Throughout 100 years of collegiate competition, the Murray State men’s basketball team has made 18 NCAA tournament appearances, won 28 regular season conference championships and earned 18 conference tournament championships. The Racers have produced recent NBA draft selections Isaiah Canaan, Cameron Payne and Ja Morant and are now entering their fourth season in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) with a largely new coaching staff and team.
With the No. 1 transfer class in the MVC according to 247Sports, three preseason victories in the Bahamas and a 92% season ticket renewal rate going into the 2025 season – the highest Murray State has seen since 2022 – Racer Nation is anticipating a season for the ages.
Though many of the team’s players and staff are new to western Kentucky, many are no stranger to the collegiate court. Murray State’s 18th head coach Ryan Miller spent the last four seasons with the Creighton Bluejays as an assistant and associate head coach, and is bringing many familiar faces to the program with him.
Former Bluejay seniors Fred King and Mason Miller have traded their royal blue for navy and gold after three seasons with the Bluejays and coach Miller as an assistant coach. They shared sentiments in their first practice press conference that despite having a team made up of players from across the country, the disciplined environment coach Miller has promoted good team chemistry and goal-oriented like-mindedness.
“Obviously with a coaching change it’s a different philosophy and different things that accompany that, and we’re making sure everyone from the players to the staff knows what the standard is here,” said coach Miller during the first practice press conference on Sept. 22. “It’s a championship level effort every time we step onto the court whether it’s practice or games.”
The Racers took an early start to the season in the Bahamas over the summer, sweeping their opponents 3-0. Bahamas native King posted two double-doubles and fellow Mason Miller earned 12 points and seven rebounds. Seven Racers reached double-figures in the second game and Lachlan Crate from New Zealand hit all seven of his field goal attempts in the first.
Bardstown, Kentucky, native JJ Traynor joins the Racers after one season with DePaul and four with the Louisville Cardinals. Traynor played in 32 games last season, 10 of which were starts, and earned career highs of 21 points, 21 blocks, 11 rebounds. As a Cardinal, he appeared in all 32 games of his junior year, started 16 of them and shot 50% from the three-point line.
Among the underclassmen are Murray State’s men’s basketball program’s first French players freshmen Mathis Courbon and Roman Domon, who both played on France’s U18 national team. Chicago native and three-time Grind Session league all-star Tristan Ford will join the Racers alongside two-time Daily Memphian All-Metro team selection Dillon Butler out of Memphis to complete the freshman class.
Transfer sophomores Layne Taylor and KJ Tenner played a combined 50 games at Central Arkansas and West Virginia, and 2023’s No. 3 ranked prep player Brock Vice joins the Racers from Creighton’s 2023-24 sweet 16 team and North Texas. Fellow transfer portal players Ben Shtolzberg and Javon Jackson join from UC Santa Barbara and UIC, while juniors Dylan Anderson and Brayden Shorter join from Boise State and Washburn respectively. These four players rep a combined 557 collegiate games, bringing much needed experience to the team.
Former Creighton player and graduate assistant, Jahenns Manigat, joins the Racer coaching staff as the Director of Player Personnel. After securing an MVC regular season championship and two MVC tournament titles while being a captain for the Bluejays from 2010-14, he played 10 seasons of professional basketball in Austria, his home country, Canada, Cyprus, Kosovo, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. The Bluejay’s 2014 Most Inspirational Award winner made his return to the team as a graduate assistant for coach Miller, who was an assistant coach, during the 2024-25 season.
After spending the last 12 years with Seton Hall’s men’s basketball team, Jason Nehring is the new Strength and Conditioning Coach. He has worked with UK’s men’s and women’s basketball teams and Penn State’s athletic department for seven years each and spent four seasons with the Minnesota Vikings NFL team. Bringing six years of coaching experience at Memphis, South Carolina State, and Alabama State, Mardracus Wade joins the Racers fresh off a SWAC tournament title with Alabama State.
The Racers kick start their competition with two exhibition matches, the first at Xavier on Saturday, Oct. 18, and the second against Northern State on Sunday, Oct. 26. Their season officially begins on Monday, Nov. 3, against Omaha in Sioux Falls at the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon, and their home opener against Mississippi Valley is set to start at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 7 at the CFSB Center.
