Murray State has played both end of the spectrums with a 113-37 home win against Bethel (NAIA) and a 83-68 road loss to Pitt last Saturday (Preseason ACC 7th, Last 4 Byes/11-seed in current Lunardi bracketology). Much like MTSU, this team has a lot contributing seniors (5 to be exact) and some of their most impressive offensive weapons were acquired in the transfer portal.

Murray State has one of the best, if not the best, backcourts we will see this season. Senior Terence Harcum (#9, 6'3" CG) transferred from App State where he averaged 12 ppg on 36% 3FG. The Racers' offense looks very in control when Harcum had the ball facilitate through his hands, he led the starters in +/- against Pitt with -4 before fouling out after playing 34 minutes. He lead the team with 15 points. MVC Preseason First-teamer Jacobi Wood (#24, 6'2" CG) averaged 12.5 ppg last season and looks on pace to better that this year. Great finisher around the rim. The two aforementioned guards have attempted nearly 60% of Murray's shot attempts.

Amongst the rest of the field is Arkansas-Pine Bluff senior transfer Kylen Milton (#0, 6'4" SG) scored a team-high 19 points against Bethel and added another 11 points against Pitt last Saturday. He shot an impressive 17 ppg, 51% FG and 35% 3FG in the SWAC last year.

Down low, Murray has MVC Preseason 2nd-teamer Nick Ellington who is questionable for tomorrow after what appeared like a sprained ankle against Pitt early in the second half. HC Steve Prohm said in the post game presser that x-rays were negative, but I have not seen a report since. It looked nasty and would speculate they won't rush him back early in the season even if it was a week ago. That leaves Alden Applewhite (#13, 6'7" F) taking minutes at the 5 leaving the Racers at a size disadvantage in the front court.

My keys for Saturday is to limit one of the guards. I think the main target should be Harcum who scored just 6 points, 0 assists in the second half against Pitt after leading his team with 9 points, 3 assists in the first half. Their guards will score but keeping the ball out of Harcum's hands will be pivotal. Secondly, take advantage of their thin front court. That means dominate the rebounding battle like you did against Evansville (who is bigger than Murray), score in the paint, and force their guards to score from outside. I expect another big game from Mostafa, and someone off the bench to get something going on both ends (I like Alston in a game like this). Exciting game seeing us 3-0 early in the season. I'd define it as a "swing" game that could propel us to double-digit wins in the non-conference slate.

MTTim said:

I wouldn't be surprised if their was a merger of the two schools.

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Yeah, MTSU will become tsu-Murfreesboro

blue rai said:

Saw where their enrollment is down to only 6k but the titans are still providing sky boxes in the new stadium and they can still play their football games there. Be careful what you ask for because stranger things have happened …….

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I wouldn't be surprised if their was a merger of the two schools.

scjohnny said:

Explain for the new guy....?

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A couple of years ago Valparasio
University was in the process of closing their law school. MT was interested and actively negotiating to transfer the school to us. I think there were some costs to MT of approximately $1m. Or leadership doesn't have enough pull to get the TBOR approval so it was shot down. That's it in a nutshell.

MTTim said:

Maybe MT can absorb TSU....oh wait. Our esteemed leadership failed to close a nice deal for a law school recently.

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Explain for the new guy....?

MTTim said:

Maybe MT can absorb TSU....oh wait. Our esteemed leadership failed to close a nice deal for a law school recently.

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Saw where their enrollment is down to only 6k but the titans are still providing sky boxes in the new stadium and they can still play their football games there. Be careful what you ask for because stranger things have happened …….

FranklinRaider315 said:

I have no words. Well…..maybe a question, is MTSU still paying Stockstill too?
https://www.tennessean.com/story/ne...-payroll-struggles-glenda-glover/76306642007/

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Maybe MT can absorb TSU....oh wait. Our esteemed leadership failed to close a nice deal for a law school recently.

subkyle said:

I still don’t quite understand if the university is really owed the 2.1 billion they claim. I feel like MTSU has been underfunded at times also. Anyone have any insight on this?

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They are only that because the state didn't match the land grant funding.

MidTennFootball said:

I'm all for Monson getting a bigger role, but the reason Whitson averaged 10-12 is because she's a volume shooter, she nearly shot us out of a few games during her career as much as anything

It's not like we didn't know what Arike was when she transferred here, she's never been a big scorer, but she's a veteran presence that is a really good defender. On a team that doesn't lack for scoring options, good defense is plenty enough. Let's give it more than 3 games so she can settle into her role

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I can see your point

MTFAN61 said:

Great to see Gregory getting back in form. One thing that could have helped immensely last night would have been better production from the #4 spot. Almost nightly Whitson was a consistent 10-12 point scorer, & was always a fighter on the boards. Was definitely expecting similar if not better offensive production from Arike, but not only has it not been similar production it's gotten worse. It's been most noticeable against higher quality competition recently. Against GCU she had only 4 points, but she did have a decent rebounding evening. However against Tennessee she didn't score a single point, & only had 3 rebounds all game.
If someone of Whitson's persistence had been in the game against UT we would be looking at a much closer game at the end. Arike is a good role player, & has excellent size. I'm not saying she should be totally benched, but it's time to give Monson more of a shot.
I know coach says if you want time on the court you have to show it in practice. But the few times I've seen Monson on the court she may not be perfect, but she appears to show fine effort. Would really like to see us start swapping her more with Arike. At least give her 10-15 minutes to prove her value. After all, if her production isn't great it still couldn't be any worse than 2 points per game. Which is what we're getting now.
Against Purdue, Iowa St, K-State, & Princeton we have to get more from the 4 spot, & if we don't we can be experiencing similar losses. And this team is too good for that to continue.

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I'm all for Monson getting a bigger role, but the reason Whitson averaged 10-12 is because she's a volume shooter, she nearly shot us out of a few games during her career as much as anything

It's not like we didn't know what Arike was when she transferred here, she's never been a big scorer, but she's a veteran presence that is a really good defender. On a team that doesn't lack for scoring options, good defense is plenty enough. Let's give it more than 3 games so she can settle into her role

I still don’t quite understand if the university is really owed the 2.1 billion they claim. I feel like MTSU has been underfunded at times also. Anyone have any insight on this?

FTs were bad, but I think that has a lot to do with fatigue. Both UT and GCU play a pressure defense which is more tiring and we shot 53% (15/28) and 57% (12/21), respectively. The only other game to look at is NKU at 80% (16/20). I think FT% will improve as we go along.

MTFAN61 said:

I was thinking Dominguez could possibly be a redshirt candidate

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I’d say unlikely. We’re thin at the 5 already. She’ll need to play unless we get a 5 in the portal that can play 30+ minutes a night.

jakeboldenbrp said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if they still get one or two portal pieces after this year. Likely a true PG and a veteran that can play the 5. I’m not positive Dominguez will be starting day one at center.

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I was thinking Dominguez could possibly be a redshirt candidate

We had 3 high percentage free throw shooters - Wheeler, Gregory, and Whitson. Whitson was medium high. Gregory has been off so far, but Wheeler shot around 90% for a lot of free throws she would manufacture. She was an expert at leaning in on drives to the basket. We do need to work on free throws, but sometimes it is just who shoots them.

Blakely handled the press from Tennessee pretty well in the first half by herself. When Tennessee started pressuring more, it seemed to take the team and or the coaches some time to realize they needed more than Blakely to bring the ball up the floor. When Blakely went out, we really had trouble. Jalynn can handle it, but just barely. Savannah Davis and Jada Harrison need to grow up real fast to provide a solid backup to Blakely

I am glad Jalynn broke out of her slump some. I agree, we need more production at the 4 spot and Monson is good, but against UT, we needed rebounding so I think that is why Insell went with Boldyreyva and Grannum. If he needed more threes, he might have put Monson in. After Grannum got some fouls and Arike went back in, she had more fire, but it wasn't enough.

I think TaMia Scott is taking too much on herself right now trying to be the big dog. She can be, but she is pushing too much right now. She is still doing a great job, but when she learns to be the rock she will be even better.

Maybe Ring-A-Ling is right.

MTFAN61 said:

They have tremendous student body support, very enthusiastic. Which is fantastic for a fellow G5.
MT has excellent fan support, but if it wasn't for our band I doubt we have 25 student fans in the stands. Wish our school could tap into what's going on with the students at GCU. If we did we would average over 6,000/game.

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I agree the student support is lacking for basketball. Just on a GCU note though, they’re a private school. A significant portion of their students live on campus. Same reason schools like Belmont and Liberty have consistent student crowds. Commuter schools just don’t have the luxury of kids living on campus and have nothing else to do on game day. We would agree there is no incentive for the kids to come either. Free giveaways, food, etc. to drive those on campus and Greek life to come regularly. Winning ultimately helps and unfortunately for women’s sports it will always be directly correlated to the mens success in the eyes of a “fair-weathered” fan.

MTFAN61 said:

Big take away is not that it's 6 new players, that seems like 2 out of every 3 teams these days. What's different from other schools is there was no portal involved, these are all high caliber freshmen. The Insell's are building for the next 2-3 years down the road. Hopefully we can keep them all. As mentioned before combining these ladies with Davis, Harrison, Monson, & Scott has a good chance to make a pretty darn good team next year as well.

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I wouldn’t be surprised if they still get one or two portal pieces after this year. Likely a true PG and a veteran that can play the 5. I’m not positive Dominguez will be starting day one at center.

Definitely something to work on. Wouldn't have salvaged the game for us given all our TOs and open 3s given up, but would've made it a lot closer...

Solid! Hope they keep winning.

Grand Canyon just picked up the 70-59 W over Arizona St. They had a nice 15-5 4th quarter to secure the win. I think this will prove to be a solid win for the Lady Raiders as the season goes on. Their next games are @ #25 Oregon 11/18 and vs Liberty (11/27); should be some ones to keep an eye on.

MTFAN61 said:

I agree. In fact CRI has won on average close to 25 games annually for close to the last 20 years. Which brings up a question I have trouble answering.
I just turned over to watch a Grand Canyon women's game live on ESPN+. They have tremendous student body support, very enthusiastic. Which is fantastic for a fellow G5.
MT has excellent fan support, but if it wasn't for our band I doubt we have 25 student fans in the stands. Wish our school could tap into what's going on with the students at GCU. If we did we would average over 6,000/game.

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Definitely seems to be more common for teams on the west coast bc there are a bunch of G5's that get alot of student support