Surging Murray State Staying True to Itself After Losing Ja Morant
The first thing you should know about Murray State is that it's still very much relevant.
That part tends to get lost for the crowd who conduct a weekly scour of the bottom of the AP Top 25 rankings in the “others receiving votes” section.
The Racers haven’t made that leap yet, but if rankings equaled validity, the carousel of teams with numbers preceding their names wouldn’t remain in constant rotation.
“We just try to stay focused on us,” Murray State head coach Matt McMahon said. “I know it sounds boring, but we just want to be 1-0 against the next team.”
Currently, the Racers are sitting at 17-5 overall and tied for first in the Ohio Valley Conference at 10-0.
Sophomore Tevin Brown leads the Racers with 18.5 points per game.
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Need more evidence of the Racers' relevance?
Their current 11-game winning streak marks the third straight year the Racers have put together a winning streak of at least 10 games; that’s the first time that’s happened since 1938.
The Racers last lost on Dec. 21, a 78-76 overtime thriller at Evansville.
These feats get so much more impressive when you consider that Murray State lost its top two scorers from last season—including Ja Morant, the frontrunner for NBA Rookie of the Year who is averaging 17.3 points, 7.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds for the Memphis Grizzlies this season.
“We never spent one second talking about how we could replace Ja Morant,” McMahon said. “That’s impossible. We have a culture in place here that allows you to sustain success. We utilize our strengths while staying true to our foundation, which is defense and rebounding.”
The Racers have been true to form in that regard, holding opponents to just 39% shooting from the field and 64 points a game this season as opposed to 41% from the field and 68 points a game last season. Also, they’re plus-eight in the rebounding margin as opposed to plus-three last season.
Sophomore guard Tevin Brown leads four players in double figures with 18.5 points a game, while knocking down 45.7% of his three-pointers this season, and sophomore forward K.J. Williams has nearly doubled his offensive production from last season, averaging 13.2 points a game to go along with 7.3 rebounds.
“Tevin is having a monster sophomore season and K.J. is getting better and better,” McMahon said. “We play a little bit differently, but the core if the same. It’s all about unselfishness. These guys love to share the ball.”
The Racers struggled early in the season, starting out 4-4 while dealing with injuries, but McMahon moved freshman forward Demond Robinson into the starting lineup and the benefit was twofold: It gave the Racers a more physical presence on both ends of the floor and allowed Williams to be freer offensively.
“We weren’t a great offensive team and we certainly didn’t shoot the ball well earlier in the season,” McMahon said. “We have good balance now and we’re more consistent shooting the ball. The common thread has been just been getting experience.”
Last Saturday, the Racers knocked off Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville 74-55 and retired Morant’s jersey, just a year after he led the Racers to the OVC title and the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Still, McMahon downplayed the Racers' prospects of repeating history with eight regular season games left, including two against Austin Peay, which sits beside the Racers at No. 1 in the OVC.
“Right now, we’re not good enough to win the league,” McMahon said. “We lay out the vision and the long-term goals at the beginning of the season and the beginning of conference play, and then we don’t ever discuss it again. We still have a ton of getting better to do.”
