Photo - Dave Winder, MSU Athletics
Murray State head men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon has been named the National Basketball Coaches Association District 19 Coach of the Year. McMahon is the seventh MSU coach to win the NABC award since Ron Greene in 1980. Other Racer coaches include: Steve Newton (1988), Mark Gottfried (1997), Tevester Anderson (1999), Billy Kennedy (2010) and Steve Prohm (2012).
In his third season with the Racers, McMahon led the team to a 26-6 overall record and to the program’s 25th Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship. In Evansville, the Racers won the OVC Tournament with thrilling wins over Jacksonville State and Belmont to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the 16th time in school history.
The Racers gained momentum at the end of the season by winning 13 games in a row after mid-January. MSU’s special season was the ninth in 93 seasons of Racer Basketball that the team won 25 or more games. Coach McMahon is the eighth-straight MSU coach to take the Racers to the NCAA Tournament. It all started with Coach Steve Newton who took the Racers to the Big Dance in 1988, 1990 and 1991 and continued with Scott Edgar in 1992 and 1995. Mark Gottfried had the Racers in the NCAA’s in 1997 and 1998, before Tevester Anderson got them there in 1999 and 2002. Mick Cronin took the Racers twice in 2004 and 2006, before Billy Kennedy did it in 2010. Steve Prohm took the Racers in 2012.
(Courtesy MSU Athletics)
