Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to Great Places!

You’re off and away! *

Troy Murphy’s jersey #3 will be raised to the Purcell Pavillion rafters on Saturday. He will join Austin Carr, Adrian Dantley, Skylar Diggins, Luke Harangody, Tom Hawkins, Ruth Riley, and Digger Phelps in the Notre Dame Basketball Ring of Honor at halftime of the contest with Boston College.

It is an honor deserved. It is an honor earned.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.

About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,

You’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

Murphy was the breakthrough recruit Head Coach John MacLeod needed when he chose Notre Dame in 1997. Joining a program that hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament in seven years and didn’t have strong prospects for rectifying the situation quickly was a leap of faith for Murphy. The two-time all state player from the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey had choices, choices that included the most successful basketball programs of the day.

A self-described knucklehead at age 17, Murphy knew enough to value his educational possibilities as well as his basketball possibilities when he chose his college.

“It was a great decision for me,” he told the South Bend Tribune’s Tom Noie. “I still feel totally connected to Notre Dame. All the things I’ve been able to accomplish in my life have been a result of going to Notre Dame.”

You’ll be on your way up!

You’ll be seeing great sights!

You’ll join the high fliers

Who soar to high heights.

Murphy was an immediate star at Notre Dame. He and classmates Harold Swanagan and David Graves brought a toughness to the floor that Notre Dame fans hadn’t seen in nearly a decade. The team finished that first season 14-16, 8-10 in the rugged Big East, but the program finally had a foundation that would be buttressed with the arrival of Matt Carroll the next season.

Murphy averaged 19.2 points per game and 9.9 rebounds per game during his freshman season, 19.2 points and 10.3 rebounds in conference games. He was an easy choice for Big East Rookie of the year. For my part, I thought I was watching the best Notre Dame basketball player since Dantley left in 1976.  

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.

You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.

Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best.

Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Notre Dame’s administration had high hopes for the postseason in the spring of 1999. Two wins in the Big East tournament, a reasonable goal at the time, would have made the Irish eligible for the NIT. Alas, Notre Dame lost its first game. The season was over abruptly; and just as abruptly, MacLeod was fired.

For a fleeting moment, it appeared that Rick Majerus would be Notre Dame’s next coach. When that didn’t happen, ND’s administration considered a list of up-and-comers that included Siena’s Paul Hewitt, Xavier’s Skip Prosser, and Delaware’s Mike Brey. At the last minute, Kansas assistant coach Matt Doherty pestered his way into the search process and, with a recommendation from Dean Smith, landed the job.

Doherty brought a new enthusiasm to the program, but it was bi-polar enthusiasm. When the team played well, Doherty was a happy, upbeat coach. When the young Fighting Irish played poorly, a merely sadistic coach would have been a relief.

There was one constant through the madness of Doherty’s season at Notre Dame – Troy Murphy. He averaged 22.7 points and 10.3 points per game on the way to being named a first team All-American and the Big East Player of the Year.

Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying.

You’ll find the bright places where the Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

The head basketball coach’s position opened at Doherty’s alma mater North Carolina in June, 2000. Seizing on his modest success at Notre Dame, Doherty successfully campaigned for the job. Murphy’s Notre Dame basketball experience was about to include a third head coach in three years.

By June, Hewitt already had moved from Siena to Georgia Tech; and Prosser had accepted the head coaching position at Wake Forest. Brey was the finalist from the previous season who still was available, and it didn’t take long for him to have the job.

Brey had the credentials – eight years on the Duke staff, six of them Final Four seasons, and 99 wins in five years at Delaware. He also knew that being the third coach in three years meant he would have a skeptical team that was not going to fall in line behind its coach easily.

“I don’t know if it was very fair that he had to play for three coaches in three years, a great talent like that” Brey said after Wednesday’s victory over Virginia Tech. “But you know what? He did, and I was fortunate enough to have him.

“He made me look pretty good in my first year.”

Fortunate indeed. Murphy repeated as a first team All-American; and by sharing Big East Player of the Year honors with Boston College’s Troy Bell, he joined Chris Mullin, Patrick Ewing, and Rip Hamilton to become the fourth two-time winner in conference history.

More importantly, the Irish rallied to an 11-5 conference record and earned a #6 seed in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The breakthrough recruit delivered. The drought was over.

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Troy Murphy left Notre Dame after three seasons. He was chosen by the Golden State Warriors with the 14th pick in the 2001 NBA Draft, played 12 seasons in the NBA, and averaged a points-rebounds double-double in five of them.

Murphy always said that Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss is his favorite book, but it’s more than that. As you can see from the excerpts I have included, it’s his biography.

Murphy’s success has continued since his playing days ended. He enrolled at Columbia University and completed the work needed to earn his college degree. He made the dean’s list.

I asked Brey to tell a story from his time with Murphy that was typical of the young man.

“We were playing Syracuse here, and it was a big game,” Brey said. “We lost to them up there. I had him at the beginning of the game at the foul line area.

“We come out of a timeout with about 7:00 to go. It’s a great game. Billy Selig was their big guy, and I said get up to the foul line; and Troy said, ‘Hell no. I’m sitting right on Billy Selig in the middle of that zone.’

“And thank God he didn’t listen to me because he scored like 10 straight and we stole a win.”

That was Murphy. Tough as can be and unwilling to work around a challenge when he could confront it directly.

So…

Be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray

Or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,

You’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So…get on your way!

Welcome back, Troy Murphy; and congratulations.

 

* Excerpts from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss, published by Random House in 1990.