After getting a taste, Racers chasing those championship feelings again
WBB: Fall practice has officially begun for the reigning conference champions
In their first two seasons in the Missouri Valley Conference, Murray State finished 8th and 6th, respectively, in the regular season race, and the Racers never made it past the tournament quarterfinals.
A year removed from heading into what ultimately evolved into a championship season for her program, Rechelle Turner admits she had a hunch her team could make a run to the top of The Valley in 2024-25.
“Truthfully, I thought we could,” Murray State’s ninth-year head coach said. “Just because we had so much experience coming back, and we felt like the improvement of our players really showed over the summer. We knew that there was going to be a lot that went into it. Things have to go your way, and you have to stay healthy and those type of things, but we felt pretty confident going into the season that if we continue to grow together, the chemistry was good, and we continue to follow our path, that good things could happen.”
All kinds of good things happened. Not only did Murray State win their first-ever Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship, the Racers conquered the Valley Tournament as well, sending the program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.
Fast-forward to Monday and the official first practice of the 2025-26 season for Murray State. A year after Turner '“thought we could”, everyone in the Missouri Valley ‘knows they did.’ Now with a proof of concept in hand, it has forced an understandable mindset shift going into this season.
“I think we have a better understanding of what it takes to win,” Turner said. “Maybe not put as much emphasis on wins and losses in the non-conference, just use it as an opportunity to grow. Especially this year with seven new players, we’re going to have to take opportunities to play those kids, to get our younger, inexperienced players an opportunity to play in this system and play with our veterans. I think we’ll probably have a different outlook in the non-conference. Our non-conference is tough, so it’s not going to be easy to do, because we want to try to win every game. I think that we’ve learned that conference (play) is what matters, and, ultimately, the last three games of the season (in the Missouri Valley Tournament) if you want to go the NCAA Tournament.”
While there are seven new players on the roster, and the team is learning to adjust without the program’s GOAT in Katelyn Young, the Racers return plenty of offensive firepower. Junior guards Halli Poock and Haven Ford, who both earned 2nd Team All-Valley honors last season, and senior sharpshooter Briley Pena were among the top five scorers last year on a team that finished second in America in points per game. Pena knows she and her teammates don’t get a head start on success this year just because they cut the nets down last year.
“I feel like it’s kind of the same mindset that we have to have every year,” the senior from Jonesboro, Arkansas said. “It’s just step-by-step through the process. Don’t look too far ahead and don’t get too high and don’t get too low. We’ve got to focus on hitting our goals in the process and just getting to where we want to be. (Winning last year is) more of a motivator. We want to obviously run it back, but there’s the little things that we need to focus on right now. I feel like building all that stuff up will help us get to where we need to be.”
“I think our mindset now is just not getting complacent,” Ford added. “It’s so easy just coming off of a championship of, ‘Alright, we did it.’ Now we just have to be ready to just grind even more, trying to do it again. It’s hard going back-to-back, and we know we’ve got the target on our backs now. We’ve got to go into every game knowing that we’re getting hunted. I know my freshman year, we were new to The Valley, and we were more, ‘Alright, we’ve got to make a name for ourselves.’ Last year, with us winning it, we kind of knew like, ‘Alright, now things have changed.’ Now we’re getting hunted, so we’ve got to have that mindset going in to each game.”
It’s been more than six months since the Racers beat Belmont in the Missouri Valley Tournament championship, earning their spot in the NCAA Tournament. That moment will always be something that those involved can look back at fondly — but it was six months ago. Today, that victorious weekend in Evansville is less about nostalgia and more about fuel.
“It was a dream going to the NCAA tournament, something that I’ve watched on TV as a little kid,” Ford said. “You grow up like, ‘Hey, I want to do that. I want to be there, I want to experience that.’ Now it’s, ‘OK, let’s do it again.’ You got a taste of it, you know what it’s like, and you know the feeling and how fun it was. You’re just trying to chase more and just not be settled with just one. You want to try to get as many as you can, you know? That’s how I think a legacy gets extended, is how many you can get, and that’s what we’re going to aim for.”
Despite common threads connecting one year’s roster to the next, every season presents its own unique team. This group is different than what we saw last year, and it’s different than what we will see next year. No matter how successful a program is, those differences always provide a level of anxiety for a coaching staff at the beginning of a new season, and offer up a whole list of things a head coach can be worried about. This version of the Racers is no different.
“Chemistry is the number one deal,” Turner said. “Relationships are the number one deal. I felt like that was the difference maker for us last year. The chemistry and the bond that that team had, 1-through-15, nobody cared who got the credit. Everybody just worked and did their job every single day. That’s something that I hope this team brings from last year, the understanding that that matters, the understanding that we’re going to have some patience. We have a whole brand new core in our post. Nobody in our post group has played one minute at Murray State, of the people that are healthy right now. You’ve got to love to have your two lead guards be All-Conference players, but it’s going to be a mixture, and how we can mix together and how we can get that chemistry to the highest level.”
Monday was the first of 30 practices before Murray State opens the season November 7th at Southern Indiana. That first practice officially begins the journey the Racers hope will end March 15th with another championship celebration.
“You take those emotions and how fun (winning was last year), and the experience that you get to have as a team, as a program, and you just want to try to implement that again and try to do it again,” Ford said. “It was so much fun. Taking from what we did last year, not trying to live in last year, but taking that and moving it on to this year and just trying to repeat is what we’ve been doing.”