Freshman forward Montavious Murphy off to encouraging start with K-State basketball
It might not seem like Montavious Murphy has been the most productive of players during his short time with the Kansas State basketball team.
After all, the freshman forward is only averaging 3.5 points and six rebounds.
But looks can be deceiving.
“Sometimes less is more,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said Tuesday. “He is just fitting in and doing what he needs to do and really doing a good job preparing. The defensive part has been really good.”
Murphy has been solid in his first two games with the Wildcats. Not only has he surprisingly started both of them, but he played longer than anyone else on the roster in the season-opener. So far, he is averaging 30.5 minutes, which ranks only behind team leaders Xavier Sneed and Cartier Diarra.
He made his biggest contribution over the weekend in the closing minutes at UNLV when he converted an and-one layup to give the Wildcats a 54-52 lead with 1:10 remaining in overtime. K-State went on to win 60-56.
The Wildcats next play Monmouth at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside Bramlage Coliseum.
“He had a big play in the last two games in stretch runs,” Weber said. “He’s not afraid to make those plays. That’s a positive. Slowly but surely, I think he will loosen up offensively. He is a warrior.”
Murphy arrived on campus as a three-star recruit out of Spring, Texas. The 6-foot-8 forward is facing the difficult task of replacing Dean Wade in K-State’s frontcourt.
At first, Weber wasn’t sure if he was up for the task.
Though talented, Murphy seemed lost during the first few weeks of K-State practice. So much so, that Weber had a conversation with his assistants about possibly redshirting him this season because “this was moving too fast for him and he wasn’t ready.”
But Murphy began to figure things out and impress in late October. Then he had some quality moments in K-State’s exhibition games.
Now he is in the starting lineup, and that probably won’t change anytime soon.
“He,” Weber said, “has made some big strides.”