WKU Basketball: Breaking Down Desean Murray Highlights
Earlier this week, WKU announced former Presbyterian and Auburn forward Desean Murray will be transferring in as a grad transfer for his…
Earlier this week, WKU announced former Presbyterian and Auburn forward Desean Murray will be transferring in as a grad transfer for his final year.
With him being ready to go right away, I thought we’d start getting a peak at what the future might hold for him on John Oldham court by taking a gander at some highlights from his season with the Tigers last year.
The first (and, on this tape, the only) highlight comes 13 seconds in, where he’s on the edge of the lane and instead of backing into the defender, he fakes coming right and actually goes left while elevating for a hook shot and sinks it. It’s smooth as hell.
The next play comes earlier in the season, against UConn, and starts around the 22 second mark. Murray starts at the SEC logo, already with a double team on him, and stops underneath the basket (on a dime, I’ll add), and pump fakes a couple of times to draw the defender to jump early as well as some contact (which wasn’t called).
Pick things back up at the 1:02 mark of the video: Murray has possession at the wing and, in one motion as he’s driving, holds the ball out, takes three steps to the rim whilst blowing past his defender and finishing with the finger roll off the glass.
What I liked about this tape is it shows how active he is away from the ball as well. With the play that begins around 16 seconds, he crashes from the top of the key and is in the paint ready for a potential rebound on a three attempt. It isn’t needed because it’s made, but he’s in position ready to make the play.
This might be one of the best indicators of what we could get used to seeing night in and out from Murray with the Tops. The first play to highlight starts around 16 seconds in: A missed Blazer shot turns into an Auburn rebound courtesy of Murray, who then starts the transition play that results in a three.
The next play is kind of a cluster, but worth it. Start it at 58 seconds: A lose ball turns into a near wide-open lane, and with Murray a step and a half behind the play, he’s able to be the first player to tip in the missed bucket for points.
The final play isn’t a great one, honestly. At 1:26, Murray lines up for a three from the corner and it…doesn’t go well. But, it turns into an offensive board and two points for his team.
For all of the talk, both behind the scenes within our writing staff and some of the stuff I saw on Twitter, about his size, he never seemed outmatched in any of the videos I saw. He’s going to be able to hold his own.
Also, he seemed to be the guy in the middle of the paint, offense or defense, ready to grab a board or put the ball back. I’m not sure if he was the five for the Tigers, but I don’t think it’s out of the question for him to be that for the Tops in 2018/19.