Morehead State men’s basketball wins OVC Tournament, secures 2024 NCAA Tournament spot

For the ninth time in program history, Morehead State men’s basketball is going to the NCAA Tournament.

The Eagles secured their first trip to March Madness since 2021 on Saturday night by defeating Little Rock 69-55 in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship game at the Ford Center.

Morehead State went 3-for-3 during the conference tournament, defeating SIU Edwardsville in the quarterfinals and UT Martin in the semifinals before Saturday’s big win.

Two of these wins — against UT Martin and Little Rock — came against teams with whom Morehead State shared the OVC regular-season championship.

With Saturday’s win, the Eagles secure the OVC’s automatic bid to this month’s 68-team NCAA Tournament.

Morehead State led by as many as 17 points in the first half of Saturday’s championship game, but that lead was erased with more than 15 minutes still to play.

The Eagles more than held their nerve, though.

OVC Player of the Year Riley Minix led all scorers with 26 points, pouring in timely bucket after timely bucket, while also grabbing seven rebounds, to lead the Eagles.

Senior guard Drew Thelwell had 21 points and graduate student guard Kalil Thomas made a trio of 3-pointers in the win.

The Eagles led for more than 36 minutes of the 40-minute contest, largely controlling the game against a Little Rock team that had defeated Morehead State by one point in a game played in Arkansas last month.

Little Rock entered Saturday’s title game on a 10-game winning streak.

Saturday marked the third time in the last four years that Morehead State played in the OVC Tournament title game. In addition to winning the 2021 event, Morehead State also reached the title game in 2022.

This speaks to an impressive four-year run of success for the Eagles.

Head coach Preston Spradlin’s team has gone 94-39 (70.7%) over the last four seasons. The Eagles have won at least 20 games in four straight seasons for the first time in school history.

Furthermore, no NCAA Division I men’s basketball program in Kentucky has won as many games as Morehead State has (94) since the start of the 2020-21 season.

Morehead State sets numerous records on way to NCAA Tournament

Plenty of Morehead State records were set during a historic 2023-24 season for the Eagles.

The Eagles will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 26-8 record, which sets a new mark for the most wins in one season in program history.

Last month, senior guard Drew Thelwell — who was part of Morehead State’s 2020 recruiting class — became the all-time wins leader at Morehead State: Thelwell has been around for all 94 wins since the start of the 2020-21 season.

During Friday night’s semifinal win over UT Martin, Thelwell set a Morehead State record for assists in a single season. Entering Saturday’s championship game, Thelwell ranked in the top 10 in the nation in total assists (205) and was 11th in assists per game (6.4).

Also during that semifinal win, graduate student guard Kalil Thomas set a record for 3-pointers made in a single season at Morehead State. A New Orleans native who began his college basketball career at UMass Lowell, Thomas has made 103 3s this season, which is also a top-10 mark nationally.

And this is all to say nothing of the standout play that 6-foot-7 guard Riley Minix has provided the Eagles with all season long.

Minix is averaging more than 20 points and almost 10 rebounds per contest. Minix has scored at least 20 points in 12 of the last 13 games.

A fifth-year player, Minix was formerly a standout at Southeastern University in Florida, where he scored more than 2,000 points, secured more than 1,000 rebounds and was named an NAIA All-American. Now in his first season as an NCAA Division I player, Minix has been the best player in the OVC and has powered the Eagles back to the NCAA Tournament.

Preston Spradlin continues success at Morehead State

Now in his eighth year as Morehead State’s head coach, the 37-year-old Spradlin continues to engineer success year after year.

Last season, Morehead State won the OVC’s regular-season championship outright, which marked the Eagles’ first outright OVC regular season title in 39 years. This season, Morehead State again won that regular season crown as part of a three-way tie with Little Rock and UT Martin.

Formerly a graduate assistant and the assistant director of basketball operations at Kentucky, Spradlin is paid $260,000 annually according to his current contract, which runs through June 2027.

According to Spradlin’s contract — which was obtained Tuesday by the Herald-Leader via the Kentucky Open Records Act — Spradlin is set to earn a $30,000 bonus for competing in the NCAA Tournament.

According to BracketMatrix, Morehead State projects as a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Eagles own a 6-9 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament, including a stunning first-round upset victory over Louisville in 2011.

Last season, Morehead State made history by winning a first-round NIT game at Clemson, the first time the Eagles had ever taken part in that postseason tournament.

The Eagles now await NCAA Selection Sunday to learn their opening opponent and destination. The bracket will be revealed March 17 at 6 p.m. on CBS.

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