Racers ready to tackle Cayman gauntlet
MBB: Murray State will play three games in three days starting on Sunday
After a 4-1 start to the season, we’ve reached the ‘working vacation’ portion of the schedule for the Murray State men’s team. Starting Sunday, the Racers will play three games in three days at The Cayman Islands Classic. It’s 81 degrees here in Cayman, and while the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in chilly St. Louis is still more than three months away, Murray State Head Coach Ryan Miller sees the parallels between this week’s games and Arch Madness.
“I don’t like to get ahead of ourselves, myself particularly, but we’ve got to think big picture,” Miller said. “The big picture is the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. I want to see if we can respond for three consecutive nights in a row and play championship-level basketball for three nights in a row, for 40 minutes each night. That’s what I want to see if we can do, because it’s a big test. We play really good teams, teams that could easily be Missouri Valley Conference Champions. George Washington is a top team in the (Atlantic) 10. McNeese is a top team in the Southland. They’re one of the top teams that went to the NCAA tournament last year. Then Middle Tennessee is a really good team. It’s going to be three good competitions, three good teams, three nights in a row. It will test us and see if we’re ready for that magnitude of games when it comes to March.”
“Yeah, it’s huge for us,” Murray State senior forward Mason Miller said. “We have three back-to-back games. We haven’t really done that yet, so it’s going to be a big, big step for us. Obviously we had the Bahamas earlier where we played a couple games in a row, but (we’ve got) better opponents this time. It’s going to be exciting to see.”
“It’ll definitely test our grit and our toughness, because it’s hard playing three games back-to-back to-back,” Murray State junior guard Brayden Shorter added. “I feel like we’re very tough, mentally and physically. We’ve practiced a lot. We know we’re a good basketball team. We know we’re good playing together. This will be really good for us to see how we all play together in these tough situations.”
No matter the setting, three games in three days can stress a team’s depth. Of all of Ryan Miller’s concerns coming to this event, depth is not one of them.
“I’ve got 11 guys that we can go to who can make impacts on games, and that’s pretty special to have as a head coach,” Miller said. “Most teams are seven, eight guys deep, and then you don’t go past that. We can go to 11, and I can feel comfortable and trust all 11 guys.”
The only Racer in uniform this season who isn’t averaging double-digits in minutes is Brock Vice. The sophomore forward has played 12 total minutes in three games this season. Whether it’s this week, or somewhere down the road, Miller says he trusts Vice to give this team meaningful minutes.
“It’s not because (Vice) can’t do it,” Miller said. “It’s more Freddie (King) is, you know, Freddie, and then (Dylan Anderson) is giving us pretty good minutes behind that. I could go with Brock if I wanted to. Brock’s going to be needed at some point. He’s good enough to be up there and make an impact in games. You never know when your opportunity’s going to come and Brock should be ready for that opportunity. He is going to have an opportunity on this ballclub and to make an impact on the game. He’ll be ready for it when it comes.”
In between practices, the team is getting to have some fun Friday morning, going on an expedition to swim with stingrays. Friday afternoon, it’s back to work in preparation for Sunday’s showdown with Middle Tennessee State.
“We’re going to use (the stingrays) as a bonding moment,” Miller said. “We want to keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing is to play championship-level basketball for three-straight days, but we’re also going to enjoy the experience too. We’re going to have fun, (but) what we do now directly impacts what happens later in the year. We want to make sure our team is one cohesive unit throughout the year, and we’re making sure we have a good time, while we play hard and work hard and do it for each other.”
Each of Murray State’s games will be be played at 6:30pm CST. After the Racers play Middle Tennessee on Sunday, they’ll face McNeese on Monday, and then George Washington on Tuesday. If you don’t already have a subscription to FloSports, you can sign up for a monthly subscription for $19.99. That will give you access to stream all three games, live an on demand. If you can’t watch, Kenny Roth and I will be broadcasting the games on the radio, which you can find on Froggy 103.7 or over at GoRacers.com.