On Christmas Day in 2011, Murray State's basketball team was 13-0 on the season and ranked #22 in the Associated Press poll. We recently caught up with former Southeast Missouri State Head Coach Dickey Nutt, and he said Murray State being ranked and unbeaten that season was good for everybody in the Ohio Valley Conference.
"I think the first thing that comes to your mind in watching these scores during the non-conference play, is you realize that they've got something going that's special. Naturally as a coach, you worry about that game because you know it's going to be a tough, tough opponent and a tough night. However, you're quick to turn to the betterment of the league, and how important it is for the league to get recognition. Recruiting goes on on a day-to-day basis. Not only did we mention Southeast Missouri every time that we were in the home, we were mentioning Murray State. 'Did you see Murray State? They're ranked in the Top 25 at the moment.' This was a great advantage for us. We really tried to use it as a marketing tool for us, but we knew they had a special team brewing, and they had some very, very fine players."
Each day during this basketball season, we will take you back to how we covered the Racers during their memorable 2011-12 season where they finished the year with a record of 31-2 overall.
This all leads to our ten-part documentary, "Stay on Your Wall: The Story of the Greatest Season in Murray State Basketball History." Each of the ten episodes will air on Saturday night at 6:30pm, with the first episode airing on January 8th, 2022.
