Morehead State ends 39-year men’s basketball drought. All it took was a total makeover.
Morehead State has been the most consistent Division I men’s basketball program in Kentucky in recent years.
Now, the Eagles have another trophy to show for it.
On Wednesday night, Morehead State improved to 20-10 overall this season and 13-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play with a 69-63 win at Eastern Illinois.
The victory gave MSU the outright regular season OVC championship for the first time since the 1983-84 season, and just the second time ever.
It also means Morehead State will be the top seed for the OVC Tournament, which will take place from March 1-4 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
This also marks the first time since the 1983-84 season that Morehead State will be the top seed in the conference tournament.
This is the 10th Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship for Morehead State, although it’s only the second outright regular-season title won by the Eagles. Here is MSU’s history with league titles:
▪ 1955-56 (shared with Tennessee Tech and Western Kentucky).
▪ 1956-57 (shared with Western Kentucky)
▪ 1960-61 (shared with Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky).
▪ 1962-63 (shared with Tennessee Tech).
▪ 1968-69 (shared with Murray State).
▪ 1971-72 (shared with Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky).
▪ 1973-74 (shared with Austin Peay).
▪ 1983-84 (outright).
▪ 2002-03 (shared with Austin Peay).
▪ 2022-23 (outright).
It’s the first regular-season title won under head coach Preston Spradlin, who guided Morehead State to the 2021 NCAA Tournament after the Eagles won the OVC Tournament to secure the league’s automatic bid.
Last March, Spradlin agreed to a contract extension through the 2025-26 season at MSU.
Morehead State reloads after departures
Something that makes this season’s outright regular-season championship even more impressive for Morehead State is the depth and quality of the players the Eagles lost in the offseason.
MSU lost four of five starters from last season’s team that went 23-11 overall and narrowly lost the OVC Tournament championship game.
Among the departures was Johni Broome (now at Auburn), who was last season’s OVC Defensive Player of the Year after setting Morehead State’s single-season blocks record.
The Eagles added 11 newcomers during the offseason, including four players with past Division I experience.
Morehead State’s run to an outright regular-season title was spurred by a late-season surge: MSU has won 10 of its last 11 games.
Statistically, the Eagles entered Wednesday night’s game at Eastern Illinois with three players averaging double-digit scoring per game: Senior guard Mark Freeman (15.2 points), graduate student forward Alex Gross (12.1) and sophomore guard Drew Thelwell (10.9).
Gross leads the Eagles in rebounding with more than seven per game and leads the OVC in blocks with 57.
Gross also carries a unique distinction with him: He’s the only current player in Division I men’s college basketball to record more than 2,000 points and more than 1,400 rebounds at the college level (Gross spent his first four college seasons at NAIA school Olivet Nazarene).
During Wednesday night’s OVC regular-season championship-clinching win though, it was a different player who led the way for the Eagles.
Junior guard Kalil Thomas had 20 points to lead Morehead State. MSU also shot 13-for-25 (52%) on three-pointers in the win over Eastern Illinois.
Morehead State adds to legacy in Kentucky
In a state where most of the basketball discourse centers around Kentucky and Louisville, Morehead State has rather quietly gone about its winning ways.
Of the eight Division I men’s basketball programs in Kentucky (Bellarmine, Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky, Louisville, Morehead State, Murray State, Northern Kentucky and Western Kentucky), it’s Morehead State that ranks first in wins over the last three seasons with 66.
Morehead State has won at least 20 games in three straight seasons.
Recent changes to the membership of the OVC figure to help Morehead State continue its winning ways.
Three former OVC schools with strong basketball pedigrees — Austin Peay, Belmont and Murray State — all left the conference last offseason. Austin Peay joined Eastern Kentucky and Bellarmine in the ASUN, while the other two schools left for the Missouri Valley Conference.
They were replaced by Arkansas-Little Rock, Lindenwood and Southern Indiana. Both Lindenwood and Southern Indiana aren’t eligible for the NCAA Tournament until the 2026-27 season, since they are reclassifying to the NCAA Division I level.
