MURRAY, KY — After a pretty solid first year under head coach Ryan Miller, the Murray State men’s basketball program is ready to reach even greater heights in year two.
Miller says that this summer and fall will be all about continuing to improve and get the roster together to build some chemistry.
“That group of guys that are here, that have been retained, from Lachlan to Ben to Mathis to Roman have a big role this summer. Keeping our foundation that we’ve established but also excelling it and as we add players as pieces to this puzzle this summer with our transfer portal or international recruits.”
That foundation that Miller brings up included a high powered offense, scoring at the top of the Missouri Valley Conference while also setting a new program record for threes in a season.
Even with the offensive firepower the Racers may have, Miller says that this group will be putting a major effort into improving the defense.
“I always say this, you can win a lot of college games offensively. You win championships with defensive toughness. So this summer and this fall is going to be adding a layer of defensive toughness that’s championship quality.”
Emphasizing the focus that he and his staff will put on this new look roster being tough and not being a team you can push around.
“You win championships being tough, playing tough defense, getting stops, creating a little havoc, creating turnovers and then rebounding the basketball. We have to get much better at that.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming season, Miller talked about how this schedule will really test his roster.
“It’s going to be a very, very tough schedule, it’s going to be a challenging schedule. But, we want to put ourselves in position, with the NCAA expanding, to hopefully, if we win enough games, be able not to rely on three games in March at the Arch Madness in St. Louis, but able to put ourselves in a position for an at-large.”
Miller also gave some more thoughts about the newly official NCAA March Madness tournament expansion.
Lastly, Miller talked about why fans should be excited for this years team and how important it is that Racer nation show up and support.
“We have great players, great talent, great coaches. I don’t know if there’s a place around here, locally, that you’re gonna have that combination. We have some of the best international talent in the world coming here, right here in Murray, some of the best transfer portal players coming right here in Murray. Fan support and student support is critical to win these margins everyday.”
If you want to get a look at what the roster currently looks like, head over to the WPSD transfer tracker for a detailed breakdown of who’s gonna be making some noise over at the CFSB center.