3. Murray State Racers
They aren’t calling Murray State ‘Creighton South’ for nothing. Former Creighton top assistant Ryan Miller is the new Racers’ head coach and he brought four former Bluejays along for the ride.
Miller will employ the Creighton ‘let it fly offense’ that depends on ‘flow – space & pace’ to be successful. Murray’s player-less roster didn’t deter this veteran of over 20 college basketball seasons from grabbing his first-ever head coaching position.
Former Bluejays Fred King, Mason Miller (his nephew), Ben Shtolzberg and Brock Vice brought corporate knowledge and familiarity to this year’s teams and other recruits. King and Miller were the head coach’s first recruiting calls.
While the 6’9 King was playing behind all-American Ryan Kalkbrenner, the senior learned valuable lessons and appeared in over 100 Creighton contest. His ‘per-40 minute’ averages over those 103 games were 16.8 points and 11.3 rebounds. The Bahamian native recorded back-to-back double-doubles in Kalkbrenner’s absence, in December of 2022.
Miller is an outstanding shooter, making .374 from deep during his 101 Bluejay contests.
Shtolzberg and Vice stared in Omaha but transferred to other schools. The 6’4 senior Shtolzberg made 40 of 42 free throw attempts for UC Santa Barbara. The 6’10 Vice arrives from North Texas.
Did we mention Valley teams are getting bigger? Seven-foot junior Dylan Anderson played at Boise State. 6’9 J.J. Traynor transferred from DePaul and 6’9 Roman Domon is a freshman from France.
Miller needs uniquely talented guards to run his free-wheeling offense and he landed several players to fit the bill. Central Arkansas transfer Layne Taylor was named to the ASUN all-freshman team. His explosive offense (17.4 ppg) and well-rounded game (nearly four rebounds and four assists per game) make him the perfect fit.
But he’s not alone. Valley veteran Javon Jackson averaged 11.6 points for UIC and dropped 30 points on Murray last season. Jackson was the MVC’s third best last year at collecting steals.
Other backcourt candidates include top-200 recruit Tristian Ford, West Virginia transfer K.J. Tenner and Miller’s other French recruit Mathis Corbon.
‘On paper’ this may be the Valley’s most talented team. Lachlan Crate was named to the Asia Cup ‘all-tournament team’ for his native New Zealand team. Corbon and Domon each have extensive international experience and Division 2 transfer Brayden Shorter comes to Murray after averaging 15.5 points-per-game last year and collecting 162 triples during his two-year career at Washburn.
As Miller seeks to replicate Creighton success, don’t be surprised to see this team in contending for the Valley title in late February.