Racers to host Morehead State this season

MBB: Former Murray State Assistant Coach Jonathan Mattox now coaches the Eagles

Jonathan Mattox was an assistant coach at Murray State from 2022-24. (Photo: Murray State Athletics)

Murray State has added another piece to their 2025-26 scheduling puzzle, as the Racers will host Morehead State on Tuesday, December 2nd, a source told RacerBasketball.com.

Jonathan Mattox, who spent two seasons as an assistant coach under Steve Prohm from 2022-24, just completed his first season as Morehead State’s head coach. The Eagles finished 15-17 overall and 10-10 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Murray State and Morehead State, longtime rivals in the OVC, met 169 times dating back to 1934, with the Racers holding a 117-52 edge over the Eagles. Their last meeting was in 2022, in Murray State’s final game in the Ohio Valley Conference, as the Racers edged Morehead State, 71-67, in the OVC Tournament championship game in Evansville.

Here’s a quick little walk down memory lane:

What we know so far in terms of Murray State’s non-conference schedule is a road game at SMU, playing in the Cayman Islands Classic, and hosting Morehead State.

In the past, the Cayman Islands Classic has been an eight-team, three games in three days event. The tournament format for this year has not been confirmed yet, so we don’t know if it will be four or eight teams, and if the Racers will play two or three games while they’re there.

(Disclaimer: This is the first year Ryan Miller is putting together a schedule for Murray State. How things have been done in the past may be done differently this season, so take much of this with a grain of salt until I can have a scheduling philosophy conversation with Coach Miller.)

There are several games, including some home-and home series, that are expected to be continued this year, but dates have not been confirmed yet:

• Home vs. Western Kentucky (Year three of a four-year series)

• Home vs. Middle Tennessee (Continuation of home-and-home series)

• Home vs. Little Rock (Back end of a home-and-home series from 2023-24)

• Home vs. Non-Division I

• November 11 — at SMU

• November 23-25 — at Cayman Islands Classic

• December 2 — vs. Morehead State

The games above would fulfill eight or nine of Murray State’s 11 non-conference games. Questions on whether Miller will have the Racers play a non-DI game, whether they Racers will go play a guarantee game on the road, and how many guarantee games the Racers will host still need to be answered.