‘He’ll do anything for you.’ Transfer Riley Minix leads Morehead St. into NCAA Tournament.

Just a few minutes into Sunday night’s Selection Show — and after only 16 of the 68 teams were revealed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket — CBS Sports analyst Clark Kellogg launched into an impromptu monologue.

The brief segments in between the reveal of each bracket quadrant are filled with discussion about some of the top teams in each region, players to watch and potential upset picks.

But Kellogg went a bit further when discussing the Morehead State Eagles, champions of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament with a 26-8 record and a 14 seed in the East Region for March Madness.

“Keep an eye, folks, on Morehead State, they’ve got one of the best players in the country in Riley Minix. He’s a terrific 21 (points) and 10 (rebounds) guy, and that team is really balanced,” Kellogg said.

Two-time national champion and former Villanova head coach Jay Wright chimed in as well.

“Listen to my man when he talks about Morehead State,” Wright said.

Kellogg’s praise was notable in many ways: 14 seeds don’t normally get much shine during the Selection Show.

And his words probably led to people around the country — in particular fans of 3 seed Illinois, the Big Ten Tournament champions and Morehead State’s round-of-64 opponent on Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska — Googling the name “Riley Minix.”

Those search results paint the picture of a player who has been a model of consistency for Morehead State this season.

An offseason transfer portal pickup after spending four seasons as an NAIA standout at Southeastern University in Florida, the 6-foot-7 Minix has been a dominant force for head coach Preston Spradlin’s Eagles. Minix, a graduate student and the 2024 OVC Player of the Year, boasts per-game averages of 20.8 points and 9.8 rebounds.

A walking double-double, Minix enters the NCAA Tournament having scored at least 20 points in 12 of Morehead State’s last 13 games. He had 26 points and played all 40 minutes in the Eagles’ OVC Tournament championship game win this month.

Now, a national audience will witness Minix’s abilities, which figure to go hand-in-hand with any kind of upset magic Morehead may conjure.

“I think it just comes down to the culture that Coach P and all these guys have set here,” Minix said following Morehead State’s OVC Tournament championship game win in Evansville, Indiana.

“... I’m immersed in the culture and that’s why I chose (Morehead) on my visit. They’ve made it easy, all my teammates, one through 15, and then everybody alongside of us.”

Riley Minix makes instant impact in NCAA Division I basketball

Minix’s standout season at Morehead State would be harder to believe if Spradlin hadn’t followed a similar roster-building strategy last year, also to great success.

A key player on Morehead State’s 2022-23 squad — which won an outright OVC regular season title for the first time in 39 years and went on to win the program’s first-ever NIT game — was Alex Gross, a 6-10 graduate student who was previously a four-year star at Olivet Nazarene (Illinois), another NAIA school. Gross was named the OVC’s Defensive Player of the Year last season.

Now with Minix’s success this season, it’s safe to say that Spradlin — a 37-year-old rising coaching star who is making his second NCAA Tournament trip with Morehead State in the last four seasons — has unlocked a distinct ability to get high-level results from experienced players making the jump to NCAA Division I basketball.

In fact, Spradlin told the Herald-Leader that he identified Minix, who averaged 25.4 points and 13.6 rebounds per game last season at Southeastern, as Morehead State’s first transfer target last offseason.

“We needed a starting 4 man and we thought that he really checked every box across the board and thought that he could come in here and have a huge impact,” Spradlin said. “The transition for him was just getting used to the speed of the game, the physicality wasn’t an issue for him because he’s pound-for-pound the strongest player that we’ve had here.”

Even in this context, Minix’s debut season at the NCAA Division I level has been special. In addition to counting stats, advanced analytics also highlight just how effective Minix has been since arriving in Rowan County.

Per KenPom, Minix’s true shooting percentage (64.2%) ranks 41st in the nation and his two-point field goal percentage (66.2%) ranks 43rd. He enjoyed good showings against some of the best teams Morehead State has played this season: Minix had 19 points at Alabama in the season opener, 18 points at Purdue two games later and a double-double in a near upset win at Indiana in December.

Minix is a capable enough three-point shooter (34%) and a reliable presence at the foul line (83.4% on free throws). Defenses have no good options against him.

“He’s really tapped into the fact that, not only is he the strongest player on the court most nights, but he’s typically the most intelligent,” Spradlin said. “He’s able to find ways to impact the game even when he’s tired or even when he has a tough matchup, because his ability to retain and execute details from game to game is exceptional.”

These stats all speak to a larger truth about Spradlin’s team running deliberate, and effective, offense.

The Eagles play at one of the slowest offensive paces in all of college basketball: Morehead State averages 19.8 seconds per offensive possession, the seventh-longest duration in the nation and the third-longest among NCAA Tournament teams.

However long it takes, Morehead State possessions often end in familiar fashion: With Minix unveiling an array of moves in the post to twist his defender into a pretzel before putting points on the board.

“Man it’s fun when you get a guy like that in the gym,” Morehead State senior guard Drew Thelwell, the program’s all-time wins leader, said of Minix. “You want to compete with him every day. ... When he competes, he makes you better. And when you get better, you make him better.”

Riley Minix, Kalil Thomas share special bond at Morehead State

Minix is roommates in Morehead with another fifth-year player for the Eagles, 6-5 guard Kalil Thomas.

A New Orleans native who began his college basketball career by playing three seasons at UMass Lowell before transferring to Morehead State in May 2022, Thomas is having a special season in his own right: He’s made 103 3-pointers, a single-season Morehead State record and a top-20 mark nationally.

But it’s off the court — at home with Minix — where Thomas has learned the most about his star teammate.

“We cook, we clean the house, we do all of that type of stuff,” Thomas said in the press conference following Morehead State’s OVC Tournament win, before Minix interjected to say he makes Thomas clean dirty dishes.

“It’s just been fun,” Thomas added after some laughter. “The work ethic (Minix) has, we push each other. We wake up in the morning: ‘Let’s go work out. Let’s go get in the gym. Let’s go get up shots.’ It’s real fun and I’m very blessed to have him as a roommate.”

Come Thursday afternoon inside the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Morehead State will look to produce a lasting moment following an unprecedented four-year run of success: No men’s Division I program in the commonwealth has won as many games as Morehead State since the 2020-21 season.

Minix may have only contributed to one of those seasons, but his lasting impression with the Eagles goes deeper than just on-court results.

“He’ll do anything for you,” Thomas said. “And I appreciate him for life for that.”

Thursday

No. 14 seed Morehead State vs. No. 3 seed Illinois

What: NCAA Tournament East Region first-round game

When: 3:10 p.m. EDT

Where: CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb.

TV: TruTV

Records: Morehead State 26-8, Illinois 26-8

Series: Illinois leads 1-0

Last meeting: Illinois won 110-75 on Dec. 10, 1993, in Champaign, Ill.

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