MURRAY — Clearly, Murray State Head Men’s Basketball Coach Ryan Miller was displeased with Monday night’s embarrassing 89-60 loss to Northern Iowa on Dill Family Court at the CFSB Center.
There were so many aspects to the loss, they honestly were too many to count. However, he clearly was not hitting the panic button, and, believe it or not, he had reason.
As bad as Monday night became — the single worst home loss in Murray State mens’s basketball history — the Racers are still in a very good position in the rugged Missouri Valley Conference. In spite of that horrible performance, the Racers are tied with Bradley for second place in The Valley at 10-5, meaning that, if the season ended today, they would be heading to Arch Madness in St. Louis with a coveted first-round bye.
And there is this … the Racers have an immediate chance to sweeten the bitter taste of Monday night, with a game at Indiana State tonight in Terre Haute.
“We’re in second place in the Missouri Valley Conference, a top-nine league in the country (ranked one spot behind the West Coast Conference, which includes two top-20 teams in Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s), so I’m not going crazy. We’ve had a good year,” Miller said during his postgame comments Monday night. “We’re in second place. Now, I’d like to be in first but we’re second, but it’s not a time to panic and go crazy.
“We laid an egg tonight … no question. We got beat physically … no question. Does it stink? Yes. Do we have to go back and look at things? Yes. But we’ve had a good season and we’ve got five games left in the league and, hopefully, we can get four or five of them down the stretch.”
The first thing for the Racers, though, is tonight against a Sycamores team they have already beaten this season, though it was anything but easy. Murray State, who was enjoying a 10-0 start to league play, had to fight for its life before finally subduing Indiana State, 85-81, last month at The Bank.
Now, the Racers have to go to the Hulman Center in Terre Haute, where they are winless in three previous visits in Valley play.
If there is any good news about tonight it is that Indiana State does not seem capable of playing the physical, full-contact game UNI employed Monday night. Indiana State is like the Racers, a rare high-scoring, full-court team in the usually physically-demanding Valley.
UNI also came to Murray on the rise, having won three of its previous four games, including an impressive home win over Bradley.
Indiana State is 3-11 in Valley play, second to last (10-15 overall). The Trees’ growth also has been stunted, having won only once in their last eight games.
Indiana State is also entering tonight after getting thumped on its home court, by a Southern Illinois team the Racers handled Friday night in Carbondale.
The Racers are anything but strong right now. While the Racers had won two games in a row ahead of Monday’s disaster, they had lost four straight games in the league after that 10-0 start. A big problem Monday was something that had plagued the Racers during the losing streak as they only hit five of their 25 tries from 3-point range.
However, they were missing seemingly easy shots as well, ending only 24-for-61 overall from the field (39%).
“There’s ebbs and flows, but the whole key is to recover from (a loss like Monday), see what went wrong … and there’s a bunch of things that went wrong …but it’s college basketball. So, recovery is most important,” Miller said. “Then, we have to be much better if we want to beat Indiana State.”
Tonight’s game can be viewed on ESPN+. Tipoff is at 6 with radio coverage provided by FROGGY 103.7 with newly-named Voice of the Racers Dave Winder on the call with former Racers assistant Kenny Roth on color analysis. Pregame starts at 5:30.
