| Year: | 2018 |
| Conference: | Ohio Valley Conference |
| Gender: | Men's |
| Teams: | 8 |
| Arena: | Ford Center |
| City: | Evansville, Indiana |
| Champions: | Murray State |
| Titlecount: | 16th |
| Coach: | Matt McMahon |
| Coachcount: | 1st |
| Mvp: | Jonathan Stark |
| Mvpteam: | Murray State |
| Television: | OVCDN/ESPN3, ESPNU, ESPN2 |
The 2018 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament that completed the 2017–18 season in the Ohio Valley Conference. The tournament was held February 28 through March 3, 2018 at Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.[1]
Regular-season champion Murray State defeated Belmont in the championship game to win the tournament and received conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Only the top eight teams in the conference qualified for the Tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the division and conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds received double byes to the semifinals under the merit-based format. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds received a single bye to the quarterfinals. records.
Southeast Missouri State, despite finishing in seventh place, was ineligible for the tournament due to Academic Progress Rate violations.[2]
| Seed | School | Conf. | Tiebreaker | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Murray State | 16–2 | ||
| 2 | Belmont | 15–3 | ||
| 3 | 12–6 | |||
| 4 | Jacksonville State | 11–7 | ||
| 5 | Tennessee Tech | 10–8 | 2–0 vs TSU | |
| 6 | Tennessee State | 10–8 | 0–2 vs TT | |
| 7 | Eastern Illinois | 7–11 | ||
| 8 | SIU Edwardsville | 5–13 | 2–1 vs EKU/UTM | |
| – | UT Martin | 5–13 | 2–2 vs SIUE/EKU | |
| – | Eastern Kentucky | 5–13 | 1–2 vs SIUE/UTM |
| Game | Time | Matchup | Score | Television | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round – Wednesday, February 28 | |||||
| 1 | 6:30 pm | No. 5 Tennessee Tech vs No. 8 SIU Edwardsville | 60–51 | OVC Digital Network | |
| 2 | 8:30 pm | No. 6 Tennessee State vs No. 7 Eastern Illinois | 71–73 | OVC Digital Network | |
| Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 1 | |||||
| 3 | 6:30 pm | No. 4 Jacksonville State vs No. 5 Tennessee Tech | 73–70 | OVC Digital Network | |
| 4 | 8:30 pm | No. 3 Austin Peay vs No. 7 Eastern Illinois | 73–66 | OVC Digital Network | |
| Semifinals – Friday, March 2 | |||||
| 5 | 7:00 pm | No. 1 Murray State vs No. 4 Jacksonville State | 70–63 | ESPNU | |
| 6 | 9:00 pm | No. 2 Belmont vs No. 3 Austin Peay | 94–79 | ESPNU | |
| Championship – Saturday, March 3 | |||||
| 7 | 7:00 pm | No. 1 Murray State vs No. 2 Belmont | 68–51 | ESPN2 | |
| All game times in Central Time Zone. | |||||
Source[3]