor leads the OVC in points per game at 19.2, and Brian Taylor II and Ring Malith, the latter of whom leads SUIE in rebounds, both average double-digits points per contest for the Cougars. Brandon Weston, the No. 5 scorer in the conference, paces Tennessee State in points per game with 16.0, and three other players -- Aaron Nkrumah, Carlous Williams and Travis Harper II -- all average at least 10 points per contest. Little Rock's top scorer this season is Johnathan Lawson, who averages 15.3 points per game. The Trojans' second-leading scorer is Mwani Wilkinson, who averages 12.8 points per game as well as a team-leading 7.2 rebounds and 1.7 steals per contest. 

Tennessee State has the best scoring attack in the conference, averaging 78.7 points per game, while Little Rock leads the OVC in defense with 66.6 points per game allowed. SEMU, though, has the best mix of offense and defense in the conference, ranking second in points per game and third in points allowed, good for a league-leading 7.5 scoring margin. 

SportsLine expert Zach Cimini is backing Tennessee State to win, and Thomas Casale also has a pick in. But is Casale backing the same team? You can find out which teams Casale, Cimini and other SportsLine experts are backing for each conference tournament only at SportsLine.