Murray State – Joy in the Journey

The Racers are Enjoying Their Successes

(Indianapolis, IN) – Murray State coach Matt McMahon says one of his team’s five pillars of success is ‘joy’. Watching the team practice Wednesday at Grainbridge Fieldhouse, I can tell you that they have some joy in the journey.

This team truly enjoys being on the basketball floor together. The managers are joyful, the assistant coaches are upbeat during drills and the players are having fun. Will that translate into a win on Thursday against San Francisco? Who knows, but this team has joy in the journey.

At 30-2 and riding a 20-game winning streak, you can understand that they would be happy, confident and enjoy the game, but there seems to be no entitlement, or ‘me-first’ mentalities on this team. It would be easy for ‘Player of the Year’ K.J. Williams to demand attention or for OVC all-time three-point specialist Tevin Brown to have a little ‘look at me’ strut.

Those things are just absent from this team. They have some joy.

Three Time All-Stars

Brown and Williams. Williams and Brown. These to teammates have had amazing careers. Brown’s 348 three-pointers put him in the record-books, but the 6’5 guard is ninth all-time at Murray in scoring with 1,884 points, fifth in assists with 400, eighth in steals and has grabbed over 500 rebounds. His has been an extraordinary career.

Williams is 12^th in scoring with 1,637 points and seventh in rebounds at 845. They have been joined at the hip and named to the last three Ohio Valley Conference all-league teams. When asked about their chemistry, Brown says they compete with each other and pick one another up.

“We know how to pick each other up when we’re down and we know when to talk trash to get the other one to play better,” said Brown. “And as far as us scoring and playing together, it just makes my job a lot easier when he is doing good, and his job a lot easier when I’m doing good.”

Williams says some of the credit for his team’s success comes from the fan base.

“It’s a program where anybody would love to play for,”said Williams. “I will start with the fans. It’s the fans’ support. Where we travel, they travel with us. And then as a team, we try to build a relationship with each other on and off the court so we can talk to each other in bad situations and in good situations.”

Brown says the Murray program, including the fans is like a big family.

“I feel like as far as our fans, they’re a part of our culture as well,” added Brown. “The entire program is family oriented, no matter where you come from or what you’ve been through. When you come here it’s like having a second family away from your home. As far as the coaches go with the family part, they really are like, mentors and second, third, fourth dads to us when we are here and being away from our family.”

Playing San Francisco

Playing a San Francisco team that played top-ranked Gonzaga three-times and in a league with five 20-win programs will not be easy. The Dons (24-9) have outstanding guards of their own in Jamaree Bouyea and Khalil Shabazz.

USF’s leading big man Yauhen Massalski was ruled out for Thursday’s contest. He reinjured his right knee during practice and coach Todd Golden told media members he will not dress for the 8:40 pm contest.

The Dons defend the three-point line and their guards are explosive, so those joyful racers will have to execute to succeed.

Do Good