2020 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament

The 2020 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament was the final event of the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in the Ohio Valley Conference. The tournament was held March 4 through March 7, 2020 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

2020 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2019–20
Teams	8
Site	Ford Center Evansville, Indiana
Champions	Belmont (3rd title)
Winning coach	Casey Alexander (1st title)
MVP	Nick Muszynski (Belmont)
Television	ESPN+, ESPNU, ESPN2
Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournaments ← 2019 2021 →

2019–20 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Belmont †	15	–	3		.833			26	–	7		.788
Murray State	15	–	3		.833			23	–	9		.719
Austin Peay	14	–	4		.778			21	–	12		.636
Eastern Kentucky	12	–	6		.667			16	–	17		.485
Tennessee State	9	–	9		.500			18	–	15		.545
Eastern Illinois	9	–	9		.500			17	–	15		.531
Jacksonville State	8	–	10		.444			13	–	19		.406
Morehead State	7	–	11		.389			13	–	19		.406
Tennessee Tech	6	–	12		.333			9	–	22		.290
UT Martin	5	–	13		.278			9	–	20		.310
SIU Edwardsville	5	–	13		.278			8	–	23		.258
Southeast Missouri State	3	–	15		.167			7	–	24		.226
† 2020 OVC tournament winner

Belmont defeated Murray State in the championship game of the tournament to receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.^[1]

Seeds

Only the top eight teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds receive double byes to the semifinals. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds receive a single bye to the quarterfinals.

Seed	School	Conf.	Tiebreaker
1	Belmont	15–3	3–0 vs TSU/EIU
2	Murray State	15–3	3–1 vs TSU/EIU
3	Austin Peay	14–4
4	Eastern Kentucky	12–6
5	Tennessee State	9–9	1–0 vs. Eastern Illinois
6	Eastern Illinois	9–9	0–1 vs. Tennessee State
7	Jacksonville State	8–10
8	Morehead State	7–11

Schedule

Game	Time	Matchup	Score	Television
First Round – Wednesday, March 4
1	6:30 pm	No. 5 Tennessee State vs. No. 8 Morehead State	74–67 OT	ESPN+
2	8:30 pm	No. 6 Eastern Illinois vs. No. 7 Jacksonville State	67–61
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 5
3	6:30 pm	No. 4 Eastern Kentucky vs. No. 5 Tennessee State	58–48	ESPN+
4	8:30 pm	No. 3 Austin Peay vs. No. 6 Eastern Illinois	76–65
Semifinals – Friday, March 6
5	7:00 pm	No. 1 Belmont vs. No. 4 Eastern Kentucky	60–50	ESPNU
6	9:00 pm	No. 2 Murray State vs. No. 3 Austin Peay	73–61
Championship – Saturday, March 7
7	7:00 pm	No. 1 Belmont vs. No. 2 Murray State	76–75	ESPN2
All game times in Central Time Zone.[2][3]

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, March 4 ESPN+					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 5 ESPN+					Semifinals Friday, March 6 ESPNU					Championship Saturday, March 7 ESPN2
											1	Belmont	60
											4	Eastern Kentucky	50
						4	Eastern Kentucky	58
	5	Tennessee State	74*			5	Tennessee State	48
	8	Morehead State	67													1	Belmont	76
																2	Murray State	75
											2	Murray State	73
											3	Austin Peay	61
						3	Austin Peay	76
	6	Eastern Illinois	67			6	Eastern Illinois	65
	7	Jacksonville State	61

* denotes number of overtime periods

Source^[3]

References

1. "Murray State vs. Belmont - Game Recap - March 7, 2020 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
2. "2020 OVC Men's & Women's Basketball Championship - Ohio Valley Conference". ovcsports.com. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
3. "- College Basketball 2020 Ohio Valley Tournament". CBSSports.com. Retrieved March 9, 2020.