2012 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament

2012 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2011–12
Teams	8
Site	Nashville Municipal Auditorium Nashville, Tennessee
Champions	Murray State (15th title)
Winning coach	Steve Prohm (1st title)
MVP	Donte Poole (Murray State)
Television	ESPN3, ESPNU, ESPN2
Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournaments

2011–12 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 12 Murray State †	15	–	1		.938			31	–	2		.939
Tennessee State	11	–	5		.688			20	–	13		.606
Morehead State	10	–	6		.625			18	–	15		.545
Tennessee Tech	9	–	7		.563			19	–	14		.576
Southeast Missouri State	9	–	7		.563			15	–	16		.484
Austin Peay	8	–	8		.500			12	–	20		.375
Jacksonville State	8	–	8		.500			15	–	18		.455
Eastern Kentucky	7	–	9		.438			16	–	16		.500
*SIU Edwardsville	6	–	10		.375			10	–	17		.370
Eastern Illinois	5	–	11		.313			12	–	17		.414
UT Martin	0	–	16		.000			4	–	27		.129
† 2012 Ohio Valley Conference tournament winner As of March 15, 2012 Rankings from AP Poll * Ineligible for conference tournament

The 2012 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament began on February 29 and ended on March 3 with Murray State claiming the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. All games were held at Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.

Format

The format for the tournament was changed, beginning with the 2011 tournament. Seeding changed to a merit-based system where the No. 1 and 2 seeds received a double bye to the semifinals while the No. 3 and 4 seeds earned a single bye to the quarterfinals. The first round matched the No. 5/8 and No. 6/7 seeds The top eight eligible men's basketball teams in the Ohio Valley Conference received berths in the conference tournament. After the 16-game conference season, teams were seeded by conference record. The winner earned an automatic berth in the 2012 NCAA tournament.

SIU Edwardsville was ineligible for the conference tournament, due to its transition to Division I.

Seeds

The top eight qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.

Seed	School	Conf (Overall)	Tiebreaker
#1	Murray State	15–1 (28–1)
#2	Tennessee State	11–5 (19–11)
#3	Morehead State	10–6 (18–14)
#4	Tennessee Tech	9–7 (19–12)	1–0 vs SEMO
#5	SE Missouri State	9–7 (15–16)	0–1 vs TT
#6	Austin Peay	8–8 (12–20)	1–0 vs JSU
#7	Jacksonville State	8–8 (15–18)	0–1 vs AP
#8	Eastern Kentucky	7–9 (16–16)

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, February 29					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 1					Semifinals Friday, March 2					Championship Game Saturday , March 3
	5	Southeast Missouri State	75
	8	Eastern Kentucky	65			5	Southeast Missouri State	73
						4	Tennessee Tech	77
											4	Tennessee Tech	58
											1	#12 Murray State	78
																1	#12 Murray State	54
	6	Austin Peay	70													2	Tennessee State	52
	7	Jacksonville State	75			7	Jacksonville State	54
						3	Morehead State	68
											3	Morehead State	52
											2	Tennessee State	59