Murray State University Athletics
Murray State Braces for Samford Clash
12/20/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Samford
(4-4) (2-0 OVC)
at
Murray State
(5-7) (3-1 OVC)
Thursday 7 p.m.
RSEC
Murray, Ky.
After surviving to win in overtime Tuesday 72-71 at home against Jacksonville State, the Murray State Racers are back at work Thursday in a 7 p.m. game against the Samford Bulldogs at the Regional Special Events Center. The win over JSU wasn't the best looking win the Racers have ever turned in, but the win did reveal that MSU can dig deep and come up with big baskets when they need them. It was Bruce Carter who scored seven points in overtime and also a clutch free throw with 5.9 seconds left from Kevin Thomas that provided the boost to win the game. The game marked the first time this season against NCAA D-1 opponents that the Racers had less turnovers and less personal fouls. Thomas who missed the first 11 games of the season with a knee injury played 27 minutes in his MSU debut and hit 3-5 from three-point range and ended the game with 12 points. The Racers meet Samford for the 17th time and lead the series 9-7. MSU has won the last two meetings, one of those came last March in the OVC Tournament championship game, a win that sent the Racers to the NCAA's for the 13th time.
Samford has played some heavy hitters already this season with games at defending national champion Florida (a 79-54 loss) and at #15 Arizona (an 86-57 loss). The Bulldogs have the leading scorer in the OVC in Randall Gulina who is scoring 20 points per game. The Bulldogs have won their first two league games of the season in exciting fashion. Dec. 7 J.R. Merritt hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Jacksonville State on the road 54-53 and Tuesday Jerry Smith's basket at the buzzer at SE Missouri lifted the Bulldogs to a 65-64 victory.
The Racers carry the 11th longest home court winning streak into this game at 15 straight and are 102-15 all-time in the Regional Special Events Center with an amazing .870 winning percentage. The Racers current streak began last season on Dec. 28 with a win over Rice. MSU's 45-game home win streak from 1996 to 2000 still stands as one of the most impressive feats in program history. The Racers are also trying to extend an impressive winning streak in home OVC regular season games. MSU's last loss was Feb. 10, 2005 to Tennessee Tech (72-68). The Racers have won 14 straight since.
GAME NOTES:
PARITY PARTY: The OVC is very competitive through the first 18 league games with nearly every game going down to the wire. The average margin of victory is only 4.3 points per game and if you throw out blowout wins for Eastern Kentucky over Eastern Illinois and Tennessee Tech over SE Missouri then the average is only 2.9 points per game.. There have been five 1-point games, two 2-point games and 14 of the 18 games have been decided by 5 points or less.
MSU VS SAMFORD: Murray State has won the last two in the series that dates back to 1934 when Samford was known as Howard College.
1934 #Home Won 41-26
1935 #Home Won 45-34
1936 #Away Won 51-49
1943 #1Home Won 48-43
1943 #Home Won 38-36
1972 Home Won 99-79
1975 Home Lost 88-87
1977 Away Lost 76-77
1978 Away Lost 52-54
1980 Home Won 78-62
1983 2Away Lost 52-50
2004 3Home Lost 58-61
2005 Away Lost 47-55
2005 Away Lost 61-50
2006 Home Won 59-38
2006 4Neutral Won 74-57
#Known as Howard College
1 SIAA Tournament
2 Show me Classic @ Mizzou
3 1st game vs Samford as an OVC member
4 OVC Tournament Final, Nashville, Tenn
COUNTY NIGHTS: The Samford game is Murray-Calloway County night.
RACERS RANKINGS: Here is a look at how the Racers rank nationally in the NCAA and in the OVC.
GOOD COMBO: The Racers game with JSU marked the first time this season against D-1 teams that MSU had less turnovers and less fouls than their opponent.
TIED AT HALF: Murray State and JSU were tied 31-31 at the half Tuesday, the first time this season that MSU had been in a tie game at half.
BALANCING ACT: Billy Kennedy has used the first part of the season to experiment with different combinations of players on the floor. So far MSU has played an average of 10.9 players in each game. This has also led to very balanced scoring with the Racers having no less than seven players make the scoring column in every game. Four times MSU has had 10 or more players score. The season low is seven which came in the season opener and at Morehead State.
CURRENT OVC STREAKS: The Racers have won two straight against Samford. Currently, the only teams the Racers don't have a win streak against is Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois and Tennessee Tech. MSU has won only the last meeting with EIU and TTU, and lost last week at EKU.
MSU's current win streaks in the OVC are as follows: UT-Martin 11, Morehead State 7, Jacksonville State 5, Austin Peay 4, SE Missouri 2, Tennessee State 2, Samford 2.
FOR STARTERS: The Racers have used nine different lineups through the first 12 games. Witherspoon and Holloway have started all 12 games this season.
LEARNING CURVE: Freshman Danero Thomas is being asked to learn on the job and play important minutes. He came off the bench for a career-best 12 points Tuesday against Jacksonville State. His move to small forward surely will benefit the Racers...Thomas grabbed a career best seven rebounds too. Through 12 games he is playing an average of 20.2 minutes per game.
KEVIN THOMAS: Racer junior guard Kevin Thomas made his season debut in the Jacksonville State game after recovering from knee surgery that caused him to miss the first 11 games of the season. He played 27 minutes vs JSU and scored 12 points.
SPOON WATCH: Shawn Witherspoon continues to get closer to becoming the 33rd student-athlete to join the Murray State 1000-Point Club. He is 117 points away from the magic number. Witherspoon has started 43 straight games and scored in 85 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.
GREAT START: 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.
RARE OCCURRENCE: On Nov. 25 we saw something that is rare indeed...The Racers defeated Eastern Illinois 53-50 and did not have a player reach double-figures in scoring. Since 1979 it was only the fifth time MSU had played a game with such a scenario. It was only the second time in those five games that the Racers had survived to win the game. 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. Nine of the Racers first 13 opponents are first timers for Kennedy. Jacksonville State and Samford are teams that Kennedy is familiar with. He is 2-2 against JSU and 1-4 against Samford.
Here are how first year head coaches have fared at Murray State.
1925-26 Carlisle Cutchin 9-5
1941-42 Rice Mountjoy 18-4
1942-43 John Miller 21-5
1948-49 Harlan Hodges 13-12
1954-55 Rex Alexander 11-15
1958-59 Cal Luther 10-15
1974-75 Fred Overton 10-15
1978-79 Ron Greene 4-22
1985-86 Steve Newton 17-12
1991-92 Scott Edgar 17-13
1995-96 Mark Gottfried 19-10
1998-99 Tevester Anderson 27-6
2003-04 Mick Cronin 28-6
POPEYE COMING BACK: One of the all-time greats at Murray State, Popeye Jones, is coming back Jan. 19. Popeye will be inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame along with five others in the class of 2007. Popeye played at Murray State from 1989-1992 and still ranks as the racers best all-time rebounder and second all-time scorer. After his time in Murray, Popeye enjoyed a 10-year career in the NBA with Dallas, Toronto, Boston, Washington and Golden State.
OVC EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament is set for March 2-3 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn. The OVC has announced its "Early Bird Special" offering ticket discounts and free concessions. Check the front page of ovcsports.com for details. The special offer is good through Feb. 20.
OVC VIDEO STREAMING: OVC member institutions are receiving great reviews in the first year of offering live streaming video. All OVC games are being offered to fans and media with live video and home team announcers audio at www.ovcsports.tv.
THIS DATE IN HISTORY: On Dec. 21, 2000 the Racers nearly shocked the Louisville Cardinals at Freedom Hall. Trailing 47-43 at the half, MSU pulled ahead mid-way of the second half and Justin Burdine had an open three-pointer that would've sent the game to overtime, but it rimmed out. Isaac Spencer led the Racers with 30 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Antoine Whelchel added 18, Burdine 17 and Chris Shumate 10.
