Gage Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
With March Madness quickly approaching, Murray State men’s basketball will look to be the first team to punch its ticket to the Big Dance when it competes in the OVC Tournament this week.
The Racers are coming off wins against EKU and Austin Peay, which led to them claiming a share of their third straight regular season OVC Championship.
Head Coach Matt McMahon was excited for his team’s work to pay off but noted that they still have their best basketball ahead of them.
“[I was] thrilled with the way the weekend went,” McMahon said. “I thought our guys really delivered when they had to. [There’s] still plenty of area for improvement. [I] loved our defensive effort and intensity there. Offensively [we] still want to try and execute better [and] clean up some of the turnovers.”
While they clearly had a solid week en route to claiming another regular season title, McMahon still feels as though they could improve on the offensive glass and cut down some unforced turnovers.
“Each game was different, but [in] both games we need to cut down some of the turnovers,” McMahon said. “I think Saturday night against Austin Peay we got hurt on the offensive glass some. Their frontcourt, Abaev especially, had six offensive rebounds, Terry Taylor had three and their seven-footer off the bench had two himself, so we’ve got to clean that up some I think, especially going into tournament play where rebounding is so important.”
McMahon said while his team does have some deficiencies, they will spend a lot of time building on their strengths in the days leading up to their first game of the tournament.
One of those strengths was Murray State’s disruptiveness on the defensive end of the floor. The Racers only allowed EKU and Austin Peay to have a combined 10 assists, but forced 31 turnovers, including 18 steals. The Colonels and Governors also shot a combined 8-for-37 from deep.
Offensively they’ll look to build on a prolific two-game shooting stretch in which they shot 67% from two and 43% from beyond the arc.
McMahon feels as though team leadership has been a big part of their recent success on the hardwood and he thinks that will continue going into tournament play.
Senior forward Anthony Smith and senior guard Jaiveon Eaves have played big leadership roles throughout the season and it was very evident in the Racers’ final two home games.
Smith helped hold Austin Peay junior guard Terry Taylor to nine points, while going for 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting and grabbing 11 rebounds in his final game at the CFSB Center.
“It was a complete performance offensively,” McMahon said. “He was very good scoring the ball in the post [and] defensively [he gave] tremendous effort. Probably in my time here—and this is something that would never show up in the box score—it was the best individual game of screening by a player that I’ve seen. We scored double digit points off screens, and they were all legal, he just got our guys wide open looks possession after possession.”
Meanwhile, Eaves poured in 14 points on 4-for-8 shooting and 4-for-6 shooting from the free throw line against the Governors.
After shedding 25 to 30 pounds at the beginning of the season, Eaves has worked his way to shooting 48.2% from the field and averaging 12.7 ppg in OVC play, something that makes him an All-OVC caliber player in McMahon’s eyes.
“Jaiveon Eaves has played at an all-conference level,” McMahon said. “He’s averaging 13 [points] a game, he’s shooting 48% from the floor, he’s fourth in the league at 43% from behind the arc [and] he’s been great defensively. He’s had an awesome senior year in the league for sure.”
Sophomore forward KJ Williams also had a very productive week, averaging 17.5 ppg, 12.5 rpg and shooting 57.1% from the field and 50% from three against EKU and Austin Peay.
“That was a dominant weekend for him,” McMahon said. “He was just dominant at both ends of the floor. [He had] almost 18 points a game and almost 13 rebounds a game, [shot] over 50% from the floor [and] defensively was terrific. He guarded Terry Taylor the majority of the game when he was on the court [and] he had six steals in the two games. It’s not like we were playing six or seven-win teams. We were playing for the Championship and for him to come out against two of the best four teams in our league and deliver that way speaks to the type of player he’s capable of being on a consistent nightly basis.”
Despite his efforts, Williams was not named OVC Player of the Week, an award that has eluded every Racer, alongside Freshman of the Week and Newcomer of the Week.
McMahon says the team doesn’t relish in winning individual awards, but says he feels as though the players should be getting them when they put forth the appropriate performances. He thinks sophomore guard Tevin Brown and Williams have both had weeks where they should’ve earned awards.
“I would like for our players to get the recognition they deserve,” McMahon said. “I’ve said it all along: I think the strength of our team has been just that, it’s been our team. We’ve got a great collection of talented players at every position [and] I think when you look back from the first week of December to now we’ve gotten better as the season’s gone along and we’ve made improvements on both ends of the court.”
While no Racer earned any individual accolades in the regular season, sophomore guard Tevin Brown and sophomore forward KJ Williams saw their impressive regular season play rewarded when they were named to the 2019-2020 All-OVC First Team.
Nonetheless, Murray State earned the No. 2 seed and a double-bye, meaning they could take on either EIU, Jacksonville State or Austin Peay when they play in the OVC Semifinals.
McMahon said the teams within their side of the bracket are all very talented and the Racers will need to prepare for each potential opponent going into their game.
“We have a loaded field on our side of the bracket,” McMahon said. “We’ll prepare for every team that we could potentially play. Some of the teams on our side are fresher than others. We just played Austin Peay [and] we played Eastern Illinois twice in the last month or so and then Jacksonville State we haven’t played in almost two months, so we have a lot to do on that scouting report.”
Murray State will look to advance to the OVC Championship game when they play in the OVC Semifinals on Friday, March 6, at 9 p.m.
