Welcome back to the second edition of the Coach's Corner for the 2025–26 season. I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving, spending time with family and friends, and eating great food. Most importantly, I hope everyone had much to be thankful for. 

This past week, we only had one game on the schedule, our annual matchup against nearby Salem State on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Salem State has a very strong young team, and I knew we were going to be in for a hard-fought game. This was the first game where we had Ryan Brooks and Isaac Jarvis on the court at the same time. As expected, it was a tight game throughout, and actually the game went into overtime to decide a winner, but unfortunately it wasn't Gordon. Salem State eventually came away, with the victory, 85-79 in overtime. 

Free throw shooting and turnovers were our demise in this game. We shot only 8–18 from the line, and committed 14 turnovers to Salem State's six. Drew Brander led us in scoring with 17 points and added 15 rebounds. Ryan Brooks, in his second game of the season, chipped in with 15 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. Isaac Jarvis, returning for his first game since a four-game hiatus due to injury, scored 14 points, and Alex Daniel had 12 points and five assists. Tyler Nordstrom came off the bench and sparked us with some very strong defense as well as five assists. 

This week we start back up with conference games with two road contests on Wednesday at the University of New England, and Saturday at the University of Hartford. UNE has played much better this year and enter the game with a 4–4 record. They are a high scoring team with five players scoring in double figures, led by seniors Adam Lux and Adrian Torres. We have to take away their transition game, and take care of the ball, because they average nine steals per game.

Hartford has played very well this season, and currently sit with a 5-1 record. They have many similarities to UNE, being a high-scoring, high-intensity, pressure team. They are led in scoring by newcomer Kyle Winters, averaging 17 points per game. Returner Drew Stack is an outstanding three-point shooter, but he is getting a lot of help from freshman Ben Miller, who is shooting 10–16 from three-point range on the season. Hartford is always a difficult game, because they are one of the longest trips we have on the schedule. It will take a great effort defensively, and great teamwork to come away with two wins this week.

It's good to have players returning from injuries, and I was very pleased with how we shared the ball against Salem State. I'm confident that our three-point shooting and our free throw shooting will improve, and we will start to win some of these close games. 

My wife gave me a great reminder last night about what is important, especially applicable to the coaching industry. In Philippians 4:8 it says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." As a coach, we oftentimes don't see all of the good things that our team does, and we focus only on the things that need correcting. I was disappointed in our practice last night, but after my wife reminded me of this verse, I realized that there were some positives as well. What are you focusing on? Make sure to look for the good in all things, especially each other. 

Thank you for your support, and although from a record standpoint, it's been a rough start, we are really close, and I'm confident with your support, we will get back to winning ball games very soon. 

God Bless,
Coach Murphy

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." - Philippians 4:8