His Morehead State basketball program was picked to finish eighth in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) this preseason.
Spring forward and head coach Preston Spradlin, a native of Pike County and 2005 graduate of Betsy Layne High School, has been named 2020-21 OVC men’s basketball coach of the year.
He guided the Eagles to a 20-7 mark and second place finish in the league. His team won 17 league games, a new school record.
Spradlin is in his fourth season as full-time head coach after spending the majority of the 2016-17 season as interim head coach. He is in his seventh season overall with the Morehead State men’s basketball program and his 12th year working with a Division I program.
He was named the 14th men’s basketball head coach in program history on March 16, 2017.
Spradlin officially took on the interim head coaching position on Dec. 15, 2016, nine games into the 2016-17 season after the Eagles opened with a 2-7 record. He then guided Morehead State to a 12-9 record the rest of the way and a 10-6 mark in OVC play, which ranked second in the league.
In 2015-16, he helped lead the Eagles to a 23-14 overall record and 11-5 Ohio Valley Conference mark, along with a second-place finish in the College Basketball Invitational.
Spradlin came to Morehead State after five seasons with national power Kentucky.
He is married to the former Misty Tackett. The couple has one son, Bentley, and one daughter, Aubrey.