Vice believes Murray State is a 'great fit'
MBB: The sophomore from Memphis grew up around Ryan Miller's nephews
If college basketball is truly a relationship business, then it shouldn’t be any surprise that Brock Vice found his way to Murray State.
“It's actually a crazy story,” Vice said. “I've known (Head Coach Ryan Miller) most of my life, because I'm best friends with his nephews, Mason and Mavrick. I've known them since I was nine-years-old in Memphis. Me and Mavrick grew up together playing baseball, and then it correlated into me playing for M33M, which used to be (Mike Miller’s) AAU organization. So I've known Coach Miller for a long time.”
Fast-forward a decade after that first introduction, and Vice and Miller were reunited at Creighton for the 2023-24 season. The 6’10, 245 pound Vice, playing behind All-American Ryan Kalkbrenner and current Murray State forward Fred King, redshirted his freshman season with the Bluejays. He transferred to North Texas the following year, but after Head Coach Ross Hodge left UNT to take over the program at West Virginia, Vice went back into the transfer portal — where he found a familiar face.
“Coach Miller reached out to me in the portal and I thought it would be a great fit for me,” Vice said.
Coming to a third school in as many years can be daunting from a standpoint of having to once again build relationships with new teammates. For Vice, joining some old friends made Murray State an easy decision.
“I talked to Mason and Fred almost every day even though I was at North Texas last year,” Vice said. “I consider them two of my best friends. I've stayed in contact with Ben (Shtolzberg) even though we weren't at Creighton at the same time, but we both knew Mason and Fred and then we got connected through that. Now, we’re growing a greater bond between us. I've also had a relationship with (sophomore guard) KJ (Tenner) since we played against each other three times a year (in high school in Memphis).”
Coming to Murray State, Vice is trying to work his way into a rotation for the first time in his college career. After redshirting at Creighton, Vice played in just five games for a total of 18 minutes at North Texas. He’s hoping his third college stop will be the charm.
“It's been a grind,” Vice admitted. “Like Coach Miller says every day, ‘If you want to be great, you're going to have to fall in love with the process.’ That's what I've come to do recently. Obviously, my freshman year, it was all about the process because I was redshirting. There was no chance of me playing. Last year, it was a tough situation for me. The playing style was different. It fit me, but it didn't fit me, so it was tough last year. This year, I feel like I fit great in this playing style. It fits everything that I do best.”
There was a connection between Vice’s family and Murray State long before Brock was born. Vice’s dad, Vance, was an offensive line coach at Murray State in 1999 under Head Coach Denver Johnson. He may not have known much about Murray, Kentucky before he arrived on campus, but Vice got some helpful intel from his dad.
"Honestly, I didn't know really what it was, but my dad gave me a little bit of a heads up,” Vice said. “It's perfect. It's great for what we want. We can pack out the arena and it's close (to home in Memphis). Everyone's invested in us, so it's perfect for what we need.”
Last month, Vice and the Racers took a trip to The Bahamas where they got a chance to play three exhibition games, and also work on team bonding.
“You couldn't ask for a better trip to end the summer,” Vice said. “It's just great to bond with each other. It made us grow closer together, because we also had to play and do film and go through game prep and everything. It was a good learning experience.”
As he tries to earn a spot in this year’s rotation, it’s pretty apparent Vice understands his path to playing time.
“My role is going to be to stretch out the defense with my shooting ability and then go in and offense and defensive rebound,” Vice said. “Just make sure not to let up any offensive rebounds, and make sure to get every defense rebound.”
Gosh I love that he already had a connection to Murray State!