Perfect Murray State Season

Racers’ Coach Matt McMahon

(St. Louis, MO) – This has been a perfect Murray State season. The Racers are 30-2, were a perfect 18-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference and won the OVC Tournament. Matt McMahon’s team hasn’t lost this calendar year and they are headed to the NCAA Tournament.

A thrilling victory in the OVC championship game against defending champion Morehead State left one team celebrating and the other with that final game pain. McMahon says those final moments, the team’s accomplishments and the Ford Center celebration were special.

 

 

Talented and Together

Murray’s roster is loaded with talent and those players have accomplished great things individually and together. Guards Tevin Brown and Justice Hill were first team all-OVC performers and center K.J. Williams was named OVC ‘Player of the Year’.

The Racers’ are talented players are completely bought in to the team culture and they have a deep desire to win. Their ‘team-first’ mentality drives them farther than talent alone can take them.

Brown leads the way with his ‘playing to win’ mentality. His personal statistics are astounding. He has been a part of so much Murray State success, but his play during the final moments of the Racers’ championship game victory was unique.

Brown blocked a potential game-winning shot and then grabbed the rebound. While grabbing that key loose ball, his legs were cut out from underneath him and he landed violently on his back. A foul was called and after a few scary moments of him laying on the floor, he stepped up and made the game-clinching free-throws.

McMahon says that might be the defining moment in Brown’s career.

 

 

The OVC tournament championship was Murray State’s 18th. K.J. Williams is this year’s OVC ‘Player of the Year’ and he is the 16th Racer to earn that award. Williams and Brown are three-time, all-OVC honorees. Their career numbers are staggering and they are proven winners. Read ‘Seniors Lead’ to get to know these two star players.

The third Racer on the all-conference team and the MVP of the OVC Tournament is Justice Hill. ‘Juice’ is ‘the best point guard in the OVC’ according to McMahon and he is in the top 20 nationally in assist-turnover margin. Hill has hit so many clutch shots, that our nickname for him ‘Big Game Juice Hill’ will stick.

Culture of Excellence, Hard Work and Joy

Murray State has been a top level mid-major program for years, but the perfect Murray State season didn’t happen over night. When Steve Prohm left to coach Iowa State, McMahon’s first two seasons resulted in a record of 33-31. McMahon and his staff continued to build the culture and recruit the players they needed to succeed at an elite level. When speaking with McMahon, you hear words like ‘elite level’, ‘once in a life-time’ a lot. He is clearly focused on excellence, while strengthening his program’s ‘Five Pillars’.

‘Character is the price of admission,’ says McMahon and one of his foundational pillars is joy.

 

 

This is Murray State’s third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last five years and the Racers will have their best Tournament seed under McMahon. The Racers were seeded twelfth in both 2018 and 2019. They lost to fifth seeded West Virginia in 2018 and defeated fifth seeded Marquette in 2019. Murray will be no worse than a nine seed and could reach the six or seven line.

Watch our entire interview on YouTube or listen to it at Valley Hoops Insider Podcasts.

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