Murray State University Athletics
Murray State Prepares For Tennessee
11/30/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Murray State
At
Tennessee
Friday 6 p.m. CST
Thompson-Boling Arena
Knoxville, Tenn.
The road trek continues this week for the Racers with a Friday game at Knoxville against the Tennessee Vols. Murray State is coming off a 74-68 loss Tuesday at Illinois-Chicago. The Racers fifth loss of the season looked like a win until the final minutes when MSU lost the handle on a five point lead. MSU was outscored 16-5 in the final 4:04 to drop to 2-5. The young Racers played their most complete game to date until the late game stumble. MSU bolted from the gate and led by as many as 13 in the first half before settling for a 38-27 lead at the break. Shawn Witherspoon broke out of a recent slump with 17 first half points, but was held to only two in the second half. MSU held the Flames to six field goals in the first half, before only hitting nine of their own in the second half.
The Tennessee Vols come into the game with a 5-2 mark after nailing down a 77-67 win at Louisiana-Lafayette Monday. The win ended a two game losing streak for the Vols after they lost two games in New York (to Butler 56-44 and to North Carolina 101-87) at the NIT Season Tip-Off. Chris Lofton scored 31 points in the Monday win and leads the Vols with 18.4 points per game. UT has forced an average of 23.9 turnovers per game this season. This will be UT's first home game in almost two weeks. The Racers and Vols have met twice before, with the first coming in 1945 in Knoxville, a 57-38 win for UT. The second meeting came last season at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville where the Racers carried an eight point lead into the second half before Tennessee took the lead for good with nine minutes left and won the game 64-53.
The Racers are facing a team from the Southeastern Conference for the 28th time with an all-time record of 8-19. MSU first met a team from the SEC in 1932 at Vanderbilt, the Racers most recent SEC game was last season in Nashville against the Vols in a 64-53 loss. The Racers last win over an SEC opponent came on Christmas day 1997 when the Racers defeated Arkansas in Puerto Rico 94-83. The Racers also had two other SEC wins in the 1990's when they defeated Ole MIss in back to back seasons.
GAME NOTES:
SEC HISTORY:
The Racers have tangled with teams from the Southeastern Conference a number of times over the years. Here are all the MSU games against SEC opponents.1932 Vanderbilt Road L 29-48
1940 Vanderbilt Home L 37-45
1941 Miss. State Home W 56-36
1945 Tennessee Road L 57-38
1946 Vanderbilt Home W 53-34
1956 Miss. State Home W 91-80
1957 Alabama Road L 68-61
1957 Miss. State Road L 63-62
1958 Miss. State Home L 75-57
1958 Mississippi Road L 67-61
1958 Miss. State Home L 62-63
1958 Mississippi Home W 80-60
1959 Miss. State Road L 48-63
1960 Miss. State Road L 94-81
1980 1Alabama Road W 70-62
1985 Alabama Road L 99-65
1988 Vanderbilt Road L 74-57
1991 2Alabama Neutral L 89-79
1992 3Arkansas Neutral L 80-69
1993 Mississippi Road W 75-65
1993 4Arkansas Road L 93-67
1993 Mississippi Home W 87-68
1994 Arkansas Road L 94-69
1996 5Auburn Neutral L 86-72
1997 6Arkansas Neutral W 94-83
2002 Auburn Road L 72-53
2005 7Tennessee Neutral L 64-53
1 National Invitational Tournament
2 NCAA Tourney, 1st round, Atlanta, Ga.
3 NCAA Tourney, 1st round, Milwaukee, Wisc.
4 First Game Bud Walton Arena
5 at Birmingham, Ala.
6 Puerto Rico Holiday Classic
7 Gaylord Entertainment Center, Nashville, Tenn.
TRACKING THE OVC: Here are some notes on how the Racers are faring in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Bruce Carter's 12.0 ppg is 17th best in the league. Tyler Holloway is 25th in scoring at 9.9 ppg. Jacksonville State's Courtney Bradley is the leader at 22.5 ppg.
Shawn Witherspoon is 13th in rebounding at 6.1 per game. The leader is Amadi McKenzie of Tennessee Tech at 11.0 rpg.
Witherspoon is shooting .508 from the field good for 12th best in the OVC. The league leader is Mckenzie at .741.
Ed Horton is averaging 3.1 assists per game which ranks him 11th in the OVC. The leader is Will Ginn of Jacksonville State at 6.5 apg.
Bruce Carter is tied for second in the OVC with a .875 free throw percentage. The leader is Ginn at .889. MSU's Rob Kennedy is 7th.
Horton ranks 7th in steals per game with an average of 1.8 per game, Mike Robinson of Eastern Illinois is the leader at 3.1.
Tyler Hollway is averaging two made three-pointers per game good for 7th best in the OVC. The leader is Ladarious Weaver of Tennessee State who is making an average of 3.25.
OVC Team Statistics/MSU Ranking
Scoring Offense 7th 62.3
Scoring Defense 5th 69.0
Scoring Margin 8th -6.7
Free Throw % 2nd .703
Field Goal % 4th .438
Field Goal % Def. 7th .450
3-Point % 3rd .355
3-Point Made 7th 39
3-Point % Defense 7th .356
Rebounding Off. 10th 31.4
Rebounding Def. 2nd 30.6
Rebounding Margin 7th +0.9
Blocked Shots 7th 2.71
Assists 7th 11.7
Steals 4th 7.0
Turnover Margin 8th -2.86
Assist/TO Ratio 7th 0.71
Off. Rebounds 10th 11.4
Def. Rebounds 9th 20.0
MSU-UT LAST MEETING: The Racers meeting with the Vols in 2005 was an eventful match up at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn. It was the first time the Racers had played a game at the GEC that wasn't an OVC Tournament game. MSU played very well early and carried a 32-26 lead into the half. The Racers held the lead until 8:08 left in the game. Chris Lofton was the leader in the Vols comeback with 18 points.
HOME STREAK: The Racers return home Monday to host Anderson and will be trying for their 14th straight win at home.
Here is the current MSU home win streak:
12-28-05 Rice Won 83-65
1-5-06 Tenn. State Won 75-67
1-7-06 SE Missouri Won 81-68
1-9-06 Eastern Ill. Won 66-65
1-12-06 Austin Peay Won 67-56
1-26-06 Tenn. Tech Won 55-51
1-30-06 Samford Won 59-38
2-4-06 Jacksonville St. Won 78-72
2-18-06 Illinois-Chicago Won 72-68
2-25-06 UT-Martin Won 81-63
2-28-06 UT-Martin Won 65-52
11-16-06 Belhaven Won 73-72
11-25-06 Eastern Illinois Won 53-50
SCORING HISTORY: The Racers have had two games this season in which their high scorer made it to 20 points. In the season opener Nov. 10 Tyler Holloway hit San Diego State for 27 and Bruce Carter scored 20 against Belhaven Nov. 16. The last MSU player to reach 30 points was Shawn Witherspoon's 33 against Morehead State (1-6-05)
STARTING LINEUPS: Nine different Racers have made at least one start this season. MSU has used six different starting lineups in seven games as head coach Billy Kennedy continues to experiment with various combinations. Holloway and Witherspoon have started every game.
HALF LEAD: The Racers have enjoyed the lead at half time three times in seven games inlcuding the last two.
SECOND HALF DROP: The Racers are trying to reverse a bad trend in the second half of games. MSU has been outscored in the second half in the last five games after leading San Diego State and Seattle-Pacific to start the season.
GREAT START: Bruce Carter's 19 points against San Diego State Nov. 10 was among the best of players in their first game at Murray State since 1984. Only Antoine Whelchel's 27 against Gardner-Webb in 2000 is better.
SPOON WATCH: Shawn Witherspoon continues to get closer to becoming the 33rd student-athlete to join the Murray State 1000-Point Club. His 19 points against Illinois-Chicago means he is 158 points away. Witherspoon has started 37 straight games and scored in 79 straight. The last time Shawn failed to score was Jan. 26, 2004 during his freshman season when the Racers dropped a game at Texas A&M CC His career field goal percentage of .533 is currently 10th best in the history of the program.
FOULS AND TURNOVERS: The Racers have had more turnovers than their opponent in four of seven games this season. MSU has committed more fouls in six games this season.
RARE OCCURRENCE: The Racers defeated Eastern Illinois 53-50 Nov. 25 and the game marked a rare occurrence. Since 1979 it was only the fifth time MSU had played a game and had no one get to double-figures in scoring. It was only the second time that the Racers had won a game in such a scenario. The other was last January also at home in a game against Tennessee Tech.
NEW FACES, NEW PLACES: After eight seasons of being the head coach at Centenary and Southeastern Louisiana Billy Kennedy faced a large number of teams. At MSU in his first season, Kennedy is facing many teams for the first time. Six of the Racers first seven games were opponents Kennedy had never coached against before. Saint Mary's (CA) is the only team so far that Kennedy had seen before. Friday Kennedy faces Tennessee for the first time.
HITTING THE BOARDS: The Racers have won the rebounding battle in four of seven games this season including the last two. MSU beat EIU by one and UIC by seven.
