Miller says 2025-26 roster isn't done yet
MBB: The first-year Racer head coach has three scholarships left to fill
In a sitdown interview with WPSD-TV, Murray State Head Coach Ryan Miller says there is still recruiting work to be done for his 2025-26 roster. (You can watch the entire interview here.)
Between commitments and signings, Miller has 12 players ready to play for the Racers next year. With the expected roster limit increase allowing 15 scholarship players to be on the roster next season, Miller still has three spots to fill — and he intends to do just that.
“It's really important to us that we create a culture and we create continuity,” Miller told WPSD. “We believe those extra roster spots can help us do that. How it looks, I do not know yet. I think as far as an older group of guys that we've added to the roster, whether it's transfer portal guys, that's kind of done for us — we like the guys we got there. It is getting young guys that we think are talented, that may be even more talented, that are high-major type players, because the high school kids or the younger guys aren't getting recruited as much. We think there's opportunity there to get talented guys that can buy in once our older guys graduate, that fill that role, and now we have the culture and continuity that we're really striving for.”
In one of his final interviews in Omaha before leaving Creighton to come to Murray State, Miller said he believed there would be “three or four” roster holdovers from last year. In the end, plans changed as incoming freshman Tristian Ford, who signed with Murray State last November, is the only player who could be considered a holdover that will play for the Racers next season.
“I had great conversations (with) the guys that are graduating, moving on, or guys that still had eligibility left,” Miller said. “We just kind of came to the determination, for the most part, that their opportunities we're better elsewhere, maybe, and our identity and what we're trying to create here doesn't quite match. I always tell recruits and players that were already in the program, first of all, they're already family, but really these things are like marriages — it has to work both ways. If they don't, if there's fracture there, they're not going to have a great experience, and I'm going to have difficulty coaching them. I think it was a mutual deal for the most part. For most of the guys that have left our program, they're all great, talented players. They just didn't probably fit the identity and how we want to do things in playing flow basketball and really the things that we care about offensively and defensively.”
Miller also named two of the teams that the Racers could face in the Cayman Islands Classic. Murray State will be joined in the event by McNeese and George Washington. Last year, the MTE was an eight-team event, but this year’s tournament format is yet to be finalized. The Cayman Islands Classic is scheduled to be held November 23rd-25th.