Secrist has championship dreams with the Racers
WBB: The junior guard played her first two seasons at Indiana State
Back on March 8th, Murray State clinched their first-ever Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship with a 109-70 win at Indiana State. While it was a day of celebration for the Racers, it was also a day where Sycamore guard Keslyn Secrist made quite an impression on Murray State Head Coach Rechelle Turner.
Secrist scored a career-high 26 points against the Racers, on 11-of-16 shooting, and grabbed six rebounds. When Secrist entered the transfer portal 17 days later, one of the first calls she got was from Turner.
“We knew how good she was,” Turner said. “When you scout somebody, when you play them and you see what they're able to do against you, and you're trying to do everything you can to stop them, then you know you got one heck of a player.”
Secrist got all the playing time she could have hoped for at Indiana State. She started 31 of 32 games last season, averaging 34.5 minutes, while scoring 13.8 points and grabbing 4.8 rebounds per game — but something was missing. When Secrist entered the portal, she said she was looking for things that weren’t all basketball-related.
“Just finding somewhere that feels like home,” Secrist said. “Being around good people in a good culture, and people I can really trust in — not only with basketball, but outside of basketball, and finding a good place for my education as well.”
The nursing major said when it came time to find a new school, she had no problem transferring within the conference.
“I think staying in the Valley was something that I was open to,” Secrist said. “I already know the conference. I know how the competition is. It's a really good conference, and I'm familiar with it. I thought transferring to Murray, I would already be familiar with the teams in the Valley and it would just help me.”
After being on the receiving end of a pair of blowout losses to the Racers last season, where Murray State averaged 103 points in their two wins over Indiana State, Secrist said she’s happy to join the Racer track meet than trying to have to figure out a way to stop them.
“It's nice,” Secrist chuckled. "I mean, it's like a weight off my shoulders that I don't have to play against them because they're really good players. (Playing against them), the scout has to be on top of it to be able to stop them. It's nice to be able to play with them and have a good system here.”
Even though she’s only been with the program for a couple months, Secrist has shown she isn’t a one-hit wonder in her head coach’s eyes.
“She’s just exceeded expectations from the jump,” Turner said. “I think what you don't realize until they get here is how high an IQ that she has. Her basketball IQ is very high — obviously that goes along with her academic IQ of being a nursing major. I think she's even more athletic than we thought. She's long. She can score it in multiple ways, but, more than anything, she just fits. That's the thing, these pieces have to fit into our culture first. That's the most important thing in this program. You never know, bringing people from other teams and, especially what they've been through, what that culture was like, and then bring them into our expectations. She's hit the ground running since Day 1, fit right in and she’s going to be a big piece to what we do this season.”
While it may look from the outside that reckless abandon is the superpower of Murray State’s offense, Secrist has learned there’s a lot more to Turner’s system than speed.
“There's just a lot of details to everything that we do,” Secrist said. “Every little thing matters — with our plays, with transition, and how we get out and run. It's very detailed-oriented. I think that's one of the biggest things (I’ve had to learn).
Secrist may not be new to college basketball, but she’s still getting settled in as a Racer. Sitting here in mid-August, her goals are relatively modest, but she has some pretty important long-term goals as well.
“I'm learning a lot since I've come here, so just take it day-by-day and get better,” Secrist said about her focus as fall workouts begin. "Hopefully (we can) make it back to the conference championship and win.”