IU Basketball Game Day Essentials:
Morehead State (8-3) vs. Indiana (7-3)
- Tip Time: 6:30 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday
- Location: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (17,222), Bloomington, Ind.
- Television: BTN (Kevin Kugler, Bruce Weber)
- Stream: Fox Sports
- IU Radio Network: IU Radio Network
- Point Spread: Indiana is around a 12.5 point favorite.
- KenPom Projected Score: No. 80 Indiana 77 – No. 156 Morehead State 68
- Series: Indiana leads series, 6-0.
Morehead State’s Preston Spradlin
The 2020-21 and 2022-23 official and NABC District 18 OVC Coach of the Year, Preston Spradlin is his seventh season as full-time head coach after spending the majority of the 2016-17 season as interim head coach. He is in his 10th season overall with the Morehead State men’s basketball program and his 15th year working with a Division I program.
Spradlin has led Morehead State to three consecutive 20- win seasons (only accomplished once before in program history) and has led MSU to an OVC Tournament title in 2020-21 and an OVC regular-season title in 2022-23. former Kentucky staffer, during his three years as MSU assistant coach, his time was spent in a variety of areas, including recruiting, scouting, practice/game preparation and academics monitoring.
Following the 2015-16 season, Spradlin was named to the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) 2016 Under Armour 30 Under-30- Team, which recognizes 30 men’s basketball coaches
Morehead State’s results and roster
| DATE | OPPONENT | LOCATION | TIME/RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11/6/2023 | at Alabama | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | L 73-105 Recap |
| 11/8/2023 | Shawnee State | Morehead, Ky. | W 96-40 Recap |
| 11/10/2023 | at Purdue | West Lafayette, Ind. | L 57-87 Recap |
| 11/14/2023 | Mercer | Morehead, Ky. | W 74-66 Recap |
| 11/17/2023 | at Penn State | State College, Pa. | L 51-74 Recap |
| 11/20/2023 | at Bellarmine | Louisville, Ky. | W 64-51 Recap |
| 11/22/2023 | Midway | Morehead, Ky. | W 94-53 Recap |
| 11/29/2023 | at Austin Peay | Clarksville, Tenn. | W 61-50 Recap |
| 12/3/2023 | Chattanooga | Morehead, Ky. | W 87-80 Recap |
| 12/10/2023 | at North Alabama | Florence, Ala. | W 86-77 Recap |
| 12/14/2023 | Saint Mary-of-the-Woods | Morehead, Ky. | W 102-33 Recap |
Morehead State’s game notes (via Morehead State Athletics)
• Morehead State enters the game on a six-game winning streak. During the win streak, MSU had put up some eye-popping stats, including: +25 scoring margin, .503 field goal percentage, .354 field goal percentage defense, +16.7 rebound margin, 44.7 rebounds per game, 11.0 3-pointers made per game and 6.2 blocked shots per game.
• Morehead State’s 102-33 win over fellow Hoosier State foe St. Mary-Of-The-Woods last week was historical for a number of reasons. It marked the lowest point total by an Eagle opponent since Dec. 4, 1044 when Georgetown (Ky.) only managed 26. The 69-point victory margin was the highest since defeating Kentucky Christian 121-49 on Nov. 29, 2014.
• Morehead State’s 8-3 start is the best record after 11 games since also starting 8-3 in 1968-69.
• Also during the Eagles’ six-game success streak, the leading scorer in all six games has eclipsed 20+ points.
• MSU has shot 50 percent or better in five consecutive games. That’s the longest streak of hitting 50 percent or better in the 21st century.
• Drew Thelwell could become the winningest individual player in program history this season. If the Eagles win 12 more games, that will give the four-year Eagle 88 wins when he was on the team. That would surpass Terrence Hill, who was a part of 87 wins from 2008-09 through 2011-12.
• Drew Thelwell dished out 13 assists against St. Mary-Of-The-Woods, a career high, and the most helpers for an individual Eagle since Miguel Dicent’s 13 against Eastern Washington on Dec. 13, 2016. Thelwell ranks No. 1 in the OVC in assists (55), assists per game (5.0) and assist/turnover ratio (2.1).
• Riley Minix has four double-doubles in his first 11 Division I games. He leads the Eagles and ranks among the top scorers in the OVC at 17.5 points per outing.
• Jordan Lathon has been on a tear lately, averaging 19 points per game in the last five outings. In that span, he has also hit an incredible 61 percent (14-of-23) from three-point range.
• Kalil Thomas ranks second in the OVC in three-point percentage, hitting 44 percent from distance.
• Kalil Thomas has scored 88 of his 126 points this season from three-point range. That’s 70 percent of his scoring output. In his career (including three seasons at UMass-Lowell), he’s scored 900 points, with 561 coming from three-point range.
• Freshman Eddie Ricks III ranks among the top three freshmen in the OVC in scoring, averaging 8.0 points per game.
• Morehead State is easily the winningest Division I MBB program in Kentucky in the past three seasons with 75 wins.
No. 157 Morehead State’s KenPom notable numbers:
(out of 362 teams)
Tempo – No. 296 (Offense No. 350 / Defense No. 18)
Offensive Efficiency – No. 140
- MSU’s 53.1 percent effective field goal rate (No. 67) is fueled by efficiency inside the arc (54.7 percent, No. 2). They are middle of the road from three (34.1 percent, No. 149).
- With a 22.6 percent turnover rate, the Eagles turn the ball over almost as much as any team in the country (No. 354).
- Morehead St. shoots a lot of threes, with three-point attempts accounting for 42.8 percent of their total field goal attempts (No. 58).
Defensive Efficiency – No. 193
- Teams are producing a 48.8 percent effective field goal rate against Morehead State (No. 133). They are fairly consistent defending the two and three-point shots (49.1 percent, No. 138, and 32.2 percent, No. 132, respectively).
- Turnover margin is a challenge for the Eagles. They are only forcing their opponents into turnovers on 14.4 percent of possessions (No. 327).
- Teams are spending a lot of time at the free throw line vs. MSU. Free throw attempts are 40.4 percent of opposing field goal attempts (No. 302). As a result, free throws produce 24.2 percent of all opposing points scored, the 21st highest rate in the country.
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