"That's Not An Upset!"

After three games earlier in the day, it was finally time for the 8 PM nightcap of the day with Murray State taking on Auburn. Of the four games on the first day of the Charleston Classic, this was the one I was looking forward to the most. Initially Southern Illinois was going to be in the tournament instead, but Murray State replaced them when new SIU coach Barry Hinson decided to decline a MTE appearance for this upcoming season as he began to rebuild the program. I would have preferred to see SIU, as this would have been an event me and my dad (a SIU alum) could have enjoyed together. But Murray State would give the Charleston Classic a top-notch mid-major to challenge the BCS teams in the field. And after last year where Murray State was criticized for their strength of schedule despite not losing a game until midway through OVC play, they needed opportunities to be able to beat a BCS team. And I also have a family connection to Murray State, as my aunt graduated from MSU and met her husband there. They now live in Huntsville, Alabama with their 11-year old son who has grown up a big Auburn fan, the Racers' opponent tonight. This game would give me something to talk about with them at Christmas this year.

The game would also allow the fantasy player of Jen Folds Five, Isaiah Canaan, to show his stuff on ESPNU against a SEC opponent. Early in the game, it was Canaan's young teammates that showed they were capable of keeping Murray State as one of the top teams below the Red Line. The Racers raced out to an 11-2 lead at the first media timeout. And that was before Canaan got going. Canaan came alive just over midway through the first half and slaughtered the Tigers with his quick shooting to get Murray on a 16-1 run to take the game over. The Murray fans who outnumbered the Auburn fans (although not by as much as Dayton did in the first game) loved it as their Ohio Valley team kept pouring it on against a big SEC team. Aside from one flustered Auburn fan, most of the noise at TD Arena was coming from Racer fans.

Murray led by 26 at halftime, and even with Auburn center Rob Chubb coming back from foul trouble, the Tigers could not slow down Canaan. Murray State led by over 30 most of the second half before Canaan and the other starters were rested at the end. The Auburn starters took advantage of this to press the Murray State bench and created numerous points off turnovers. The deeper Auburn team with more advantages than the OVC team would finish the game on a 17-1 run. But by this time most of the neutral fans in Charleston had left, and the strong Auburn finish only meant a 20 point loss. Murray State still got the dominating 79-59 win, and could have won by as much as 40 if the SEC Tigers did not play as aggressive as they did against the bench of the OVC team. It was a rare event to see an Ohio Valley team this dominant against a school from a BCS conference.

And so we had our first Red Line Upset of the tournament. This was the type of upset however where Kyle gets tired of the responses of "That's not an upset!" that come into his RLU Alert feed. Murray State may be in the Ohio Valley, but they lost only two games all of last season, with one of them being in the NCAA Tournament. Isaiah Canaan is considered to be a far better basketball player than anybody on Auburn. And Auburn has suffered numerous Red Line Upsets before, particularly during coach Tony Barbee's first season two years ago. The Racers made the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, and have had a far better recent basketball history than Auburn has. Auburn may be in the far wealthier conference, but alongside my grad school South Carolina they are towards the bottom of it in basketball. On the other side, Murray State is by far the most elite program in the Ohio Valley. The Massey Ratings projects that if these teams were to play each other 100 times, the Racers would win 77 of them. And that is why non-TMM readers would often not view this as an upset.

But the reason why we view this as an upset and a resounding one is that Auburn is the much larger school with more national recognition with more financial resources. Auburn has the fifth highest athletic budget in Division I, spending over 100 million dollars on sports. Murray State only spends 13 million and ranks in the bottom half of Division I at 209th. Murray State only has a small FCS football team, while Auburn is competitive nationally in FBS, winning a national title two years ago. Auburn also has arguably the top college swimming program in the country. All Murray State has is mid-major basketball team in the often disrespected Ohio Valley. When I was at a basketball game at Murray seven years ago where the Racers faced Southern Illinois, the MSU pre-game introductions listed all of their accomplishments in dominating the Ohio Valley. "So what!" yelled a SIU fan, and Saluki fans would talk up how much better the Missouri Valley was over the Ohio Valley, even with both conferences being mid-majors. Even in basketball Auburn spends over four times as much than Murray State does, with Auburn recently opening a modern arena that aside from only seating 1,000 more than MSU's arena is the type of arena you would expect to see above the Red Line. And yet Murray State still has a better basketball team. The fact that the Racers are indeed better at basketball is why so many view this as a non-upset. But in the words of that Saluki fan, "So what!" Isn't it an upset in of itself that Murray State can field a better basketball team than Auburn If fielding a high quality basketball team was a top priority at Auburn, the Tigers could take away from the nearly 40 million they spend on football and re-allocate that money to the hoops team. Murray State on the other hand cannot afford to field an even more competitive team than they already do. That is why this is an upset.

The win of an Ohio Valley team over any SEC team is an amazing feat. And not only did Murray State win, they flat out dominated Auburn. These are the kinds of games that our side of the Red Line needs to get a minimum amount of national attention. Auburn will get national attention when they play SEC powers like Kentucky. But Murray needs something for them to get coverage when in the Ohio Valley, and that is why this Charleston Classic has been very important to the Racers. And I hope my cousin in Alabama who follows both teams was paying attention to this game. I will show him my pictures of the game, and I hope he likes the team on the right in this picture more than the team on the left.