LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Morehead State men's basketball welcomed home Jonathan Mattox Thursday morning as the program's 15th head coach.
Mattox began his career at MSU in 2013 as a graduate manager where he would work his way up to associate head coach for the 2021 season. He helped catapult the program's success in 2020 when the Eagles won their first OVC tournament championship in 10 years.
He spent the last two seasons as an associate head coach at Murray State, but knew that someday he'd find himself back at Morehead and is looking forward to starting his head coaching career with the Eagles.
"I knew how much Preston loved Morehead and Morehead loved Preston, so I certainly didn't want to get in the way of that. But if the opportunity ever came available, I certainly wanted to be in the mix and thankfully I was," Mattox said.
"It feels great and really it's the people. Whether that's our administration and athletics, whether that's our administration on campus, people on campus, people in the community, that's what makes this place special."
Mattox will have big shoes to fill under former head coach Preston Spradlin who finished as the third winningest head men's basketball coach in Morehead State history.
"I think we have different personalities. We're different people. I'm certainly not going to try to be him nor should I be. I'm just going to try to be the best Jonathan Mattox that I can be. There are a lot of good things he did. There are a lot of good things I took from him," Mattox said.
"I think the defensive identity, the rebounding piece, that certainly has to stay in place. Offensively, we'll figure it out based on personnel. We've got a roster to fill right now, so the offensive piece will come in later, but we certainly want to be great on the defensive end and on the glass."
