I'm looking forward to this weekend's semifinals and finals of the OVC basketball tournament in Nashville, Tenn., as the SEMO women chase their third straight championship and NCAA tournament berth.

The top-seeded Redhawks, after winning their third consecutive OVC regular-season title with a conference-record 17 league wins, loom as the favorites.

But it's far from a lock that the Redhawks will once again prevail in Nashville.

Friday's semifinal opponent, Eastern Illinois, lost both regular-season meetings with SEMO, both the defensive-minded games were close. The Redhawks won 55-51 in Charleston, Ill., and 46-41 in Cape Girardeau.

The teams that meet in Friday's other semifinal, Samford and Murray State, both split with SEMO.

Murray beat the Redhawks 71-68 at the Show Me Center, but SEMO got revenge with an 81-74 win on the road.

SEMO fans no doubt remember what happened against Samford last Thursday as the Bulldogs came to the Show Me Center and hammered the Redhawks 73-50. SEMO had won the contest in Birmingham 69-60.

The Redhawks, on quite a roll with wins in 19 of their last 21 games, always seem to come up big in pressure situations. That's probably in no small part due to their experience as four starters returned from last year's championship squad.

I'm picking the Redhawks to once again come through this weekend.

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Although the all-conference teams and special awards won't be released until Thursday, voting is always done a few days in advance and it's never very hard to find out early how things turned out.

Erik Sean said today on the Sports Huddle that SEMO's John Ishee did not win the OVC women's coach of the year award as voted on by the league's coaches and sports information directors.

Tennessee State's Tracee Wells apparently got the nod, after the Tigers were predicted to finish 10th in the 11-team OVC but wound up fifth.

That's a notable accomplishment, but I agree with Erik and Jess Bolen that it's pretty much a travesty that Ishee did not get the award.

Sure, the Redhawks were the preseason OVC favorites. Still, to set a conference record for wins, to go 10-0 on the road in league games and to go 3-1 when your best player -- Missy Whitney -- is sidelined with injuries deserves to be recognized.

Anyway, Ishee has often said he could care less about awards, and I believe him. Two more wins would be reward enough for Ishee and the Redhawks.