Keegan Murray Raising NBA Stock

Iowa Basketball Sophomore Making Game Look Easy

IOWA CITY, Iowa - It happened with 12 minutes remaining in the first half of Iowa’s victory over Maryland last week.

Kris Murray threw an entry pass to his brother, Keegan, from the left wing. With 6-foot-9 George Reese pressing him from behind, Keegan took three left-handed dribbles toward the baseline, then took a hard right-handed dribble, pivoted back to his left and shot a fallway jumper over Reese.

As the ball splashed through the net, one thing popped into my mind: That was an NBA move. 

“He made it look easy, and that’s a really hard shot,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 

It’s a shot that Murray makes all the time in practice. A shot McCaffery encourages his sophomore forward to take.

“He’s got a total green light,” McCaffery said.

And it’s a shot that might be one reason why Murray’s Iowa career ends after two seasons. Because NBA eyes are watching.

“This kid is special,” McCaffery added. “He’s as humble a guy and you’re going to find off the court, and a killer on it.”

Last summer, some NBA Draft projections had the 6-8 Murray a first-round pick. It was based on potential, because Keegan had averaged just 7.2 points and 17.9 minutes while being voted to the Big Ten’s all-freshman team by league coaches.

“I’m just focused on the team,” Murray said last October at media day. “I’m trying to get better as a person and a player. I’ve been putting a lot of hard work in.”

Thirteen games into his sophomore season, Murray’s potential has been replaced by some impressive numbers. Keegan leads the country in scoring at 24.7 points a game. He reached the 20-point mark in the first six games of the season and has done it 10 times overall, including 35-point outings against Utah State and Maryland. His only poor game was a nine-point night at Iowa State, when he was recovering from an ankle injury and never found a rhythm. 

“He had a couple roll out early,” McCaffery said. “We weren’t playing great and I think he put some pressure on himself. But he bounced right back. He had a great game against a really good Utah State team.”

Murray is also averaging 7.9 rebounds, and shooting 59.5 percent from the field. That includes 36.5 shooting from 3 (23 of 63). He’s blocked 30 shots and made 21 steals. The words “lottery pick’ have been attached to his name by more than one television analyst this season. Iowa hasn’t had a first-round NBA Draft pick since Ricky Davis left after his freshman season and was taken by Charlotte with the 21st pick of the 1998 draft.

Three former Hawkeye players under McCaffery - Tyler Cook, Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza - have logged NBA minutes this season. Instead of treating the subject as the elephant in the room, McCaffery has talked to Murray about the NBA.

“I have, but not a lot,” McCaffery said. “He’s pretty level-headed and humble. He just is. He hasn’t changed, he hasn’t become selfish. He hasn’t become temperamental. The same guy. He does what he does, and I encourage him. I run some stuff for him. Sometimes, he gets it on his own.”

When player and coach visit, McCaffery adds encouragement and thanks to the mix. “I just want him to know how much I appreciate him, his unselfishness and competitiveness,” McCaffery said. “That fact that he plays at both ends. He rebounds, he plays defense, he scores and makes plays. And that’s what he needs to do. When I visit with him, it’s because I don’t ever

want it (the NBA) to be something he thinks about. And he doesn’t. He says, “Coach, I’m good.’ ”

Keegan had just one Division I offer, from Western Illinois, as a senior at Cedar Rapids Prairie. He and Kris spent a season at a Florida prep school, and that’s when both accepted Iowa’s scholarship offer. McCaffery was impressed with Keegan’s play at DME Sports Academy in Daytona Beach, but wondered how he’d adjust to life in the Big Ten. After watching him during team workouts in June of 2020, McCaffery knew Keegan was “the real deal.” 

McCaffery knows that Murray will be challenged even more by opposition defenses moving forward. But his consistency as a high-level scorer doesn’t surprise the coach. 

“It really hasn’t because he does it in practice so effortlessly,” McCaffery added. “I said before the season that people don’t realize how good a 3-point shooter he actually is. He can really handle it and he can run the floor. He scores in a variety of ways. He can bring it and has a pull-up game, a post-up game, he can rip and drive and get to the rim. He makes his free throws (78.7 percent). He can dunk it easily so you can pitch it to the rim at any point in time. He gets some easy baskets on run outs, alley oops and drives. He’s a really good finisher. And over time you look and, well, he’s got 35.”

That’s a pretty good skill set for a guy with one Division I scholarship as a prep.

“You’re just thrilled for the kid,” McCaffery added. “All he kept doing was working on his game. He wasn’t chasing the right AAU team, or the right high school to put him in a position where some scouting service was going to rank him. Who cares what your ranking is in high school, you know? If some scouting service says I’m a Top 25 player in the country when I’m 17 and a senior in high school, what does that mean? It doesn’t mean anything.”

Murray didn’t care, McCaffery will tell you.

“He cares more about what his draft position is, eventually,” McCaffery said. “And he knew that would happen if he put the work in.”