‘They all matter.’ Morehead State has one of nation’s longest home winning streaks.
An in-game glance at the court at Ellis T. Johnson Arena on the campus of Morehead State University is a glimpse at, well, a lot.
There will be 10 players on the court, three officials surrounding them, a pair of wood-colored oversized M’s facing each baseline and an even larger outsized Eagle staring right at you at midcourt, with circular logos for the Ohio Valley Conference on opposite corners of the bird.
It creates a chaotic blend of colors during game action, but the basketball played recently by Morehead State in its home gym has been nothing less than clear cut.
A gritty seven-point win over Tennessee Tech on Thursday afternoon extended Morehead State’s home winning streak to 19 games dating back to last season, and improved the Eagles to 18-6 overall this season with a 10-1 record in OVC play.
As of Friday afternoon, the Eagles owned the third longest home winning streak in Division I college basketball. Gonzaga has the nation’s longest at 64 games, followed by Houston at 37 games.
The 19-game home winning streak is the second longest in Morehead State history, trailing a 23-game streak from 2009 to 2011.
“We’ll remind the guys that protecting this home court is really important, but that’s about it,” said Morehead State head coach Preston Spradlin, who didn’t know how many consecutive home games his team had won. “It’s a great number that we’re proud of, but it’s not something that we want to add pressure to the guys with or anything like that.”
The streak is indicative of consistent winning basketball from Spradlin’s team, which is in pursuit of consecutive NCAA Tournament berths for the first time since the early 1980s.
Last season, Morehead State posted a 12-1 home record on its way to winning the OVC Tournament and making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011, when Kenneth Faried led the Eagles to a famous upset of Louisville in the first round.
While no NCAA Tournament win occurred last March (Morehead State lost by 17 to West Virginia in the first round), it created an expectation for success that the Eagles have lived up to.
In a stratified Ohio Valley Conference, Murray State, Belmont and Morehead State have established themselves as the class of the league.
They’re the only three schools with an above .500 record in conference play this season, and the schools have combined for seven of the OVC’s last 10 automatic NCAA Tournament bids.
Morehead State has already beaten Belmont at home and lost at Murray State this season, with games to come next week at Belmont and at home against Murray State.
That loss at Murray State on Jan. 29 snapped a 10-game winning streak.
The end-of-season OVC Tournament — to be held in early March in Evansville, Indiana — will probably feature a showdown between two of the three schools to determine which one goes dancing this year.
But Spradlin isn’t thinking about those upcoming contests, or the all-important conference tournament.
“We still just keep it one day at a time. They (the players) know when we play Murray, they know when we play Belmont, they know the magnitude of those games,” Spradlin said. “But I think the other thing is, if you’re going to put a lot of emphasis on those two games particularly, you’ve got to understand that all the other games matter . . . they all matter.”
The focus on day-to-day improvement and handling the prosperity of last season can be seen in the continued success of Morehead State’s key players.
Last season, second-year forward Johni Broome was the OVC Freshman of the Year, a First Team All-OVC selection and the OVC Tournament MVP, averaging nearly 14 points and nine rebounds per game.
His follow-up act, while carrying the expectation of being named the OVC preseason co-player of the year, has been even more impressive with per-game averages of nearly 17 points and 11 rebounds.
“You’re going to see a much more mobile Johni Broome,” Spradlin promised of Broome during OVC Media Day in October.
Broome — who leads the OVC in rebounds and blocks —had a season-high 25 points along with 14 rebounds and five blocks in Thursday’s 75-68 win over Tennessee Tech, his 16th double-double of the season.
The impressive play following an NCAA Tournament season has extended to Broome’s teammates.
Third-year point guard Ta’Lon Cooper leads the OVC and is third nationally in assists (153). Fourth-year guard Skyelar Potter, formerly at Wright State and a graduate of Warren Central High School in Bowling Green, has drastically cut down his turnovers this season while still averaging more than 11 points per game.
The Eagles are second in the OVC in scoring defense, allowing less than 65 points per game, and lead the league in three-point shooting percentage (36.8%) and blocks (5.7 per game).
Morehead State is top 20 in the country in assists per game (16.5).
“I think the two hardest things in life to handle are failure and success,” Spradlin said of returning players from last season’s NCAA Tournament team. “But they’re making strides with it, they’re understanding and getting their urgency where it needs to be.”
A Pikeville native who went to high school in Floyd County and played at Alice Lloyd College, an NAIA school in Knott County, Spradlin has placed a premium on Morehead State “staying grounded” and remembering what allowed the Eagles to reach the NCAA Tournament last season.
How does he think his team has done so far?
“It’s getting our guys to understand the prep has got to be there,” Spradlin said. “You can’t have a subpar preparation day and then come in and get someone else’s best shot. It just doesn’t work that way. That’s been part of our process is learning that, and we’re still learning it . . . but we’re getting better with it.”
Saturday
Austin Peay at Morehead State
When: 4 p.m.
TV: ESPN Plus (online only)
Records: Austin Peay 7-12 (3-6 OVC), Morehead State 18-6 (10-1)
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 8:24 AM.
