Murphy Has Long List of Suitors

New England Recruiting Report | Saturday, September 19th, 2009

Every year St. Mark’s invites college coaches in for one day to see their basketball players go through an open gym workout. 

While there are always plenty of talented players on the St. Mark’s roster to draw in coaches, each year there seems to be one primary attraction. 

Two years ago it was Erik Murphy who drew Billy Donovan, Roy Williams, Ben Howland, and others. 

Last year Nate Lubick had John Thompson III, John Beilein, and Johnny Dawkins in the gym. 

This year St. Mark’s is holding two such workouts, the first of which takes place on Sunday.  Erik’s little brother Alex is now the center attraction and he, along with fellow sophomore Kaleb Tarczewski, is expected to pull in another star studded class of college coaches. 

With only two chances to play in front of college coaches this fall it would be only natural if Murphy felt a little pressure about the upcoming workout, but that’s not his way. 

“I don’t think it is pressure, I think it is exciting,” said the poised and quietly confident sophomore.  “Other than the summer, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to play in front of that many coaches at once.”

This past summer was a big one for Murphy as he and his Expressions Elite team won a lot of games and attracted a ton of interest from college coaches in the process.  Along the way, Murphy showed flashes of dominance in places like the Super 16 Showcase and the AAU Super Showcase. 

“This summer, I thought, went really well at some points.  There were some real positives that came out of it,” he said.  “I had a good summer individually and the team didn’t lose a lot of games.  That was always our goal, to make it to the championship on Sunday, when we would have the best chance to be seen by college coaches.  From that perspective we did very well.” 

Greg Kristof, who served as the team’s head coach, couldn’t have been more complimentary of Murphy’s abilities or his impact on the team’s success. 

“From what I’ve seen, Alex is the most complete player in the 2012 class,” Kristof said.  “This spring and summer he was able to dominate not only by scoring the ball, but also with his passing ability and his rebounding.  I’m not surprised at all that so many high level schools are already pursuing him hard.  There is no question that his potential is limitless.” 

But of course the proof is in the pudding, and with Murphy’s current recruiting list there is no denying his place among the nation’s best. 

From west to east schools like Arizona, Michigan, Notre Dame, Indiana, Kansas, Georgia Tech, Florida, Wake Forest, Boston College, Providence, and Connecticut have already offered.  Two of the highest academic schools in the country, Stanford and Harvard, are also actively recruiting him as are other schools including North Carolina, Duke, Georgetown, and UCLA.  Murphy was also quick to include local schools UMass and URI on the list as well.   

“I don’t really have a top ten or anything like that,” he said.  “It’s very exciting to be hearing from those schools because they’re some of the biggest and the best in the country.” 

And even as Murphy prepares to go up and down the court in front of coaches from the vast majority of those schools on Sunday, he still keeps it all in perspective with the focus being not on his recruitment, but on his upcoming season at St. Mark’s. 

“Individually I’m working on my game, trying to be the best player I can be,” he said.  “For the team I’m really excited.  We could be really, really good this year. Obviously our number one goal is another NEPSAC championship.”

With only three main contributors returning from last year’s team Murphy also figures to inherit a vastly enhanced role this upcoming season. 

“We have a new group.  Me, Melsahn, and Nate…we know the deal.  But most of the other guys haven’t been through it yet,” he said of the upcoming season.  “Right now everybody is working hard and we’re trying to build and bond with each other so that we’ll be ready to go once practice begins.” 

Just listening to Alex Murphy talk it is immediately apparent that this is a young man with incredible poise, composure, and self-confidence.  He doesn’t carry himself like your normal sophomore in high school and guess what…he doesn’t play like it either.