Hoopalooza - Racer Insider

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2015
Hoopalooza
Coach Scott Edgar,
Marcus Brown honored
at annual celebration
Will Aubrey
Racer Insider Senior Writer
Scott Edgar and Marcus Brown were honored at the 2015
edition of Racer Hoopalooza, held earlier this month.
Edgar coached the Racers from 1991 to 1995. In four years
he won 79 games, three regular season Ohio Valley Conference
championships, and two OVC Tournament championships. He
is currently the head coach at Eastern Oklahoma State College.
“It's very humbling to be honored here,” Edgar said. “It's an
honor to be part of the great tradition they have here. I'd like to
think I added a little bit to it and it has continued since I left. This
is one of the best basketball programs in the entire country and
it's a blessing to be a part of it.”
When Edgar came to Murray State he brought a fast paced
attack with him. They called his teams the Runnin' Racers. And
in recent years MSU has returned to that pedal to the metal
style of play.
“It's not easy to play that way,” he said. “It's not really run and
gun. You have to execute. You have to trust your players. And
most coaches don't want to do that. They'd rather trust themselves and not their players. But if you have good players like I
had that shouldn't be a problem.”
Edgar recruited Marcus Brown and molded him into one of
the best to ever wear the Blue and Gold.
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Tab Brockman
First-year Racer basketball coach Matt McMahon (center) is flanked by 2015 Hoopalooza honorees Scott Edgar (left) and Marcus Brown. h
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Edgar coached the Racers from 1991-1995, while Brown is one of the Racers’ all-time great players.
“Marcus was such a great person, he was easy to coach,”
“We weren't guarding each other very well that day,” Edgaro
Edgar said. “He wanted to win as much as anybody. He had that
recalled with a laugh. “So there was a statue of a horse up ini
competitive greatness that you always hope to find. It was a joy
the stands at Racer Arena and I suggested, very politely, that aj
to have him on the team.
couple of the players might want to go up in the stands, get in a
“The years I spent here went by so quickly. And to be honest,
defensive stance and guard that horse.
I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. I was so young and at
“Some of the best fast breaks in Racer Arena were the opthat age you're always looking forward to what comes next –
posing coaches chasing the officials into the dressing room afthe next star, the next job, or the next level. I've told all the guys
ter the game. It was late summer when I interviewed here and
who came after me to just be patient, keep winning, and enjoy
they took me to see the facility. They said, 'It might not look like
the ride.”
much but wait until you coach a game in there.' And they were
One story everyone from Edgar's days will remember inso right.
volves a couple of players and a horse.
“I've been in every major college arena in the country except
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Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. None of those places - Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas - none of them had the
atmosphere Racer Arena had.”
Of course, Edgar was always looking for an edge.
“Lawrence Bussell got fouled and he wasn't a very good free
throw shooter,” Edgar recalled. “Back then if a player was hurt
the coach could pick someone off the bench to come in and
shoot the free throws.
“We had Cedric Gumm on the bench and he was a 90 percent free throw shooter. Lawrence was about 49 percent, on a
good day. It was a close game so when Lawrence went down
I went out there and suggested that he stay down for a minute. Cedric came in and shot the free throws for him. Lawrence
went to the bench and got a drink of water and then he went
back into the game. He had a miraculous recovery.”
But the primary edge he had was the talent at his disposal.
“Marcus Brown was an incredible talent. One of the best to
ever play here. And Frank Allen could shoot the ball as well as
anybody,” he recalled. “Scott Sivills and Matt Harris gave it everything they had. They were unsung heroes. Popeye Jones' play
speaks for itself. He's a legend.
“Then there was Vincent Rainey. The bigger the game, the
better Vince was. He was the most highly recruited player to
sign here while I was here. He took visits to high major schools
like Maryland. He was fearless and he had some huge games
for us. Vince needs to come back here sometime and let them
honor him. Hopefully, at some point they'll put him in the Hall
of Fame.”
“I owe a lot to those guys and I love them all.”
Brown played for the Racers from 1992 to 1996 and is third
on the school's career scoring list with 2,236 points. He was
inducted into the Murray State Athletics Hall of Fame and his #5
jersey was retired in 2010.
“It's an awesome experience for them to ask me to come
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back and speak at this event,” he said. “I'm just tickled to death
to be here. I was blessed to have my jersey retired and to be
inducted in the Hall of Fame. Murray is my second home and
it's always great to come back and see everybody.
“I'll always remember the fans and the camaraderie we had
when I played here - and the rich tradition. I was a kid when I
came here, on the road to becoming a man. And there were
so many people who helped me along the way. This is just a
special place, absolutely phenomenal.”
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with that ball. We tossed it around and got the feel of it but Matt
Harris didn't touch the ball. So he wasn't ready when we started
running the drill. The ball smacked him right in the face and
knocked him flat. He was out for a couple of seconds. And we
were like, 'Come on freshman! You've got to catch the ball!'”
“I think you all staged that to get a water break,” Edgar interjected.
Tennessee State was one of the Racers' biggest rivals in
those days. They had an outstanding player in Carlos Rogers.
“And to be honest, I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. I was so
young and at that age you're always looking forward to what comes
next – the next star, the next job, or the next level. I've told all the
guys who came after me to just be patient, keep winning, and enjoy
the ride.” / Scott Edgar
So, what was it like playing for the mercurial Edgar?
“It was great,” Brown said. “He was very demanding. Every
day of practice was different. He wanted you to give maximum
effort and he used tough love to get it. I remember this one
year, the first day of practice it didn't take much to set him off.
We probably stopped 10 millimeters short of touching the line
when we were running or something. So he runs us some more
and then he brings out the medicine ball.
“We called it the water ball because they took out all the air
and replaced it with water. So he had us do a three man weave
And every game against TSU was a big game.
“I remember we were getting ready to play those guys and
Antoine Teague was having a bad day,” Brown said. “So Coach
Edgar turns to his assistant Kenny Roth and says, “Teague is like
a box of Cracker Jacks. I never know what I'm going to get out
of that guy. I don't know if I'm going to get the toy, or the tattoo, or something else. I don't know what I'm going to get! Why
don't you go over there and wind him up! So Kenny goes over
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