It’s not every year that a team in a traditional one-bid league can go one-and-done in its conference tournament and still squeak its way into the dance. In this year’s Ohio Valley women’s tournament, however, that’s exactly what could happen. That’s just one interesting quirk of the 2025 Ohio Valley Conference that has seen a lot of change in the past few seasons.
Before 2022, Belmont had won its conference tournament in four of the previous five seasons, the lone exception being 2020 when Southeast Missouri State captured the crown. However, the Bruins then up and left the conference for bluer waters and clearer skies in the form of the Missouri Valley Conference, which they haven’t won as of yet. Two teams are also relatively new to the conference; both Southern Indiana and Lindenwood joined in 2022, which has already caused mid-major confusion when figuring out who earned NCAA Tournament berths.
This year’s bracket, shown below, is meant to reward high-performing teams during the regular season. Top-seeded Tennessee Tech and No. 2 seed Lindenwood get the double-bye in an eight-team tournament and only need to win two games to raise a banner. This setup is also meant to get the best teams into March, which benefits the OVC because conferences that win in the dance share some of the tournament’s revenue.
Now, let’s meet the teams that will be battling for the one spot in the dance.
The Gold Standard: No. 1 Tennessee Tech (18-2, 24-5)
Make no mistake: This Tennessee Tech team can not only match up with any Ohio Valley opponent this year but also past iterations of itself.
The Golden Eagles have the most Ohio Valley tournament championships in league history at 10, although it can be argued they padded stats against plumbers when they won five straight titles from 1989-1993. Angela Moorehead, who surprisingly didn’t play for her namesake and fellow OVC member Morehead State, was one of the key pieces to a couple of those squads, scoring over 19 points per game each season from 1989 to 1991. She also became the first player to ever win tournament MVP honors three times during that stretch. Tech was the first school to win the conference when it began playing women’s basketball in 1982, so it has been around for the long haul.
This year, the Golden Eagles are just better than most at everything. They haven’t lost in almost two months, lead the league in scoring and have the best rebounding margin in the league, grabbing over six more boards per game than their opponents. Over this stretch run, 13 of their 15 consecutive wins have been by 9 or more points.
Team ball is the emphasis for coach Kim Rosamond, whose roster is old, experienced and features six players averaging 9 or more points per game, but none over 13. Graduate guard Peyton Carter, who leads the OVC in made threes, can really fill it up from deep with a sweet lefty stroke. Fellow graduate Keeley Carter actually shoots a better percentage from downtown, leading the team at 43%. Finally, a third graduate, Anna Walker, is heating up entering the tournament, scoring 10+ in each of the Golden Eagles’ last four games.
The Stars: Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois
No. 3 Eastern Illinois (15-5, 18-11)
The Panthers are the antithesis of the Golden Eagles; they have the highest scoring differential in the league between their top scorer and second scorer. Senior forward Macy McGlone leads Eastern Illinois with 17.7 points per game, and senior guard Alex Rouse follows far behind at 7.8.
The good thing for the Panthers is they aren’t built to win via offense. They are the best defending team in the Ohio Valley and give up barely over 60 points a game. They play a slow-you-down, wear-you-out style of ball, and on offense, McGlone can just crash the glass with a high motor. She averages 13 rebounds per game in conference play, over four more than anybody else.
Eastern Illinois started conference play 10-0 but went 5-5 in the back half to finish as the No. 3 seed. Here’s to hoping we get to see them take on this next team with a superstar of its own in the quarterfinals.
No. 7 Western Illinois (8-12, 14-15)
Western Illinois is the epitome of a team that has taken its lumps in the regular season but could be cinema during March.
The reason? Reagan McCowan. The sophomore guard averages 21.1 points per game, more than three and a half higher than the next-closest Ohio Valley scorer. We’ve seen teams every year make runs that come from one player simply catching fire, and there’s arguably no scarier individual hooper than McCowan in the league. She has put up four 30 balls this season, but enters the postseason coming off her worst performance of the year: 7 points on 3-11 from the field, and 0-2 from deep against Tennessee Tech in a 68-51 loss.
Before that matchup, the Leathernecks beat Lindenwood and McCowan scored 19, and before that lost a tight one to Little Rock where she had 35. JD Gravina’s team has what it takes to compete with the top dogs, but will need both McCowan and Mia Nicastro, who has scored over 20 in her last two games, to get hot.
The Newcomers: Lindenwood and Southern Indiana
Here’s the thing with these two squads: Neither of them can actually make the big dance, even if they win the Ohio Valley tournament. Both schools are in their final year of the NCAA’s three-year transition phase, as they moved up to that level and into the Ohio Valley in 2022.
That presents a problem for the Ohio Valley, at least in my eyes. These two squads, albeit unlikely, could face off in the championship with neither having the ability to make it to March Madness. If this ends up being the case, Tennessee Tech would get the auto-bid as the top seed in the tournament. Yes, that makes it a possibility that the Golden Eagles can still get a bid even without winning a tournament game! Crazy!
No. 2 Lindenwood (16-4, 20-9)
The Lions are probably the third-best team in the league this year, and their seed doesn’t quite represent that. Eastern Illinois tops them in both scoring margin and points allowed. Lindenwood is also limping into March, losing its last two games to Western Illinois and Tennessee Tech. Before that, the Lions had won 11 straight games.
Lindenwood leads the entire Ohio Valley in team field goal percentage, shooting over 44% from the floor, and also holds teams to the second-lowest shooting rate in the conference. The Lions also trail only Tennessee Tech in 3-point shooting at 34.6%.
There are no obvious superstars for the Lindenwood team. Sophomore guard Ellie Brueggemann leads the squad in scoring at 11.6 points per game, and Mykayla Cunningham is a pass-first point guard who leads the team in assists. There are no obvious weaknesses with Lindenwood. They don’t allow a lot of rebounds, take care of the ball, and spread scoring around. It just doesn’t seem like they have one player who can catch fire and take down Tennessee Tech.
No. 5 Southern Indiana (12-8, 20-11)
The Screaming Eagles are the fifth seed in the OVC and have to play in the tournament’s opening round. They are probably better than Little Rock, who got the bye because of head-to-head matchups, but it’s close.
To defend last year’s tournament championship, Southern Indiana is going to get big performances from Vanessa Shafford, who scores over 12 a game and shoots 40% from deep, and Meredith Raley, who scores over 13 points per game and averages over 50% from the floor. They have shown to be capable of hanging with the big girls, falling to Tennessee Tech by only four earlier in the year.
Predictions
I’ll go out and say we won’t get Southern Indiana vs. Lindenwood in the championship, and instead pivot to McGlone and the Eastern Illinois Panthers. Bigs who can gobble up the boards always make me happy in March, and defense travels at this time of the year. I have them beating McGowan’s Leathernecks before toppling the top seeds Lindenwood and Tennessee Tech to claim the championship and head to only its second March Madness ever. Eastern Illinois previously made the dance as a member of the now-defunct Gateway Conference in 1988 but didn’t win a game in the tournament.