Tyndall shares the current honor with UT Martin Coach Bret Campbell.

In his second season at his alma mater, Tyndall took a team that was 4-23 in 2005-06 and guided them to a 12-18 record a year ago and to a 15-15 mark this season.  His MSU team was picked to finish 10^th in the 2007-08 OVC preseason poll, but had a 12-8 in conference play and earned a third-place finish.

“It is a great honor to be selected Coach of the Year by such a highly regarded media outlet as collegeinsider.com,” Tyndall said.  “This award brings national attention to our basketball team and program which our players and staff certainly deserve.”

Tyndall, in his second season at his alma mater, took a team that was 4-23 in 2005-06 and guided them to a 12-18 record a year ago and to a 15-15 mark this season. His MSU team was picked to finish 10^th in the OVC's preseason poll, but proceeded to go 12-8 in conference play and earn a third-place finish.

He is the fourth MSU coach to earn Coach of the Year honors and the first since 1994-95. Other Eagle coaches to win the award are Jack Schalow, Wayne Martin and Dick Fick.

"I am very honored to be named OVC Coach of the Year," Tyndall said. "With so many great programs and coaches in the league, it is truly humbling to be selected. I am so appreciative of my staff. Barry (Wortham), Chris (Moore), Kevin (Reynolds) and Jake (Lawrence) are tireless workers who do a fantastic job in every aspect of our program. I feel incredibly fortunate to work with them.

"Our players are obviously a large part of this as well. This is my 14^th year in coaching, and I've had the best group of young men this season that I have ever coached. They are great players, great students, great people and great teammates. Five of our 11 players had a 3.0 or higher grade point average for the fall semester. They were a joy to coach each and every day.

"The most exciting and humbling thing to me about being selected OVC Coach of the Year is that my name will always be in the record books on the same list as Coach Wayne Martin. Coach Martin is a guy who I have looked up to for a long time. So, for me, this is very special. I can only hope to have the same success he had as we continue to build this MSU program."

Buchanan, a junior college transfer from Albany, Ga., averaged 13.2 points and 6.1 rebounds this season. He ranks among the OVC leaders in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Buchanan has also been ranked among the NCAA leaders in field goal percentage and free throw percentage for much of 2007-08. He scored a career-high 35 points at Bowling Green earlier this season.

Faried, a freshman from Newark, N.J., averaged 10.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in his initial college season. He is among the league leaders in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots. Faried led the Eagles in rebounding in 21 games this season.

"As I've said from day one, our talent level has improved and will continue to improve here at MSU," Tyndall said. "These two guys are very talented, hard-working young men who certainly deserve this honor and who were a huge part of our success this season."

Tyndall was on hand in Nashville tonight (March 6) to receive the Coach of the Year award at ceremonies announcing all of the conference's post-season honors for men's and women's basketball.

 "Those two guys (Steward and Stojakovic) have been special young men for the past two years," said MSU coach Donnie Tyndall. "I'll miss those guys. They gave everything they had every day for two years. It's going to be very difficult to replace these two young men."

Morehead State finished the season with a 15-15 record and finished in third place in the OVC. The Tigers improved to 14-16 and move on to the OVC Tournament semifinals at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium Friday.

Steward led the Eagles from behind the arc, hitting four of seven three-pointers against TSU, including a three-ball with 11:51 left in the game to pull the Eagles within two, 47-45.

"Every time we got it within one, two or three, (Jerrell) Houston made tough shot after tough shot," said MSU head coach Donnie Tyndall. "I thought our effort level was fine and our energy level was fine, we just turned it over too much."

MSU started a late run with 8:17 left in the game when sophomore Maze Stallworth nailed a layup to cut the TSU lead to 54-47. Stallworth then cut the deficit to three at the 7:38 mark when he hit two free throws.

The Eagles committed 19 turnovers to the Tigers 16. TSU capitalized on the Eagle turnovers, scoring 22 points off turnovers. Bruce Price led the way for the Tigers with 22 points. Houston scored 16 and was 7-for-10 from the floor. Gerald Robinson posted 13 points, and LaDarious Weaver netted 11.

The Eagles also got double figure scoring games from freshman Kenneth Faried (14), junior Leon Buchanan (12) and Stallworth (10). Buchanan pulled down eight rebounds, and Faried had seven. The Eagles held a 27-24 lead on the glass.

"We have a good group of guys, they're hard workers and character young men," said Tyndall. "We've said it before, it's a building process and we certainly didn't want it to end tonight, but we're just in year two. It takes four or five years to really get your program in place."

The Tigers took a 4-2 lead at the 17:27 mark of the first half on a Price layup and never relinquished the lead. MSU crawled back to within one twice in the final half, but the Eagles could not find a way to take a lead.

Morehead State, now 15-13 overall, and 12-7 in the OVC, moved into a tie for second place in league standings with Murray State who lost at Tennessee Tech on Thursday. Regardless of the outcome of the Eagles' home game Saturday against regular season champion Austin Peay, MSU will have either a two or three seed in tournament.

Buchanan and Faried scored 23 points each. Buchanan had a game-high 10 rebounds, and Faried had nine rebounds. MSU also got 12 points from sophomore Maze Stallworth and nine points each from senior guards Jamyron Steward and Nikola Stojakovic.

Tennessee State, now 12-16 overall and 9-10 and in eighth place in the OVC, got a game-high 24 points from freshman Gerald Robinson. Bruce Price had 15 points, Ladarious Weaver had 11 points, and Reiley Ervin had nine points and a game-high nine assists.

"To be honest, I'm truly not surprised that we found a way to win this game," said MSU Coach Donnie Tyndall. "I knew with the character of the young men in our locker room, we would make a game out of it in the second half. Then, we made plays down the stretch and won it. Every young man that got in the game for us made a big play.

"In the first half, I didn't think that TSU was going to miss a shot. They made some tough, contested shots and hit 10-of-12 three pointers."

While shooting 68 percent from the field (17-of-25), including 83.3 percent (10-of-12) from behind the arc, and making all four of its free throw attempts in the first half, the Tigers led 48-29 at intermission. After MSU missed its first second half field goal attempt, Andrae Belton drained a three-pointer to give TSU its biggest lead of the game at 51-29.

The Eagles then began picking away at the Tiger lead. By the 11:26 mark of the second half, the lead was under 10 points. With 3:17 left in the game, a Stojakovic lay-up gave MSU a 69-68 lead, and the Eagles never trailed again, making 13 of their final 16 free throws.

TSU finished the game shooting 54.7 percent to 44.1 percent for MSU. The Tigers made only one of their final eight three-point attempts. MSU made 26-of-31 free throws to six-of-10 for TSU.

The rebound battle belonged to the Eagles, 37-to-26. MSU gave up 23 points off of 12 turnovers in the first half, then made only one turnover in the second period.

Austin Peay will bring a 20-10 overall record and a 15-4 OVC mark to Johnson Arena for the regular season finale on Saturday (March 1). That game is a part of a league doubleheader with the women's game scheduled for 5:15 p.m. EST and the men's game for 7:30 p.m. EST. MSU's only two seniors, Steward and Stojakovic, will be honored prior to the men's game.