Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/638727
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? Year Murphy began a renaissance that helped the Irish win the Big East West title in his junior season (2000-01) with an 11-5 mark, receive the school's first NCAA Tournament bid in 11 years and win its first such postseason con- test in 12 years. In the program's darkest days, then Irish head coach John MacLeod found his beacon in the 6-11 Murphy from Delbarton High in Morristown, N.J. Murphy was a rare top-50 prospect in- terested in Notre Dame, but his stock rose immensely after being named the MVP in the prestigious Capital Classic All-Star game in which he scored 18 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. NBA legend and the late Moses Malone presented him the award — apropos because of Murphy's hard-hat, blue- collar style similar to Malone. "It helped a lot because I don't think I played against the strongest compe- tition during my high school years," Murphy recalled. "It gave me the con- fidence to know I could excel at that level." He opted for Notre Dame over Vanderbilt, another stellar academic school (both of his parents are retired school teachers), for several reasons. One, there was instant playing time at power forward with Garrity need- ing a successor. It had become the marquee position at Notre Dame the previous decade with Tim Kempton, Donald Royal, Monty Williams and Garrity all playing at least eight years in the NBA. Second, MacLeod's history as a coach in the NBA from 1973-91 was an entic- ing element for his future plans. Finally, Notre Dame joining the Big East in 1995 was a tipping point. "It would have been tough," Mur- phy said of choosing Notre Dame had it not joined the conference. "I liked the Big East — that's what I grew up on in New Jersey — and I liked the physical style of play. It also gave my parents a chance to see me play more often. "It was the opportunity to be part of building something. Notre Dame had a great tradition previously, and I believed in Coach MacLeod and what he was selling." COACHING CAROUSEL Alas, Murphy had a unique distinc- tion of having three different head coaches in his three seasons of college basketball: MacLeod (1999) was fired after nine seasons during a difficult Murphy is one of just four players — Chris Mullin (St. John's), Patrick Ewing (Georgetown) and Richard Hamilton (Connecticut) are the others — to be named Big East Player of the Year twice. PHOTO BY ANDREW IVINS