2017–18 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders men's basketball team


The 2017–18 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders men's basketball team represented Middle Tennessee State University during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Blue Raiders, led by 16th-year head coach Kermit Davis, played their home games at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee as members of Conference USA. They finished the season 25–8 overall, 16–2 in C-USA play to win the regular season championship. In the C-USA Tournament, they were defeated in the quarterfinals by Southern Miss in overtime. As a regular season conference champion who failed to win their conference tournament, the Blue Raiders received an automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament, where they defeated Vermont in the first round before losing to Louisville in the second round.
The season marked the first time in the program's history that the Blue Raiders were ranked in the AP Top 25 during the season, coming in at No. 24 on the week of February 19.
Head coach Kermit Davis left the school on March 19, 2018 to accept the head coaching job at Ole Miss. He finished at Middle Tennessee with a 16-year record of 332–188. On March 24, the Blue Raiders named UNC Asheville head coach Nick McDevitt as the team's new head coach.

Previous season

The Blue Raiders finished the 2016–17 season 27–4, 17–1 in C-USA play to win the regular season championship. In the C-USA Tournament, they defeated UTSA, UTEP, and Marshall to win the 2017 C-USA Tournament. As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. As the No. 12 seed in the South region, they defeated 5-seeded Minnesota in the First Round before losing in the Second Round to 4-seeded Butler. The team also had several winning streaks during the season winning 8 games in a row in non-conference schedule, 10 games in a row to start conference play and a new school record, then 11 games in a row from mid-conference play all the way through winning the conference tournament and into the NCAA tournament before losing to Butler. The team finished the season with a 31–5, 17–1 record setting new school and conference records for wins in a season and in conference play and had another NCAA tournament upset for the second straight year.

Offseason

Departures

Incoming transfers

2017 recruiting class

2018 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

!colspan=9 style=| Exhibition
!colspan=9 style=| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=9 style=| Conference USA regular season
!colspan=9 style=| Conference USA Tournament
!colspan=9 style=| NIT
Source