Racers Picked Second At OVC Media Day - Brown & Cowart Named All-Preseason

The Murray State men's basketball team was prominently featured Tuesday at Ohio Valley Conference Media Day at the Doubletree Hotel in Evansville, Indiana. The Racers were back in a familiar 42778

place where the last two seasons has seen them punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

As the OVC had its official start to the 2019-20 season, the Racers were selected No. 2 in the OVC Preseason Poll for the sixth time in the last seven years. However, in the last two seasons the Racers were picked second, but managed one OVC solo OVC regular season championship (2017-18) and last season (2018-19), the Racers shared the title with Belmont. In each season, the Racers met Belmont in the OVC Tournament Championship and scored wins to advance to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. The last time MSU was picked first in the poll was before the 2012-13 season in which the Racers won the regular season. They also did the same in the 2010-11 season.

MSU's Tevin Brown and Darnell Cowart named All-OVC Preseason Team for 2019.
Brown, who hit 90 3-point baskets as a freshman, was the winner of the MSU Garrett Beshear Defensive Award. Brown helped the Racers to an 87th ranking in the nation in scoring defense in holding teams to 68.3 points per game and help the Racers to being third in the nation in defending the 3-point line as they limiting opponents to just more than 28 percent success. Brown was third in the OVC with 2.7 made 3-point baskets per game and was the top 3-point shooter on the team in hitting 90-of-242 for a percentage of .372. Brown tied a MSU record with nine made 3-point baskets in a game at UT Martin.

Named the winner of the MSU Isaiah Canaan Impact Award last spring, Cowart came off the bench for the first 22 games of last season and started the final 13 games of the season where he scored 12.8 points per game and grabbed 8.2 rebounds. Cowart was able to become part of the All-OVC Newcomer Team largely on his performance in the final nine games of the regular season.

OVC Media Day Notes

The Racers are trying to win their third-straight OVC regular season title in 2019-20 and make a third trip in a row to the NCAA Tournament.
The last nine MSU head coaches have all recorded at least a pair of 20-win seasons.
In 94 seasons, the Racers have had 31 of 20 or more wins.
MSU has back-to-back seasons of 10 road wins.
The Racers have been picked first or second in the OVC Preseason Poll in 11 of the last 12 seven seasons.
With Ja Morant moving to the NBA after only two seasons, the Racers are again looking to replace one of their all-time greats. It's something that the program has had to do several times over the years. At some point, every Racer Great must move on and that's what Ja Morant did after his sophomore season. Other Racer Greats did the same including Jeff Martin (1989), Popeye Jones (1992), Marcus Brown (1996), Isaiah Canaan (2013), Cameron Payne (2015), Jonathan Stark (2018) and Morant (2019). All six of these stars were OVC Player of the Year winners and OVC Athlete of the Year winners. Only Payne, Stark and Morant are not MSU Hall of Famers just yet, but they likely will be at some point. In the six seasons after one of these left, the Racers won three OVC titles, finished second twice and fifth place once.
Coach Matt McMahon is 87-42 in four seasons with the Racers with a winning percentage of .674. With back-to-back OVC regular season and tournament championships, the Racers are an amazing 54-11 (.830) overall and 32-4 (.888) in league play.
Matt McMahon is just the third MSU coach to make back-to back NCAA trips. The others were Steve Newton in 1990 and 1991 and Mark Gottfried in 1997 and 1998.
Matt McMahon is the eighth-straight Murray State coach to take his team to the NCAA Tournament and he's the seventh to take his team to more than one trip. The others are: Cal Luther (1964, 1969), Steve Newton (1988, 1990, 1991), Scott Edgar (1992, 1995), Mark Gottfried (1997, 1998), Tevester Anderson (1999, 2002) and Mick Cronin (2004, 2006).
In 94 seasons, the Racers have had 31 of 20 or more wins.
The Racers get on the floor for the first time (Nov. 4) in an exhibition against Martin Methodist and start the season at home (Nov. 16) against Southern.

Tickets! Get your Tickets Here!
Call the CFSB Center ticket office at 270-809-3000 to purchase your tickets for the coming season and to inquire about becoming a new season ticket holder in time for the 2019-20 season.

When MSU hosted Belmont in January of 2019, a crowd of 8,969 was the largest at the CFSB Center since 2012. Then in March, the record was topped again when MSU hosted Austin Peay with an attendance of 9,012. Racer fans, the team needs you to bring the same energy to the CFSB Center as you did at home last season and at the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana where record crowds attended the semifinals and finals. The 2020 OVC tournament is also at the Ford Center in March.

Globetrotters Coming To CFSB Center January 15
After wowing fans inside the CFSB Center in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2017 and 2019, the worldwide sensation Harlem Globetrotters have announced they will return to Murray State University for a seventh time on Jan. 15, 2020 beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are now available via ticketmaster.com or at harlemglobetrotters.com.

Murray State University Athletics

Racers Picked Second At OVC Media Day - Brown & Cowart Named All-Preseason

Players Mentioned

Tevin Brown

Isaiah Canaan

Darnell Cowart

Ja Morant

Jonathan Stark

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