2021-22 Men's Hoops Season Tips Off Officially Tuesday at No. 22 Auburn
SCHEDULE PAGE (LINKS TO LIVE VIDEO, LIVE AUDIO AND LIVE STATS)
MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State Men's Basketball will officially tip off the 2021-22 season Tuesday evening when the Eagles travel to face the No. 22 Auburn Tigers "on the plains" in central Alabama. Game time at Auburn Arena is 8 p.m. ET.
The Eagles and Tigers have never met in men's basketball.
Tuesday's game can be heard on the Eagle Sports Radio Network with Chuck
Mraz and Tom Lewis. It's also available on MSUEagles.com as well as
WGOH 100.9 FM/1370 AM. The game will also air live on SEC Network+ as well as the ESPN app.
2020-21 RECORDS
MOR: 23-8 (17-3 OVC) | AUB: 13-14 (7-11 SEC)
SERIES RECORD
First Meeting
NOTABLE
• Morehead State defeated Kentucky State 89-43 in its lone exhibition last week. Transfer
Tray Hollowell led the way with 18 points (on 5 three-pointers), while fellow transfer
Jake Wolfe had 12 points. Junior
Jaylen Sebree added 12 as well. MSU drained 15 three-pointers and outscored KSU 45-17 in the second half.
• Morehead State made its eighth NCAA Tournament appearance last spring and first since an upset over fourth-seed Louisville on March 17, 2011. The Eagles dropped their first game to West Virginia 84-67 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
• MSU won its fifth OVC Tournament title in program history and first since 2010-11 last spring by defeating Southeast Missouri, Eastern Kentucky and Belmont in the tournament at Evansville, Ind.
• The Eagles were one of only 25 Division I teams to play all 27 regular season scheduled games and were just one of 30 Division I teams to play 30 games this season.
• Morehead State put together the largest turnaround in the nation last season in a pair of rating systems. The Eagles had a +182 improvement in KenPom rankings and boasted a +195 NET ranking improvement over 2019-20.
• Freshman center
Johni Broome collected plenty of hardware in his first collegiate season. The OVC Freshman of the Year was also crowned OVC Tournament Most Valuable Player, one of just three players in OVC history (Monty Wilson, Tennessee State [1993] and Isiah Canaan, Murray State [2009]) to earn MVP honors as a freshman. He was also named First-Team All-OVC, OVC All-Newcomer and First-Team NABC District 18 as well as Freshman All-America by CollegeInsider.com.
• Morehead State is officially picked to finish second in the OVC behind Belmont, but
Johni Broome is the league pick for Preseason Player of the Year. Junior guard
Skyelar Potter joins Broome on the preseason All-OVC list.
• Head Coach
Preston Spradlin is one of the younger head coaches ever to lead his team to a conference title and an NCAA Tournament berth. At 34 years old at the time, the former Kentucky staffer was named OVC Coach of the Year and NABC District 18 Coach of the Year.
• Spradlin was also a finalist for two National Coach of the Year awards from CollegeInsider.com - the Hugh Durham Award and Jim Phelan Award.
• Morehead State used the transfer portal this season to add a trio of Division I players.
Tray Hollowell came from Wofford as a graduate transfer, while
Jaylon Hall (Wright State) and
Jake Wolfe (Lipscomb) also have high level playing experience.
Tucson Redding transferred from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in the JUCO ranks, while MSU added freshmen
Braden May and
Chris Cole.
•
Johni Broome has been named to the Lou Henson Award Preseason Watch List, which honors the nation's top Mid-Major Player.
