Racers try to end tourney troubles

MURRAY, Ky. -- During his recruiting trip to Murray State, Issian Redding listened intently to coach Mick Cronin's sales pitch.

Cronin pointed to the Ohio Valley Conference championship banners hanging from the rafters. He talked to the junior college transfer about education -- the school calls itself "Kentucky's Public Ivy University." He spoke of the chance to play at one of the nation's best midmajor programs.

Best of all, the coach said, Redding's parents could see him play. By Cronin's math, it was just five hours from the campus to Redding's home in Sandusky, Ohio. Only after committing did Redding realize Cronin's geography was a little off.

"It's like nine hours," Redding said. "But by then he'd hooked me up with the players and I saw their style of play and I was in love with it."

Redding, whose team awaits an NCAA tournament opener Friday against defending champion North Carolina, shook his head and laughed.

Murray, after all, is not close to a whole lot. Want to go to the mall? It's 45 minutes to Paducah. Spend a weekend in the big city? Better gas up. It's more than two hours to Memphis and three to Nashville.

Yet during the last 20 years, the Racers have carved out a college basketball dynasty, winning 11 conference tournament championships on what Cronin calls "our own little island."

In fact, the college basketball team in the Bluegrass State with the most conference titles since 1988 isn't Kentucky or Louisville. It's this school of 10,000 students tucked near a pair of lakes eight miles from the Tennessee border and light years from the national spotlight.

How anonymous are the Racers? Their most famous player, Ron Jones, is best known for his adopted first name, Popeye.

Murray State (24-6) is seeded 14th and will be facing a formidable test against the third-seeded Tar Heels (22-7) in Dayton, Ohio.

The Racers are a hodgepodge of players from 10 states and one foreign country. They have five seniors, none having played all four years with the team. They have eight players averaging at least five points a game, but none averaging more than 10.8.

Cronin didn't intend to spread the wealth so evenly. It just kind of happened that way, a result of his recruits following Murray State's 28-6 season in 2003-04. After nine seniors left, Cronin decided he didn't want to start over with freshmen. So he went after junior college transfers like Redding.

"A kid from a junior college or a transfer, he knows he's got a very short time," Cronin said. "He's worried about, 'Do I like the coach?' and 'Do they win?' And from that standpoint, the fact that we're not in a major city doesn't hurt us anymore."

Murray's remoteness may have helped the Racers regroup so quickly. Because there's so little to do, the players realized all they have is each other.

"We sit around, play video games, watch TV," senior guard Keith Jenifer said. "We might go to a local high school game. For a guy like me, it's what I needed."

After playing alongside NBA star Carmelo Anthony in high school and spending two years at the University of Virginia, Jenifer had his fill of playing at a high-profile program.

At Murray State he's found peace playing next to guys like himself -- players no longer worried about their minutes or their points or their role, just thankful for the opportunity to play at all.

"When you're this far away, winning makes up a lot," junior forward Shawn Witherspoon said. "Winning makes homesickness not that bad."

And the small town of 15,000 has done its best to make up in energy what it lacks in extras. Cronin said the Racers are treated like stars because they're the only game in town. The teams at Kentucky and Louisville are both more than 200 miles away.

"My players are who the little kids look up to," Cronin said.

The Racers, however, have won just one NCAA tournament game, a first-round upset of North Carolina State in 1988. The Racers lost to eventual national champion Kansas by three points two days later.

The next step is to start winning games in mid-March. And then players will no longer have to explain to family and friends the whereabouts of Murray State.

"We haven't made our splash in the NCAA tournament," Cronin said. "That's my goal coming in here. That's the hump we need to get over to allow us to get more national expect and exposure."