Kentucky coaching star Preston Spradlin leaves Morehead State for a top mid-major school

Morehead State men’s basketball is now tasked with replacing the head coach who led the Eagles through a golden age of on-court success.

On Friday afternoon, James Madison announced it hired Spradlin to be the next head coach of the Dukes. According to a James Madison news release, Spradlin’s contract with the school (based in Harrisonburg, Virginia) is for six years.

Morehead State set a school record for wins in a season during the 2023-24 campaign: The Eagles went 26-9 overall and won both the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles before losing to 3 seed Illinois in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Spradlin has been a longtime fixture of the basketball landscape in Kentucky.

A native of Pikeville, the 37-year-old Spradlin went to Betsy Layne High School in Floyd County, played college basketball at NAIA school Alice Lloyd College in Knott County and worked in several different capacities for John Calipari and the Kentucky men’s basketball program during the early days of his coaching career.

Ex-UK guard Sean Woods hired Spradlin to his Morehead State staff in 2014, and a 29-year-old Spradlin became the interim head coach in December 2016 after Woods resigned following an independent investigation into allegations by two players that he assaulted them.

Spradlin guided the Eagles to a second-place finish in the OVC as the interim head coach for the rest of that 2016-17 season, and he became Morehead State’s full-time head coach in March 2017.

In total, Spradlin went 140-109 (56.2%) at Morehead State, which includes a run of unprecedented success for the program: No NCAA Division I men’s college basketball program in Kentucky has won as many games as Morehead State has over the last four seasons.

This coincides with the first time in history that Morehead State has won at least 20 games in four straight seasons.

The Eagles have gone 94-40 (70.2%) since the start of the 2020-21 season, with trips to the 2021 and 2024 NCAA tournaments after securing the OVC’s automatic bid by winning the conference tournament. Additionally, Spradlin guided the Eagles to an outright OVC regular season title in the 2022-23 season (the first outright OVC regular season championship for Morehead State in 39 years) and a share of the OVC regular season championship this season.

In 2023, Morehead State won at Clemson in the program’s first NIT game.

“Preston stood out at the top of our list as we researched candidates based upon the resume that he’s built at a very young age as a head coach,” James Madison AD Jeff Bourne said in a news release. “Once we met with him, it was even more evident that he’s the total package in a head coach. The results speak for themselves, but beyond the results we found a genuine and authentic coach and teacher who cares about his student-athletes, about his institution and the community.”

There were also several notable on-court success stories from Spradlin’s time at Morehead State.

These include guard Ta’Lon Cooper and forward Johni Broome, who were both part of Morehead State’s 2021 NCAA Tournament team before leaving for power conference programs: Cooper to Minnesota and South Carolina, and Broome to Auburn. Guard Drew Thelwell became the all-time wins leader in Morehead State history over the last four seasons under Spradlin’s tutelage.

Spradlin also showed a knack for utilizing the NCAA transfer portal to great success at Morehead: Guards Mark Freeman (Tennessee State and Illinois State), Jordan Lathon (UTEP and Milwaukee) and Kalil Thomas (UMass Lowell) were among Morehead’s recent standout additions using this route.

And during the last two seasons, the Eagles have had star players Alex Gross (Olivet Nazarene) and Riley Minix (Southeastern) make an immediate impact in their first seasons playing NCAA Division I basketball after previously playing in the NAIA ranks.

“We absolutely want to thank Coach Spradlin for raising the prominence of our men’s basketball program to championship level and wish nothing but the best for his family and him as they move forward,” Morehead State AD Kelly Wells said in a news release. “Preston and his staff engaged and excited the community and created a winning culture on and off the court, developing our young men into servant leaders. Our goal with our next head coach and staff is to maintain that level of excellence in our program and build upon our recent success so that Morehead State men’s basketball remains the premier program in our conference and competes year in and year out for championships.”

According to Morehead State’s news release, a national search for the school’s next head coach will begin immediately.

Spradlin replaces a coach who is now in the SEC

Spradlin is going to a James Madison program that is coming off what could be considered the best season in school history.

The Dukes went 32-4 overall, including a season-opening win in overtime at then-No. 4 Michigan State, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for just the sixth time at the Division I level.

James Madison won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and received a 12 seed in March Madness. The Dukes upset 5 seed Wisconsin in the round of 64 before losing to 4 seed Duke in the round of 32.

James Madison had a head coaching vacancy because former coach Mark Byington, who previously led the Dukes for four seasons, was hired as the new head coach at Vanderbilt.

According to Spradlin’s contract at Morehead State, he was paid $260,000 annually by the school as part of a deal that was reworked in 2023. That contract was scheduled to run through June 2027.

According to that deal, Spradlin’s buyout at Morehead State was $275,000, which is to be paid to the school within 90 days of his departure.

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