Last Saturday Morehead State beat Little Rock 69-55 in the OVC tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Eagles missed out on the NCAA tourney for 9 straight year from 2012-2020 but have now made it twice in the past 4 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Morehead State coach Preston Spradlin about making the NCAA tourney despite missing last year’s conference POY.
You were assistant director of basketball operations to John Calipari at Kentucky and director of Calipari’s Basketball Camps and Clinics: what makes him such a great coach, and would it be a dream or a nightmare to face him in the NCAA tourney?! He is very much a “players-1st” person: it is not just a slogan but is very real. He is extremely innovative and has a huge personality, which is why he is a Hall of Fame coach. We have played them a few times and we will welcome the challenge from any team we play. It would be selling the state of Kentucky short if they cannot cheer for 2 teams in March Madness so I hope it does not happen.
You had a losing record during each of your 1st 4 years as head coach in Morehead but have now won 22+ games during each of your past 4 years: how were you able to turn things around, and how were you able to sustain that success? I am fortunate to be in a place where you can learn through some mistakes as a young coach while figuring out your team’s identity. We invest on the defensive end and share the ball/rebound on offense, which gives us confidence no matter how much roster turnover there is.
In the 2023 NIT you had a win at Clemson before losing at UAB: what did your team learn from that postseason run that you think will help them next week? It was kind of the perfect balance last season: we were a little too business-like in the conference tourney but played free and loose in the Clemson game. We have the momentum/confidence/hunger to be built for March this time.
Last October you learned that 2023 conference POY Mark Freeman would miss the entire season with a wrist injury: what was your reaction when you learned the news, and did you really think that you could end up in the NCAA tourney without your best player? Honestly, I really did. I had faith that we had enough talent on the roster…but it was not easy news to hear about Mark’s injury. There was no sense in pouting so we just defined new roles and marched forward pretty quickly. It is a testament to our guys’ resilience and belief that we would have a good team, which is how we pressed through the adversity.
You had a brutal non-conference schedule including road games at Alabama/Purdue/Penn State/Indiana: which of those teams impressed you the most? I am really impressed with Purdue. They have size/shooting/experience and are well-coached so they are worthy of being a #1 seed: they are the real deal.
Your team has been great on defense as you are top-30 in the nation in both 2-PT% allowed/3-PT% allowed: what is the key to playing great defense? Consistency! It is an identity that we build from day 1 and focus on every day. The guys have bought into the fact that if you want to win then you need to defend.
You have 4 senior starters: how crucial has all that veteran leadership been to your team’s success? We have 5 senior starters: most of them are actually 5th/6th year graduates. They have size/toughness so it gives us a lot of confidence.
1 of those starters (Riley Minix) led the conference with 706 PTS en route to being named conference POY: what makes him such a great player? He has unbelievable versatility. He can shoot it from 3 and is an elite rebounder. He is also a great student of the game and pound-for-pound the strongest player we have ever had here. He will be a mismatch nightmare because he can play with the big guys inside and also step out and shoot.
1 result of having a great starting lineup is that your bench is bottom-15 in the nation in minutes played: is there any concern that if you run into foul trouble/injury/OT then you might have to rely on some guys who have not seen a lot of action this season? Not at all. If you look at our body of work we have played 9 games this season without a regular starter due to injury…and we have won most of them. We had young guys who stepped up and provided us with what we needed to be successful. We just won 3 games in 3 days so winning 2 games in 3 days is certainly possible.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? When you look at all the analytics you will see that our NET is 106 and our non-conference SOS is in the top-20, which stacks up against anybody. Riley scored more field goals than anyone in the country this year! I have seen us projected as a 14-seed but I feel good about our body of work.