Nobody knows Murray State's résumé quite like coach Steve Prohm, who has become well-versed at dividing the Racers' wins into categories that might sway the harshest critics.
And there are a lot of wins to assess with a streak that stands at 19 and counting.
Prohm knows his team has three victories over opponents in the top 40 of the ratings percentage index and that the Racers are the only team to win at Memphis. He boasts that Murray State's eight road wins are tied for the most in the country and can name road arenas where his team overcame sellout crowds.
The first-year coach doesn't automatically take a defensive stance, but he's well armed. That's necessary when a mid-major is one of the country's two remaining unbeaten teams and ranked No. 12 and No. 10 in the two national polls entering a game Saturday night at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Do the Racers belong in the mix with top teams from the major conferences? If they keep winning, how far can they legitimately rise in the rankings?
"Everyone has questions," said Prohm, 37. "They say 'They don't have to play a Big Ten schedule. They play an Ohio Valley schedule.' But we've had some quality wins. I don't know what the feeling is. Everyone has a different opinion on that. It's a good problem to have."
Murray State will bring a school record winning streak to SIUE and becomes the first top-25 opponent to visit the Vadalabene Center, which is sold out.
The Racers aren't new to success. The program has played in 14 NCAA Tournaments, most recently beating Vanderbilt in the first round in 2010 before losing by two to eventual championship game participant Butler.
But the town of Murray, Ky., which is 220 miles southeast of St. Louis, hasn't seen this level of attention, especially now that Murray State and unbeaten Syracuse (20-0) are being discussed in the same conversation.
"The biggest stress is that you don't want the streak to end because so many people are having a lot of fun with it," Prohm said. "It means a lot of exposure, and it means a lot to people in Murray because they have a tremendous amount of pride in their team."
The Racers' biggest wins have been against Memphis (12-6), Dayton (13-5) and Southern Mississippi (16-3). They are in the middle of the Ohio Valley Conference schedule with a 7-0 mark but will play one more nonconference game in the BracketBusters event against another high-end mid-major.
At this point, there's no telling how long the streak might run and how high the Racers will climb. But does a string of relatively close games in recent weeks warrant a move into the top 10? They rallied from a nine-point deficit in the final 13 minutes Wednesday to win 66-60 at Morehead State.
"It probably came across our minds a little that if we didn't get it together, we could be facing our first loss," guard Isaiah Canaan said. "Every game we play now will be someone's championship game. It's just part of the territory we've got for ourselves."
Murray State won the OVC regular-season title last year but settled for an NIT bid after losing in the conference tournament. This year Prohm is trying to build a case for aN NCAA berth, regardless of the situation.
After five years as an assistant coach, he inherited an experienced group from Billy Kennedy, who took the job at Texas A&M. Expectations weren't over the top; in fact, the Racers were picked to finish third in the league.
Canaan, a former OVC freshman of the year, leads the team in scoring at 18.5 per game, followed by Donte Poole and Ivan Aska, who also is the team's rebounding leader. However, Aska is sidelined with a broken hand.
The odd part of the Murray State roster is its geographical breakdown. The 13 players come from 12 states. Although the focus is the South, they also arrived from Michigan, California, Texas, Nevada and Arizona.
"Where we're located, you have to recruit a little bit of everywhere," Prohm said. "You have to be able to recruit the South first, but we'll recruit anywhere."
Prohm's path to the Murray State bench was unusual in its own way. He played one semester of basketball at Division III Oglethorpe University in Atlanta before transferring to Alabama, where he was a manager for the Crimson Tide.
He bypassed his pursuit of a career in broadcasting to take a shot at coaching and had stints at Centenary, Southeastern Louisiana and Tulane. Apparently washing uniforms in college instead of wearing one didn't hinder his climb.
"You learn you have to do anything you can to be successful and work from the ground up to be a successful program," he said. "You learn to study the game around good coaches and high-level, talented players, and you see what makes players tick and what motivates them."
The lessons he learned are paying dividends. For the time being, Prohm can say that no Division I basketball coach has a better career winning percentage.
And if fans question something about Murray State's unbeaten record, Prohm asks that they not judge until seeing his team.
"When people see us play in person, they get sold and it's a chance to have a new level of respect," he said.
