2020–21 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball season

The 2020–21 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2020, followed by the start of the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play begins in January 2021 and ended in March 2021.

2020–21 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	12
Regular season
Tournament

2020–21 Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Belmont	18	–	2		.900			26	–	4		.867
Morehead State †	17	–	3		.850			23	–	8		.742
Eastern Kentucky	15	–	5		.750			22	–	7		.759
Jacksonville State	13	–	6		.684			18	–	9		.667
Austin Peay	10	–	10		.500			14	–	13		.519
Murray State	10	–	10		.500			13	–	13		.500
Southeast Missouri State	9	–	11		.450			11	–	16		.407
SIU Edwardsville	7	–	12		.368			9	–	17		.346
Eastern Illinois	6	–	14		.300			9	–	18		.333
UT Martin	6	–	14		.300			8	–	16		.333
Tennessee Tech	5	–	15		.250			5	–	22		.185
Tennessee State	3	–	17		.150			4	–	19		.174
† 2021 OVC tournament winner

This was the final season for Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State as OVC members. On January 29, 2021, the ASUN Conference announced that both schools would join that conference on July 1 of that year.

Preseason Awards

The preseason coaches' poll and league awards were announced by the league office on November 4, 2020.

Preseason men's basketball coaches poll

Rank	Team
T1.	Austin Peay (9)- 226
T1.	Murray State (10)- 226
3.	Belmont (5)- 214
4.	Eastern Kentucky- 173
5.	Eastern Illinois- 153
6.	Tennessee State- 139
7.	Jacksonville State- 124
8.	Morehead State- 87
9.	Tennessee Tech- 84
10.	UT-Martin- 80
11.	SIU Edwardsville- 48
12.	Southeast Missouri State- 30
(first place votes)

Honors

Preseason All-OVC Team	Jordyn Adams, Austin Peay
	Tevin Brown, Murray State
	Jomaru Brown, Eastern Kentucky
	Jr. Clay, Tennessee Tech
	Tre King, Eastern Kentucky
	Carlos Marshall Jr., Tennessee State
	Grayson Murphy, Belmont
	Nick Muszynski, Belmont
	Mack Smith, Eastern Illinois
	Parker Stewart, UT Martin
	Terry Taylor, Austin Peay
	Josiah Wallace, Eastern Illinois
	KJ Williams, Murray State

Conference matrix

	Austin Peay	Belmont	Eastern Illinois	Eastern Kentucky	Jacksonville State	Morehead State	Murray State	SE Missouri State	SIU Edwardsville	Tennessee State	Tennessee Tech	UT Martin
vs. Austin Peay	–	1−0	1−1	1−1	2−0	1−0	1−1	1−1	0−2	0−2	1−1	1−1
vs. Belmont	0−1	–	0−2	1−1	0−2	1−1	0−2	0−1	0−2	0−2	0−2	0−2
vs. Eastern Illinois	1−1	2−0	–	2−0	1−0	1−0	0−2	2−0	1−1	1−1	1−1	2–0
vs. Eastern Kentucky	1–1	1−1	0−2	–	0−2	1−1	1−0	1−1	0–1	0−2	0–2	0−2
vs. Jacksonville State	0−2	2−0	0−1	2−0	–	2−0	0−2	0−1	0–1	0–2	0−2	0−2
vs. Morehead State	0−1	1−1	0−1	1−1	0−2	–	0−2	0−2	1–1	0–2	0−2	0–2
vs. Murray State	1−1	2−0	2−0	0−1	2−0	2−0	–	0–2	0−2	0−1	1−1	0−2
vs. SE Missouri State	1–1	1−0	0−2	1−1	1−0	2−0	2–0	–	0−2	0−2	1−1	2−0
vs. SIU Edwardsville	2−0	2−0	1−1	1–0	1–0	1–1	2−0	2−0	–	0−2	0−1	0–2
vs. Tennessee State	2−0	2−0	1−1	2−0	2–0	2–0	1−0	2−0	2−0	–	1−1	0−1
vs. Tennessee Tech	1−1	2–0	1−1	2−0	2−0	2−0	1−1	1−1	1−0	1−1	−	1−0
vs. UT Martin	1−1	2−0	0–2	2−0	2−0	2–0	2−0	0−2	2−0	1−0	0−1	–
Total	10−10	18−2	6−14	15−5	13−6	17−3	10−10	9−11	7−12	3−17	5−15	6−14

All-OVC awards

Ohio Valley men's basketball weekly awards

Week	Player(s) of the Week	School	Newcomer of the Week	School
Nov 30
Dec 7
Dec 14
Dec 21
Dec 28
Jan 4
Jan 11
Jan 18
Jan 25
Feb 1
Feb 8
Feb 15
Feb 22
Mar 1