MURRAY, Ky. — As practices are set to get underway across the world of college basketball, the big challenge with several teams has been building a team that connects on and off the court.
For new Murray State head men’s basketball coach Ryan Miller, this summer has been all about welcoming that challenge with open arms, and with tennis racquets and baseball bats.
The Racers, with 15 new players and just as many new coaches, have been taking part in team activities off the court like pickleball, paintball, bowling, and, on Wednesday night, softball at Racer Field. Most of the activities have pitted the coaching staff against the players.
“Well, we wanted to win a matchup, the coaches did,” Miller said after the 7-inning softball matchup. “We knew in softball, most of the [players] grew up playing basketball, the round ball, so us being a little older, we played multiple sports. Baseball during baseball season, football during football season, basketball during basketball season. We thought we had the advantage, so we needed to do something that we could win.”
That thought paid off, as the coaching staff got the better of the student-athletes, 8-6.
“We talk trash all week, and then to actually come out and do it was a lot of fun,” sophomore guard Layne Taylor said. “[The loss] hurts, but we got to remember the record, we’re 1-1, so we’re not out of it yet… [the coaches] couldn’t hang in paintball. I thought that would apply out here because there was some running involved, but it didn’t apply. We weren’t good enough fielders. We’ll work on our game and get back at it, though.”
In the end, Miller says nights like Wednesday night are all about team bonding and winning.
“That’s what I want to teach our guys, teach our team and teach our staff too: Every time we do something out here, it’s like we’re coming out here to compete, to win,” Miller said. “Three most important things for me putting together this team, I’ve always said, is we want an unselfish group, which we have. We want a team that’s gonna be very tough mentally, physically, and then, we want a team that competes no matter what they do.”
“We’ve really built a camaraderie and a culture early on, which is tough to do, but in the landscape college basketball now, everything’s kind of year to year, so you kind of have to do it going forward,” Taylor added. “I think we’ve done a really good job of it. Our coaches have. We’re together all the time. They have fun stuff like this outside of basketball for us to do. So we’re starting to build a really good culture.”
Murray State will take the court for the first official practice of the new season on Monday.