What's Up with the Racers?

It's been a bleak basketball season so far in Murray, where the Murray State Racers are off to a dreadful start (home teams listed first):

11/08/13:  Valparaiso 77 - 74 Murray St.
11/12/13:  Murray St. 97 - 69 Brescia
11/15/13:  Old Dominion 70 - 60 Murray St.
11/19/13:  Murray St. 91 - 64 Bethel (Tenn.)
11/23/13:  Auburn 75 - 67 Murray St.
11/26/13:  Murray St. 62 - 80 Middle Tennessee St.
11/30/13:  St. Mary's 89 - 64 Murray St.

So the Racers are 2-5, or 0-5 if you only count games against D-1 competition.  In recent years, Murray has been very competitive with the likes of MTSU and St. Mary's, but they were simply humiliated in back-to-back games against those two teams.

Obviously the Racers are missing the great Isaiah Canaan, who graduated after last season, but I am surprised to see them so hapless thus far.  KenPom has them ranked number 257 in the country, and he says they will finish 12-16 overall and 8-8 in the OVC.  Those would be horrific numbers for this very proud program.

According to the Courier-Journal, Murray is suffering from some major injury problems, and has been forced to start three first-year players.   So the Racers may end up being better than they've shown so far.  But for now, they have a long way to go.