Iowa's Keegan Murray (15) shoots the ball over Michigan State's Malik Hall (25) during their game on Feb. 22, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)
Keegan Murray Makes Hawkeye History
The amazing story of Keegan Murray added an important chapter Thursday night. The lightly-recruited forward from Iowa was chosen by the Sacramento Kings with the No. 4 overall pick in the NBA Draft.
Murray is the highest draft pick in Hawkeye history, besting Downtown Freddie Brown, who the Seattle Sonics snapped up with No. 6 pick in 1971. Rick Davis was Iowa’s last first-round pick, way back in ’97, the 21st overall pick to Charlotte.
Coming out of Cedar Rapids (IA) Prairie High, Western Illinois was Murray’s lone Division I offer. He and his twin brother, Kris, an Iowa junior, instead chose a post-graduate year in Florida. They grew physically and expanded their games, leading to scholarship offers from Hawkeye coach Fran McCaffery.
Keegan Murray served as a rotational piece as a freshman two seasons ago on a veteran team with national player of the year, Luka Garza. This past winter, he broke out to lead the Big Ten in scoring (23.5 PPG) and was a first-team consensus all-American.
Murray joins a team in need of help. The Kings are riding a 16-year streak of not finishing above .500 with the last playoff appearance coming in '05-06.
De'Aaron Fox, 24, led Sacramento in scoring last season at 23.3 points per game. It also employed two other young, talented players in Domantis Sabonis and Davion Mitchell.
