No. 3 – Morehead State Eagles
Seemingly every OVC team has had a massive makeover. After dominating the OVC, coach Preston Spradlin left and former assistant Jonathan Mattox ‘came home’ to take the reins. Mattox coached nine seasons in Morehead, Kentucky and then moved to Murray State for the past two years.
This is the job he truly wanted and now it is his! But his work is cut out for him. With Spradlin’s departure and graduation losses, this roster doesn’t look much like last year’s OVC Tournament title team.
Only Dieonte Miles returns with significant Morehead experience. The 7-footer averaged a ‘double-nickel’ during last year’s 26-win season. He started 30 of 32 games and brings great size and experience to the post.
Two young players that didn’t get to play much last year, but were very highly regarded by the previous staff are Trent Scott and George Marshall. The athletic guards could be diamonds in the rough.
A quartet of D1 transfers bring experience to Mattox’s first team. Kenny White Jr joins his third OVC team. He began his career at Tennessee Tech, moved to Murray State and then played last season at UT Martin. The versatile wing has collected 667 career points.
Three D1 transfer guards have arrived. Steven Clay (4.3 ppg) comes to Morehead from Illinois Chicago. Tyler Brelsford (6.8) has accumulated 574 points after one season at George Washington and three at Bryant. Jalen Breazeale (6.0) spent two seasons at USC Upstate.
Junior college bigs Khouri Carvey and Jaden Webb will help Miles in the middle. Carvey was a top-100 junior college player.
Morehead has had great success recruiting NAIA players and this year’s candidate is 6’4 wing Kade Ruegsegger. He averaged 18.8 points for Vernon Nazarene.
Jalen Windham and Anouar Mellouk have D1 experience.
Mattox landed Kentucky’s tenth rated player in guard Christian Doerr.
Mattox’s first season roster has a lot of talent, how he blends it together will tell the tale of his first head coaching season.