Spradlin and ‘player-coached’ Morehead State ready to put difficult year behind them

Morehead State’s Preston Spradlin didn’t land his first head coaching gig in the fashion he’d envisioned.

Nine games into his third season as an assistant with the Eagles in 2016, Spradlin was named interim head coach after Sean Woods resigned following an investigation into allegations that he assaulted two players during a road game in Evansville, Ind.

Spradlin, who spent five years with the University of Kentucky as a graduate assistant and assistant director of basketball operations before departing for Morehead, inherited a team that could have easily fallen apart.

Instead, Spradlin and the Eagles rallied. With a record of 2-7 when Woods departed, Morehead State went 12-9 the rest of the way under Spradlin and finished 10-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Spradlin finished second in OVC Coach of the Year voting after the turnaround and signed a four-year deal with the Eagles, becoming the youngest head coach in Division I basketball.

Now, with the turmoil surrounding his ascent well in the rear-view mirror heading into his second full season at the helm, Spradlin appears to have Morehead poised to again make some noise in the OVC.

“We’re very excited about where our guys are and the work they’ve put in,” Spradlin said at the team’s Media Day last month. “(Last year) was a difficult year looking at the win-loss record ... but that’s where families are made, that’s where your character is really shown.”

Morehead State went 8-21 last year with a roster that included 10 new players and returned just four, none of whom was a starter from the previous season. The Eagles’ youth and lack of experience contributed to eight losses by five or fewer points.

But this season the circumstances have flipped. Morehead has nine returning players, including all five starters from last year. Still, the Eagles were voted to finish 10th in the 12-team Ohio Valley Conference this season in both the coaches and media preseason polls.

There remains plenty to prove.

“Last year not only was everything that came out of my mouth new for those 10 players, it was new for all 14 of them, because all of those guys were thrown into new roles that they’d never been in before,” said Spradlin. “Probably the most refreshing thing this year is that not everything is new. It makes a huge difference.

“I always use the Tom Izzo thing. A coach-coached team will only get you so far. A player-coached team has a chance to be special. And if you come to our practices now you’ll see a player-coached team ... the returning players are teaching the new guys and they’re leading by example, and I think there’s an air of confidence that comes with that.”

That new-found confidence will be put to the test early. After the Eagles open the season at home against Kentucky Christian on Tuesday night, they’ll travel to UConn for a a bout with the Huskies on Thursday. Two days later they’ll face Syracuse on the road.

It’s an early trial by fire that could go a long way toward showing Spradlin how far his young team has come since last year’s grind. But junior guard Jordan Walker said the Eagles aren’t attaching any added weight to the road trip.

“We’ll treat them like any other game. It wouldn’t matter if it was a D-2 school, juco or the top D-1 team in the country,” he said.

Walker has emerged as one of the clear leaders for the Eagles. As a sophomore, he averaged team highs of 12.2 points and 31.6 minutes per game. He averaged 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per contest. Walker said a lack of leadership dogged the Eagles all last year, and that he, along with seniors A.J. Hicks and Lamontray Harris, are determined to avoid that pitfall this time.

“This year the three of us are the older guys, the veterans,” Walker said. “We all went through the same experience last year, so us being able to talk to the guys more, they’re trusting in us and we’re showing them how to do things ... we took that role. We’re built for it, so we had to do it.”

As for Spradlin, he’s happy to cede some authority to Walker and his other veterans.

“It’s not just my voice all the time, it’s these guys’,” Spradlin said. “I’m real excited for those guys because I’ve seen a huge difference from where they were individually and where we were as a team last year.”

Season opener

Kentucky Christian at Morehead State

When: Tuesday, 6:05 p.m.

Coverage: ESPN Plus (online only)