Offseason Review: Can Murray State Racers Basketball Return to Glory Next Season?
Murray State filled their final roster spot this week for the 2024-2025 season. Let's review how the Racers stack up in the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Murray State Racers are entering their third season in the Missouri Valley Conference and fans are itching for a return to their dominating success they were used to in the Ohio Valley Conference. In their first two seasons in the MVC, the Racers have finished 17-15 and 12-20 under head coach Steve Prohm. For comparison between 2010 - 2022, the Racers had a record of 312-110 in the Ohio Valley. Now given, the OVC finished ranked 28th out of 32 conferences last season, while the MVC was 10th.
Despite a disappointing start in the Missouri Valley, Coach Prohm is building a strong team through the portal entering the 2024-2025 season.
Roster Overview
Let’s recap who the Racers have returning on their roster:
John McCrear (Freshman)
Redshirt
Patrick Chew (Sophomore)
0.6 points, 0.5 rebounds, and 0.1 assists per game (4.9 minutes)
Justin Morgan (Junior)
3.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists per game
Alden Applewhite (Junior)
5.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.4 assists per game
Nick Ellington (Senior)
11.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 0.7 assists, and 1.5 blocks per game
JaCobi Wood (Senior)
12.5 points, 4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.2 steals per game
Lawrent Rice (Sophomore)
3.1 points, 0.9 rebounds, 0.7 assists per game (8 minutes)
The Racers added the following players from the transfer portal:
KyeRon Lindsay (Junior) - Texas Tech
2.7 points, 1.3 rebounds, 0.1 assists per game (6.3 minutes)
Terence Harcum (Senior) - Appalachian State
12 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1 assist per game
Kylen Milton (Senior) - Arkansas-Pine Bluff
17 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists per game
AJ Ferguson (Senior) - Southern Illinois
8.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game
The Racers added the following players as incoming Freshman:
Chiang Ring (Freshman)
Jordan McCullum (Freshman)
The Racers lost the following players:
Shawn Walker Jr - Ineligible
3.1 points, 1.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists per game
Quincy Anderson - Ineligible
12.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1 steal per game
Rob Perry - Ineligible
11.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal per game
Malek Abdelgowad - UMass
3.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, 0.3 assists per game
Sam Murray II - TBD
1.5 points, 1.6 rebounds, 0.4 assists per game (8 minutes)
Brian Moore Jr - Norfolk State
9.2 points, 1.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists per game
Out of the Racers’ top 4 scorers, two are returning in JaCobi Wood and Nick Ellington, however, they are losing both Quincy Anderson and Rob Perry. Anderson led the way in offense at 12.6 points per game, which showed that offense was a massive problem for the Racers. They finished 10th out of 12 in the MVC in terms of scoring, however, their defense was potent at 4th out of 12 in scoring defense.
Retaining Wood and Ellington is a huge boost for the team going into next season. Wood is a veteran who played in all 32 games on the season and averaged 36 minutes per game. He shot 45% from the floor and 37.4% from three, including some ice cold game-winning shots at various times throughout the year. Ellington is an excellent option at the forward position with an impressive ability to finish around the rim and alter shots. He shot 58.8% from the floor and averaged 1.5 blocks per game. He had some monster stat lines, including 14 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 5 blocks against Southern Illinois. Ellington had 3 or more blocks in 7 games, and he finished the season with 4 double-doubles, but was close in 6 more games.
Coach Prohm has went with a veteran presence in the transfer portal thus far, picking up mostly older players. In my opinion, his largest pick up is Kylen Milton out of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The 6’4 Guard posted video game numbers last year, shooting 50.5% from the floor and 35% from 3pt on 17 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Murray State did not have a true point guard last season and finished dead last in the MVC in team assists. Milton averaged 4.2 assists just a season ago, so not only is he an option as a ball handler, but a key go-to piece to create offense.
Terrance Harcum out of Appalachian State is a perfect fit into the offense as well. He shot 37.5% from the floor and 35.6% from beyond the arc. He had a 9 game stretch where he averaged 16.8 points per game, so this is an offensive weapon for the Murray State Racers.
In similar fashion, AJ Ferguson out of Southern Illinois shot 47.8% from the floor and provides an excellent presence as a rebounding threat at 5.2 rebounds a game. In his last six games of the season, he averaged 9.5 points, 8.3 rebounds per game.
KyeRon Lindsay is a bit more of a flier pick, however, he has shown an ability to play in limited time at Texas Tech. In his freshman season, he averaged 6.2 points, 5.2 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game. During that season, he shot 54.2% from the floor. Last season, his playing time diminished to just 6.3 minutes per game, but even then he still shot 62.5% from the floor and averaged 2.7 points and 1.3 rebounds. Lindsay provides some size at 6’8 and will compliment Ellington well in the post.
Aside from the portal, the Racers have also picked up two excellent incoming freshman in Chiang Ring and Jordan McCullum. Both are listed as 3-star recruits per 247 Sports. Ring is actually listed as a 4-star per Verbal Commits and held offers from Murray State, Eastern Michigan, Arizona State, Arkansas State, UT Arlington, Chattanooga, North Dakota, San Diego, Sam Houston State, New Mexico, Montana, Northern Arizona, and Bryant. The 6’8 Forward is an excellent addition to the Racers’ already loaded frontcourt. McCullum had some impressive offers from Murray State, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee Tech, Ole Miss, and Robert Morris. At 6’7, he is yet another option to flex at the forward position.
In terms of the other players they lost, the only one that would’ve been nice to retain given the roster construction was Brian Moore Jr. At 6’1, he would’ve given Prohm a nice option at the guard position considering all of his additions have been 6’4 or taller. Moore averaged 9.2 points on 46.5% shooting from the floor. However, he shot an abysmal 19.2% from 3pt (5-26) after shooting 37.5% (12-32) the year prior. You obviously would like to get more outside shooting from your guard play.
Preseason Expectations
Like we mentioned in the opening paragraph, Murray State fans are vying for a dominating season in the Missouri Valley. This is a fanbase and school that isn’t use to losing games or getting blown out 60-35 in the opening game of the Arch Madness Tournament. It’s a historic program with a pipeline of excellent former players.
The frontcourt will not be a problem for the Racers this coming season. Coach Prohm has numerous options in Ellington, Lindsay, Alden Applewhite, John McCrear, Jordan McCullum, and Chiang Ring. Ellington will hold down the starting five spot, however, I’m excited to see if Applewhite and Lindsay can take advantage of their extended opportunities. Applewhite took a bit of a step back last season where he saw his shooting percentage drop by nearly 13% and his PPG go from 7.7 to 5.2 despite a slight increase in minutes per game. I highlighted Lindsay’s freshman year performance at Texas Tech, so the hope here is he takes an extra step forward by dropping down from a Power Conference to the Missouri Valley. McCrear redshirted last season, so we haven’t seen what he was capable of, but he did have some nice mid-major offers from Kent State, Morehead State, Akron, Arizona state, Radford, and Jacksonville State, so perhaps he could be an underrated option off the bench alongside with two incoming freshman in McCullum and Ring.
Scoring shouldn’t be an issue for the Racers either. Between a strong frontcourt and some of their guard play from JaCobi Wood, Milton, Ferguson, and Harcum, this Racer team is going to be a lot better offensively. This doesn’t even account for other options like Justin Morgan and Lawrent Rice who could take step further to gain additional minutes. As mentioned previously, I’m putting a lot of stock into Milton, I think he opens up a lot of opportunities for the Racers. Last season, they didn’t have one player who could be the go-to option like they have in the past with players like Ja Morant, Isaiah Cannon, Cam Payne, Jonathan Stark, etc. It was evident that hurt in many of their games, so having Milton come in and be able to be an instant boost in the offense is going to be key. That takes pressure off people like Wood from having to be that guy and open up more opportunities for him to score.
My largest concern is their point guard play. I mentioned previously that I believe Milton could step into that role, however, that wasn’t his position last season. Can he handle the ball? Yes, but this team doesn’t have a specific point guard. Last season, that was detrimental for the Racers and I’m a bit disappointed they didn’t go into the portal to pull out a guard to lead the team. Even if it’s someone that doesn’t score, it’d be great to have someone who could average 8 points, 4-5 assists per game or so. Milton is going to have to step up in this role, so hopefully that doesn’t prove to be a negative effect on his offensive ability if he is the one running the offense. For example, in the 2022-2023 season when he led the Golden Lions in assists at 4.2, his points per game dropped to 13.2. For what it is worth, Lawrent Rice is listed as a true point guard at 6’3, but he averaged just 8 minutes per game in 15 games last season. Rice was listed as a 3-star coming out of high school and held some impressive offers from schools like: Georgetown, Penn State, Norte Dame, Marquette, VCU, Xavier, Dayton, Ohio State, West Virginia, Kansas State, and Purdue. This is a guy that obviously has some untapped potential, so what would be a huge addition for the Racers would be for Rice to take a large step forward and be that true point guard that can run the entire offense.
At this point, it’s a bit hard to project where the Racers could end up next season. The Missouri Valley is wide open with no clear front runner after coaching changes and the portal destroyed teams like Indiana State. I genuinely could see Murray State finish anywhere from 8th to legitimately top 3. I think it purely depends on their ability to find someone to play in the point guard position. Their defense was already rather stout last season and has only improved through the portal and the incoming freshman. Plus, their offense has improved through the portal as well. It just purely depends on what they get out of their point guard position. They have to improve their ability to run a true offense and not have a static possession every time.
I see the Racers finishing with 15-20 wins and a 8th-5th place finish. However, this could be brutally wrong or an under projection depending on what they are doing at the point guard position.
I think their defense and frontcourt will elevate them to another level this season, however, once opponents can realize they can leave guys open from 3pt, they’ll smother the paint and reduce the impact of players like Ellington. Unless someone can step up and create ball movement and spark offense off that, they’ll be stagnant. That’s why this projection probably isn’t what Racer fans would expect, but it’s just really impossible to give a specific answer at this point based off their weak backcourt outside Milton and Wood. If someone like Rice can step up as a viable option at Point Guard, the Racers should be on the higher end or even perform better than this projection.
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