Ryan Murphy is making his stay with the Pitt Panthers a one-and-done affair. After transferring from New Mexico Junior College to Pitt for his junior season, Murphy has entered the NCAA transfer portal in hopes of finding a better opportunity for himself elsewhere.
“I basically just thought it’d be better for myself, my life, to go play somewhere where I’m going to play a little more," Murphy was telling me Sunday in a phone interview. "But I don’t wish anything bad on Pitt or [head coach Jeff Capel] He’s a great coach. Pitt’s got great players. They’re great teammates. I really liked those guys here, great coaching staff.”
Capel echoed the feelings of appreciation in a statement.
“We appreciate Ryan’s efforts with our program this season and wish him luck as he looks to continue his playing career elsewhere,” Capel said.
Murphy averaged 24.5 minutes per game, making 12 starts and appearing in 30 games total for the Panthers in 2019-20. A three-point specialist, Murphy knocked down a team-best 42 triples on 33.1 percent of his attempts. Promising as his season began — he topped 10 points in six of his first nine games and posted a season-best 28 in Game 2 against Nicholls State — Murphy suffered a concussion in early February and never fully regained his form.
Coincidentally, the team began a skid at the same time, losing eight of its final 10 games.
"Early in the year, I was really hoopin’," Murphy said. "Whether it was starting, coming off the bench, whatever it was. I’m here to do whatever the team needs to win. And then the concussion kind of messed me up. I rushed myself coming back for that Clemson game. I wasn’t really myself for Clemson at all. I was like, ‘Whoa.’
"It’s hard for any athlete to take 13 days off. And that’s what I had to do, physically, for myself and my health. That’s most important, your health and how you feel ... There were times where I did really feel like I was back and there were times I was like, ‘Damn, I’m a little off.’ I felt great for the tournament. I felt great for the last six games."
Pitt's season came to an end in Greensboro, N.C., against North Carolina State during Round 2 of the ACC Tournament. One day later, the tournament shut down altogether due to growing concerns surrounding the spread of novel coronavirus/COVID-19. Murphy admitted it was “really depressing to think about" the fact that the tournament would've been canceled even if they won, but he also said he feels Pitt is trending in a positive direction moving forward.
That comes down to one key reason: Capel.
“I think Capel’s a great coach," Murphy said. "He comes from being the head coach at VCU and Oklahoma where he did great things at both places. It takes time in college basketball, though. To get back on top like Pitt was, it takes time to turn it around. I think he’s on the right track with Pitt, and I think he’ll do that.”
What will that Pitt team look like when — or if — it bounces back to prominence? What's this squad's identity? Well, they represent Pittsburgh, Murphy told me. There's really one identity, then, to assume.
"I think the city of Pittsburgh is really tough. I think it’s a gritty, tough city," he said. "There’s a bunch of tough, tough people here. The Steelers are tough. And I think what Capel is going to do and is in the process of doing is making Pitt that tough team you don’t want to see. You go play Syracuse, and it’s the 2-3 zone. You go play Duke, it’s loud and everything, whatever, they always have a top-10 player, 25-, 50-kind guy.
"When you come play Pitt — I love [Au'Diese Toney] and [Justin Champagnie] and they’re both really tough guys, on and off the court if you couldn’t tell. I think that’s one thing that Pitt basketball’s going to be is tough, and is becoming under Coach. Just tough and gritty. I think that’s awesome.”
While Murphy clearly spoke highly of the team's future and his experiences both with his teammates and his coaches, one thing he could not comment on were the growing concerns of tension and selfishness on the team. Following the team's ACC Tournament exit, Trey McGowens was asked what was different with the team before their early-February skid.
“We were just together at that point in time,” McGowens said. “Nobody had their own personal agendas. Everybody was just together, we all just cared about winning.”
"A little bit of everything. A little bit of everything,” Xavier Johnson added on the topic.
Murphy, however, didn't sense this idea of stat-chasing or greediness — but he admits he had his own concerns and focus on his personal game and growth down the stretch.
“I didn’t play a whole lot in the last 10 games, so I really don’t know," Murphy said. "I was just kind of cheering, you know, and hoping we win. But I don’t think guys were doing that. I don’t really know. I can’t really speak on it. All I know is at the end of the day, you want to have the most impressive stat: A ‘W’ in the column, not an ‘L.’ That should be the only stat as a team that you chase.”
While Murphy may not leave Pitt on an ultra-positive note as a player, he says the future is already shaping up one day into his transfer process:
“Some schools have actually already contacted me just now," Murphy said. "I’m kind of just sitting back and making the best decision for me. This may be my last year playing college basketball, you know? You gotta be a little selfish with this one. Hope to go somewhere where I think it’s a perfect fit for one year, and that’s it, really. I’m not going to give out any names of schools that’ve hit me up yet just because I don’t want to give anything out, but I have no specific school I’d like to go to. I’m open to everyone, hearing what the coaches have to say.”
Where Murphy goes, one thing is clear: They better have a strong pizza scene, and they better have a football team worth watching, too.
“[Pittsburgh is] a lot different [than my native California], but I loved it," Murphy said. "The pizza out here’s really good. That’s number one. I got to discover crazy different pizza. The fans were great. They’re awesome. Football games were fun. I had a good time going to those. I would say the only thing I didn’t like was the cold weather but other than that, I think Pittsburgh’s awesome. It’s easy to get around, football games are awesome to go to, for Steelers too. I had a great time here.”
The great pizza debate in this city, of course, has sparked Internet wars aplenty. So I had to ask: What's been his favorite slice in the Steel City?
“There was one, I put on Twitter this one time, and I’ll give him a shoutout: His name’s @barryj23, and he told me to go to this place Aiello’s," Murphy said. "I’ve never been there before, so I just put it on Twitter, and I went there and I loved it. Curtis Aiken, Jr., my old teammate, he took me to a place on campus I can’t remember the name of it. But, man, it was good. I relied a lot on Curtis and Anthony Starzynski, really, for my pizza places. I didn’t know the names. They just kind of guided me.”
Now, however, Murphy will have to find new tour guides wherever he wins up playing for his final year of eligibility. The pizza is certainly a great bonus, but Murphy's future goal is 100 percent centered on the court.
“I mean, the goal is, as an athlete, you never come into a team going, ‘Oh, man, I can’t wait to sit the bench,'" Murphy said. "You go in there like, ‘I gotta do whatever I can to play and win.’ Those are two things that I wanna do: Play as much as possible and win as much as possible. Hopefully this corona[virus] stuff’s all gone and there’s a tournament next year, you know? That’d be great.”
Would've been great this year for Pitt, too, but they ultimately fell to a 16-17 record and a second-round exit, leaving plenty of questions in the wake. One thing Murphy sealed during his time at Pitt, however, was his education. He's on track to graduate in the spring, and that's by design.
“One thing coming into Pitt, at Charlotte I took a lot of credits and as well as Junior College, I was really ahead credit-wise," Murphy said. "Why not use college basketball to your fullest, really? If you can graduate early, why not graduate early and get one year of your Master’s or whatever you wanna do, maybe go into business for your last year and take a quick one-year business course? Why not use it to your advantage? And that’s what I was kind of looking at.
"Instead of college basketball using you, you use it. Graduate early. Some guys complain about the system, [but] I was like, you know what, if I can graduate early, why not push myself academically in the classroom and graduate early, which I’m on pace to do and I promised myself I’m going to do it. I’m definitely going to do it.”
