Racers Celebrate Historic Season at OVC Honors Brunch

The Murray State athletic department capped a historic 2018-19 season Friday by celebrating at the annual OVC Honors Brunch at the Hutton Hotel in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The Racers took home two of the major awards of the day with Ja Morant being named Male Athlete of the Year and the department as a whole winning the all-sports trophy known as the Commissioner's Cup.

In two seasons at Murray State, Morant helped the Racers win back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference championships, OVC Tournament championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. The Racers went 54-11 overall and 32-4 in the OVC. After beating Marquette in March in the NCAA Tournament, the Racers finished 29th in the final Associated Press poll.
Morant was a 13-time All-America selection and was the OVC's first consensus All-America since 1971. He finished the season with 331 assists, the sixth-most in NCAA single-season history and easily new records at MSU and in the OVC. He also set the MSU single-season scoring mark with 808 points. He averaged 24.5 points and 10.0 assists/game making him the first player to average 20/10 in a season since the NCAA began started officially recognizing assists in 1983-84.

He's the 11th MSU winner of the award and all have come from men's basketball, including recent winners Jonathan Stark (2017-18), Cameron Payne (2014-15) and Isaiah Canaan (2011-12). Gary Hooker (1979-80) was MSU's first to win the award. Jeff Martin (1987-88 & 1988-89) and Popeye Jones (1990-91 & 1991-92) are the only Racers to win the award back-to-back.

For the Commissioner's Cup, the 12 members of the OVC were tracked during the 2018-19 season by their finishes in regular season and conference tournament competition. The Racers produced a combined seven OVC championships (ties the school mark from 1990-91) and set the OVC point total of 128, according to the OVC's performance grid. MSU's 128 points set an OVC Cup record surpassing the 124.5 points Eastern Kentucky had in 2014-15. MSU's winning margin is second all-time for the award.

MSU's second "All-Sport" Commissioner's Cup win comes after the department won the title in 2008-09, the first year the league began the current points system combining men's and women's sports.

Murray State University Athletics

Related Videos