What to expect from Morehead State Basketball in the NCAA Tournament?

Most didn’t give the Eagles out of Morehead State Basketball a chance to do damage this year inside the Ohio Valley Conference, as Austin Peay and Murray State were picked to finish atop the conference.  Morehead State was pegged with a preseason prediction of finishing 9th in the 12 member league.

Morehead State did their best to prove the media voters wrong.  The Eagles have collected 23 wins thus far during the 2020-21 campaign, which is 10 wins more than last season’s total of 13.

The Eagles have had a rebuild of their program over the last couple of seasons led by head coach Preston Spradlin.  Spradlin took over for Sean Woods during the 2016-17 season, as Woods resigned after the season had already tipped.

While most mid-majors try and schedule power five opponents on their schedule each year for budget purposes and the pure fact of trying to help prepare the team for conference games, that all changed this season.

Most mid-majors had to reevaluate their schedule that was laid out due to the pandemic.  A lot of the smaller schools went with a regional mindset when it came to scheduling non-conference contests for the 2020-21 docket. Coach Spradlin and company did the complete opposite.

Morehead State had a brutal stretch of games to start the year.  The Eagles opened the season on the road against Kentucky, before playing road contests at Richmond, Ohio State, and Clemson.  The closest the Eagles came to a win in those four games was an 18 point loss to Richmond.

After that stretch of games, the season took off in the right direction for the Eagles.  Morehead State has won 19 of their last 20 games.  Freshman Johni Broome has been a huge reason for their success.  Broome averages 13.9 PTS and 9 REB per contest. His near double-double average helped him collect All OVC 1st Team honors, while also being named the MVP of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.  Broome added nearly two blocks per game for the season, totaling 1.8 per contest.

Devon Cooper has also shined for the Eagles this year, as he has been able to total 12.2 PTS, while dishing out 2.4 AST’s per game. Guard Skyelar Potter has contributed 11.7 PTS and almost 6 REB’s per game (5.8).

Morehead State isn’t going to light up the scoreboard on the offensive side, as the Eagles finished just 8th in points forwarded in the OVC, totaling an average of 68.8 per game.  The defense is a whole different ball game.

Morehead State thrived this season on defense, finishing the year as the Ohio Valley Conference’s best defense, and it wasn’t even close. The Eagles were atop the OVC in the fewest points allowed per game, allowing an average of just 63.4.  Morehead State also led the conference in field goal and 3-point field goal percent defense.

Thanks in large part to Broome, the Eagles and company also led the OVC in defensive rebounding.  While the Eagles possess a well-rounded defense, there are areas of concern when heading into this Midwest Region matchup with 3rd seed West Virginia.

If Morehead State wants to hang around with West Virginia, the Eagles will have to improve their ball security and foul shooting. Morehead State ranked near the bottom in the OVC in turnover margin.  The Eagles finished 11th in the conference, totaling more than 15 turnovers per contest.  As a team, Morehead State also shot just under 69 percent from the charity stripe.

While West Virginia may be a tough task for Morehead State, the Eagles are representing a conference that has had more than enough success compared to other mid-major conferences over the last 15 seasons.

Morehead State knocked off Louisville during the 2011 tournament, thanks in large part to Kenneth Faried.  However, it was Demonte Harper who would be the hero in that game.

Murray State found success between the years of 2010-2012 in the NCAA Tournament.  Coach Billy Kennedy and the Racers got past Vanderbilt in the first round of the 2010 tournament, before giving way to Butler.  The Racers also easily beat Colorado State during the 2012 tournament.

During the 2019 NCAA tournament, the OVC did what most thought wasn’t possible.  The OVC saw two teams get into the tournament.  Murray State got the automatic bid, while Belmont got into the tournament as an at-large.  Murray State won by nearly 20 PTS against Marquette, while Belmont got past Temple in the play-in game, winning by 11.  Belmont would then fall by 2 to Maryland.

The moral of the OVC in the tournament is, more times than not, the OVC usually gives teams a run for their money during the tournament.  Morehead State does not play fast and I look for the Eagles to slow the game down even more, while still being able to play good enough defense to keep them in the game.

We obviously don’t know the outcome of this game, but I think the brutal schedule by coach Spradlin and his staff put in front of his team at the beginning of the season will have helped prepare Morehead State for this game against West Virginia.

This game is scheduled for a 9:50 ET tip on Friday night March 19, 2021.