OVC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season

1. Morehead State Eagles – Head Coach Preston Spradlin

2022-23 record: 22-12 overall, 14-4 in the OVC

Morehead State has become the class of the league and the team that every other program is looking up to. Three straight 20-win seasons, one OVC Tournament championship and one regular season title in that span will do that.

Preston Spradlin’s team just plays basketball.

They defend and rebound well and they take care of the basketball. Oh, and they have the reigning OVC ‘Player of the Year’ coming back. Mark Freeman was ninth in scoring (15.0), fourth in assists (3.7), third in free throw percentage (.864) and fourth in turnover margin. The 5’11 guard has limitless energy and competitive passion.

Spradlin preaches fundamental basketball and the results are obvious. As the college game has become more and more long distance oriented, the Eagles led the OVC in preventing the triple (.314) on their way to leading the league in scoring defense (66.6). When those shots are missed, the Eagles posted an OVC-best .764 rate of grabbing the ball off the defensive window. Spradlin forces teams to beat them, because they won’t beat themselves.

Leading rebounder Alex Gross and defensive stopper Jake Wolfe are gone, but Morehead has plenty of talent on hand to defend its title. The Eagles won last year’s regular season trophy by three games.

Versatile and athletic guard Drew Thelwell (11.1 ppg) rebounds (4.3) and assists (2.8) and is an established team leader. Kalil Thomas (7.8) is an outstanding three-point shooter (64 triples last year) and contributes on the glass (4.9). If you haven’t noticed, rebounding is a ‘team sport’ at MSU.

Gross was an NAIA star and Spradlin found another NAIA all-American to replace him. 6’7 Riley Minix averaged over 25 points and 13 rebounds at Southeastern Florida. Many observers are predicting he’ll be the league’s newcomer of the year.

Xavier grad transfer Dieonte Miles is a 7-footer who didn’t get much playing time for the Musketeers, but Spradlin believes he can make real impact. Still one more transfer with great size is Zach Iyeyemi. The 6’9 forward comes from Houston Christian where he averaged five-points-per game.

Morehead has outstanding guard depth. Junior college all-American transfer George Marshall could step right into the lineup or back up Thelwell. Jordan Lathon missed last season with a shoulder injury, but Spradlin was expecting great things from the Milwaukee transfer prior to the injury.

Trent Scott is a talented sophomore that is still looking for his break into the lineup, but is athletic enough to make a difference.

Two incoming freshmen come with great anticipation. 6’7 Eddie Ricks III and 6’4 guard Jerome Morton join the program ready to compete for minutes. Ricks (# 9 in Tennessee) and Morton (# 6 in Kentucky) were top ten players in their respective states.

The two-time OVC ‘Coach of the Year’ has the Morehead program exactly where he wants it. The biggest question surrounding Morehead State’s basketball team is ‘how long can they keep Preston Spradlin?’.