Murray State University Athletics
Racers Renew Rivlary With Govs
1/15/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Murray State
(7-9) (5-3 OVC)
At
Austin Peay
(9-6) (6-1 OVC)
Tuesday Jan. 15
6 p.m. ESPNU
The Murray State Racers have been idle for eight days since their last game, a Jan.8 (96-85) home defeat to Southeast Missouri State. The Racers made a valiant comeback from a 10-point deficit to cut the Redhawks lead to two with 15:10 left, but couldn't get the win. MSU leads the all-time series with Austin Peay 67-35 and are 22-24 when playing in Clarksville. MSU had lost four straight at the Dunn Center until they won their in overtime last season. MSU has won the last four in the series, APSU won four straight prior to that.
Austin Peay enters the game on a hot streak as winners of six straight (four straight in the OVC) after Saturday's (68-67) home win over Southeast Missouri. The Govs have reeled off wins over Middle Tennessee (64-63), Marian College (83-50), UT Martin (74-61) all at home and Jacksonville State (78-63) and Eastern Illinois (81-76) away from home. The Govs are 6-1 at the Dunn Center this season with their only loss coming to Evansville (80-75) Dec. 18. Junior Todd Babington has been a hot shooter of late and had a three-game stretch where he hit 17-of-28 (60.7%) from 3-point range and was runner-up for OVC Player of the Week honors. APSU Head Coach Dave Loos now has 259 all-time wins at Clarksville and passed Dave Aaron for most wins in program history. Loos is third in wins in the OVC and ranks behind only Cal Luther's 319 and E.A. Diddle's 296.
For the first time this season, the Racers will make an appearance on ESPNU. Tip off time is set for 6 p.m. with Dave Weekly handling the play by play and Mark Adams taking the analyst duties. MSU alumn Doug Tutt who also produced Racer Basketball on MSU TV-11 when he was a student is the Director for the game. The Racers will also be on ESPNU Jan. 23 when they play at Tennessee Tech.
GAME NOTES:
Tyler Holloway came to MSU last season with the reputation as an excellent free throw shooter. However, up until the last 13 games he didn't have many opportunities. Against SEMO he had another excellent night from the line and hit 14 of his 15 attempts. Holloway had a string of 18 straight going until he missed with 3:58 left in the game. In the last three games he is 30-32 (.937) and for the season he is 46-50 (.920) which ranks him first in the OVC. Holloway has now qualified for the NCAA rankings and debuts at seventh in the nation.
"HOLLOWAY AT THE LINE":
That phrase certainly is comforting sound for the MSU team, because as mentioned on page one, Tyler Holloway is getting the chance to show the nation the kind of free throw shooter he is. The MSU sophomore debuted this week as the seventh best free throw shooter in NCAA Division-I rankings. Here is the top-10.1. A.J. Graves Butler 82-83 .988
2. Derek Ravivio Gonzaga 62-65 .954
3. Blake Ahern Missouri St. 62-66 .939
4. Jerry Crouch Bradley 42-45 .933
5. Sean Singletary Virginia 102-110 .927
A. Eitutavicius American 51-55 .927
7. Tyler Holloway Murray St. 46-50 .920
Jaycee Carroll Utah St. 46-50 .920
9. Matt McCraw Air Force 41-45 .911
10. DaShaun Wood Wright St. 80-88 .909
Zarryon Fereti St. Bon. 50-55 .909
John Griffin Bucknell 40-44 .909
NEVER A DULL MOMENT: through 45 games in the OVC the league continues to produce excitment as most games are going down to the wire. The average margin of victory so far is 7.6 points, there have been 28 games decided by 10 or less points and 22 decided by five or less.
THE RANKINGS STORY: The Ratings game is always a interesting topic in college basketball. The Racers dropped from 190th in the Rating percentage Index (RPI) to 241 following their loss to Southeast Missouri. Here are all the RPI rankings for OVC teams and MSU opponents this season:
Southern Ill. 11-4 14
Tennessee 13-3 17
San Diego State 9-5 90
Samford 8-7 128
Austin Peay 6-6 147
St. Mary's (CA) 5-9 166
Tenn. Tech. 6-9 204
Illinois-Chicago 7-9 149
Eastern Ky. 7-6 171
Murray State 5-8 241
Morehead St. 7-6 245
Tennessee St. 6-9 233
UT-Martin 4-13 299
SE Missouri 5-11 300
Jack. State 2-12 325
Eastern Ill. 4-13 326
Records for teams include only those games against D-I opponents. There are 336 teams in the rankings.
DOWN THE STRETCH: Through 16 games, one of the key moments in each game has been the five-minute mark of the second half. When the Racers have the lead at that point, they're 5-2, but when they trail, they're 1-7. MSU has been tied at the half only once this season.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Racers have three OVC wins away from home already this season: Morehead State (70-67) Dec. 9, Eastern Illinois (73-62) Jan. 2 and Jan. 4 (86-83) in overtime Jan. 4 at Tennessee State. The only two teams in the OVC that the Racers have a losing record against on the road is Austin Peay (22-24) and Eastern Kentucky (32-33).
SPOON WATCH: Shawn Witherspoon's run to join the Murray State 1000-Point Club has been slowed because a foot injury. Currently he is 99 points away from the magic number. Witherspoon's string of 43 straight starts ended when he couldn't go against Samford Dec.21 and he hasn't scored in double figures in the last five games.
POWERFUL PAUL: Senior Dwayne Paul's blue collar work ethic is making the Racers better as he continues to find his place in the rotation. In the last four games he has played a total of 75 minutes and hit 12-18 from the field and pulled down 22 rebounds.
RSEC HISTORY: When the Racers return home Saturday to face UT-martin, they'll be trying to avoid the program's first three-game losing streak at home in the Regional Special Events Center. Only twice before has MSU lost two straight at home: The first came in 2002 when Gardner-Webb and Eastern Illinois beat the Racers in the RSEC, and again in 2005 Southeast Missouri and Tennessee Tech beat the Racers at home. In each instance the Racers won the next game to stop the streak at two straight.
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: The Racers did two things for the first time this season in their win at Tennessee State Jan. 4. The Racers won a game for the first time when trailing at the half, they were down 42-26. MSU also won a game for the first time this season when trailing with two-minutes left. MSU was down 65-64, but got off the mat and won the game in overtime.
RESCUE FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT: MSU's win at TSU was one for the history books in that it's not every day to see a team come back to win after trailing by 18 points in the second half. The Racers most recent double-digit comeback was Feb. 18 last season when they trailed Illinois-Chicago by 11 with 17:56 left in the game.
BEST TWO-GAME SCORING: The final notes from that TSU game keep coming. Tyler Holloway scored a career-best 29 against Tennessee State and coupled with the 22 he threw in the game before that against Eastern Illinois Jan. 2, he had 51 points in two games. As good as those games are, there are other Racers who have had mind boggling back-to-back high scoring games. Most recently in 2002-2003, James Singleton had 65 points in a pair of games against Austin Peay and EIU, while Cuthbert Victor had 61 total points against Western Kentucky and Chicago State. But the top dog is Marcus Brown who scored 81 points in back-to-back games in 1995 against Washington (Mo.) and Louisville.
RARE BIRDS: It is a rare thing indeed these days in college basketball to see a player score 30 points in a single game. The trend in the OVC right now is for lower scoring games. The Racers haven't had a 30-point scorer since Shawn Witherspoon poured in 33 against Morehead State at the RSEC Jan. 6, 2005 a span of 61 games. Holloway came within one point of getting 30 last at TSU. Here are the top-10 single game scorers in MSU history.
45 Marcus Brown Wash. Univ. 1995
44 Herb McPherson MTSU 1966
42 Isaac Spencer Tenn. State 2001
42 #D.T. Mayes Arkansas 1997
39 Frank Allen Tenn. Tech 1992
39 Marcus Brown MTSU 1996
38 Frank Allen Western Ky. 1990
37 Popeye Jones SIU 1991.
37 D.T. Mayes UT-Martin 1998
37 Justin Burdine Eastern Ky. 2002
37 James Singleton Eastern Ill. 2003
# Puerto Rico Shootout
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.
BRACKETBUSTER CHANGES: The evolution of the ESPN BracketBusters event continues with the announcement of some changes. The event is being rebranded as the "ESPNU BracketBusters", which will give more attention to the network's new venture ESPNU. The OVC already has several games scheduled for EPSNU this season. ESPNU also announced there will be a one-hour selection show for the BracketBuster airing on ESPNU Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. central time.
The Racers are slated for a road game in the event this season.
