The Tennessee State men’s basketball team never trailed and delivered a dominant defensive performance to secure a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title with a 67-42 road victory over UT Martin on Saturday, February 28 at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center. TSU snapped a 3 decade drought as the conference’s top team at the end of the regular season. The Tigers earned the No. 1 overall seed in the OVC Tournament and play Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m. at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
Tennessee State finished OVC play 15-5 to claim a share of the Regular Season Championship, its first since the 1994-95 season. After the tiebreaker the team earned the No. 1 seed and earned a double bye to Friday’s semifinals. TSU has 21 overall victories, the most of its Division I era; their 15 OVC wins are also a program record. TSU is in the OVC Tournament for the fifth-straight season; the team advanced to the semifinals a year ago. TSU has won at least one game in the event in four of its last five appearances.
TSU is looking for its first tournament crown since the second of back-to-back titles under head coach Frankie Allen. After finishing atop the standings in the 1992-1993 OVC regular season, the Tigers backed up that success by winning the OVC tournament to receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament – the first in school history. Playing as No. 15 seed in the Southeast region, Tennessee State was beaten by Seton Hall, 81–59. Conference Player of the Year was TSU’s Carlos Rogers and the Conference Coach of the Year was TSU’s Frankie Allen.
The next season, after finishing second in the OVC regular season standings, the Tigers repeated as OVC tournament champs by defeating Murray State 73-72 in a thriller to secure the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament – the school’s second straight, and most recent, appearance in the Big Dance. Once again, the Conference Player of the Year was TSU’s Carlos Rogers. Playing as No. 14 seed in the Southeast region, Tennessee State was beaten by No. 3 seed Kentucky, 83–70.
In this first season under head coach Nolan Smith, TSU has won nine of its last 11 games entering the postseason, and leads the OVC in scoring, steals and turnover margin. At press time, TSU has the highest NET ranking among OVC teams (189). Aaron Nkrumah’s 87 steals are the second-most nationally (as is his 2.9 steals / game average).
Congratulations to the Tigers, and Go Big Blue! Listen to the tournament, from Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, on the radio on WNSR (560 AM, 95.9 FM / 107.9 FM in Smyrna) or watch Friday’s Semifinal game live on ESPU at 7:00 p.m. CST; if victorious, watch Saturday’s championship game on ESPN2 at 8:00 pm CST.
Historical Note: Although the TSU men’s basketball team has not won a national tournament game in the NCAA, they were the first men’s basketball team to win three consecutive national championships, when they were in the NAIA, in 1957, 1958 and 1959.
