MURRAY, KY — After starting the early parts of this week at the annual youth camp, most of the Murray State men’s basketball team is back on the court for summer workouts.
While a few international players are still overseas finishing professional league commitments, returning senior Ben Shtolzberg says the team is already finding ways to connect with teammates before everyone arrives in Murray.
“We have a team group chat, and you know they’re playing in their pro leagues still. But it’s again, we have to control what we can control. Like those guys aren’t here but it’s okay because they got their own thing going.”
Shtolzberg says building those relationships now will be important as the team continues to come together throughout the summer.
“In order to build the team that we want, we have to build those relationships in a different way, so whether that’s reaching out every now and then, or having a group chat, doing facetimes or whatever, like we have to make that effort because at the end of the day, we’re all trying to win.”
The Racers will continue workouts throughout the summer before the rest of the roster arrives on campus.
Arriving sometime this summer will be Roman Domon, Mathis Courbon, Mark Padjen, Jonas Boulefaa, Pavle Nikolic, and finally Talis Soulhac. These guys are all finishing out their professional league seasons overseas and then will turn their attention to the 2026-2027 Racers season.
In the meantime, head coach Ryan Miller says that building those off the court relationships is one of the biggest goals of the summer for the players and the staff, even if the whole roster hasn’t been formally introduced just yet.
“We use the summer particularly to make sure that this team bonding is happening. Guys are coming together, not only on the basketball court, but off the court. So we get to know each other not just at the basketball level, at more of a personal level.”
Miller says the next few months will be an important time for the team to continue to get reps together and build an identity of winning from top to bottom with his players.z
If you want to check out the full roster outlook for Murray State, be sure to check out the WPSD transfer portal tracker.