The Murray State Racers are college basketball royalty — one of the winningest programs in the history of the sport, a western Kentucky machine that spent three decades owning the Ohio Valley Conference and has now planted its flag in the Missouri Valley. Start with the number that defines everything: among teams that have played at least 24 seasons of NCAA Division I basketball, Murray State ranks 14th all-time in winning percentage (.643) with more than 1,750 victories. That's not mid-major success. That's blue-blood-adjacent consistency, built over 101 seasons in Murray.
The March moments are the program's currency. In 2012, the Racers went 31-2, earned a No. 3 seed, and announced themselves as the nation's beloved mid-major; in 2019, Ja Morant detonated on the tournament's first weekend, dropping a triple-double on Marquette in a first-round upset that turned a 12 seed into the biggest show in the bracket. In 2022, another 31-win team beat San Francisco before falling to Saint Peter's. Isaiah Canaan's teams of the early 2010s turned the CFSB Center into one of the loudest buildings in the country. Steve Prohm, Matt McMahon, and now Ryan Miller — the coaching lineage reads like a mid-major Hall of Fame.
The move to the Missouri Valley in 2022 was the program's declaration that it wanted bigger stages, and the Miller era is the answer to what comes next. Hired in March 2025 as the 18th head coach in program history, Miller — regarded as one of the top recruiters in the country — went to work immediately: his first Racer roster ranked as the top transfer portal class in the MVC, and it translated. The 2025-26 Racers went 20-13 with a program-best 12 Missouri Valley wins, finished top-four in the league, and earned an at-large berth to the NIT. Along the way they went 12-3 at home, set the program record with 18 made threes against Akron, and generated the highest single-season ticket revenue in school history — a 25 percent jump powered by a 92 percent season-ticket renewal rate, the program's best since 2022. Racer Nation showed up, and the school rewarded the whole operation: Miller was extended through 2031 and named a Joe B. Hall Award finalist.
The personnel told the story of a roster built the modern way. Fred King earned First Team All-MVC, Javon Jackson landed on the Second Team, and Roman Domon on the Third — three all-conference picks from one portal class is how you skip a rebuild. The Racers led the Valley in bench points, made threes, free-throw attempts, and scoring average: deep, fast, and relentless. For 2026-27, the team moves into a newly renovated CFSB Center with momentum, money, and a coach locked in for the long haul. The stated goal is the "Second Saturday Strategy" — championships, plural — and nobody in Murray is shy about saying so.
But you cannot tell the Murray State basketball story in 2026 without the other team sharing the building. The women's program, under Rechelle Turner, just completed one of the great seasons in Missouri Valley history: 31-4 overall, a program-record 19-1 in league play, a sweep of the regular-season and tournament titles for the second straight year, and a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Turner's Racers became just the second program in MVC history to eclipse 30 wins. Missouri Valley Player of the Year Halli Poock (22.5 points, 4.3 assists per game) is the headliner, but the supporting cast is elite: MVC Newcomer of the Year Sharnecce Currie-Jelks (17.4 points, 11.7 rebounds), Haven Ford (17.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists), and Keslyn Secrist (13.0 and 6.4). Turner — the conference's Coach of the Year — was extended through 2031, and the 2026-27 roster brings back four starters plus Evansville transfer Sydney Huber and Nebraska transfer Claire Johnson. The target is a three-peat, and nobody in the Valley will bet against it.
What's happening now at the CFSB Center is a basketball school operating at full power: both programs winning, both coaches extended through 2031, a renovated arena, record revenues, and a fan base that treats winter like a season of festivals. The men's program is chasing the Valley title that would return the Racers to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022; the women's program is defending a dynasty-in-progress. For a town of Murray's size to house two top-25-caliber programs in the same building is one of the best stories in the sport — and the Racers intend to keep writing it.
The foundation for all of this was poured in the OVC, where Murray State was less a participant than a landlord. The Racers won the league's tournament so often it became a running joke — and the upsets stacked up: the 1988 team beat NC State in the first round, the 2010 squad knocked off Vanderbilt, and the 2006 team took North Carolina to the wire. Racer Arena, the old barn, gave way to the CFSB Center in 1998, and the noise followed the program across the parking lot. When people in Murray say basketball is a way of life, they're not being poetic — they're describing the economy of the winter.