– Murray State has started its season at 4-0 before it faces tougher competition

The Murray State Racer men’s basketball team, who is a perrenial Ohio Valley Conference powerhouse, is once again off to a fast start out of the gate against its non-conference opponents of the 2003-2004 season.

The program that has finished with a winning percentage over .500 in 23 of the last 24 seasons since 1980, and in that time has won 15 OVC championships, is establishing itself as a mid-major power in its first four games.

“It’s great that our team is receiving some recognition this early in the season,” Murray State head coach Mitch Cronin said.

Cronin is in his first season at Murray State and has the team playing the similar style to when the program was under head coaches like Tevester Anderson (head coach at Jackson State), Mark Gottfried (head coach at Alabama).

“We’re probably not in the game-shape yet to play our style, which is to press for 94 feet and push the ball for 94 feet, and it’s going to take a little bit of time,” Cronin said before the Racers season opener.

“But with all of that said, I do think we’re about as good as we could be right now.

Now the opinion may be more positive after the Racers have won its first four games at home by an average of nearly 29 points per game against Wagner, Division II West Florida, SIU-Edwardsville and Southern Miss.

“Coach Cronin had them ready to play, and they’ll win a lot of games the rest of the year if they play like they did today,” Southern Miss head coach James Green said after his 94-54 loss to the Racers.

After being predicted to finish third in the OVC preseason poll, the Racers are getting some national respect in the polls for its blowout wins. Murray State is ranked No. 22 in this week’s CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, which was released on Monday. MSU also received one vote in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings, placing them tied for 49th in the nation.

“It’s great that our team is receiving some recognition this early in the season,” Cronin said. “We are off to a good start, and it’s nice that a few people have taken notice to what we’ve done so far.”

Last week the Racers had two of its key components get OVC recognition with two front court players getting awards. Senior forward Culbert Victor was named OVC Player of the Week after recording back-to-back double-doubles. The Virgin Islands native was a perfect 8-of-8 from the floor with 19 points and 11 rebounds versus West Florida and followed that with 14 points and 11 boards against SIU-Edwardsville. He just missed out on a third double-double against Southern Miss with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Junior forward Kelvin Brown won OVC Newcomer of Week as the transfer from Fort Scott Community College out of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. is averaging 18.7 points and 6.3 rebounds a game.

The next contest will prove to be the toughest test for the Racers as they take their act on the road to face Conference USA’s Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. The Horned Frogs are on a two-game losing streak after staying even with the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks for 30 minutes before falling 85-66.

“There’s nothing better than winning on the road and seeing all of the other team’s fans walking up the isles before the game is over,” Cronin said.

Hopefully, we will become a good road team because that’s a big key to winning an OVC title.”