South Kingstown’s Alex Murphy Chooses Duke

Friday afternoon South Kingstown’s Alex Murphy still had not decided where he would attend college after he graduates from St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA.

“I have a list right now, I’m not quite sure when a decision is going to be made, but Duke, Florida, Boston College, North Carolina and West Virginia are the five that it’s going to come down to,” Alex Murphy said.

Well, it did not take him too long to decide after that.

According to the Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara, Murphy gave his verbal agreement to attend Duke University Monday after he finishes up his high school career.

For those who do not know who Murphy is, he represents everything that is wonderful and awful in the basketball world of today. 

A 6’9” small forward, Murphy is the listed as the second best small forward for the class of 2012 by scout.com, and the 15th best prospect overall according to ESPNU’s rankings.

A product of a basketball family, Alex’s father Jay played collegiately at Boston College and was the 31st overall pick by the Golden State Warriors in the 1984 NBA Draft.  His mother Paivi played for the Finnish national team.  His older brother Erik is a sophomore at the University of Florida.

“Right when I was born, my dad was playing, my mom was playing, my brother was two and half years older than me, and ever since I was born I’ve had a ball in my hand,” Alex Murphy said. 

“My dad I still give him horse games, but one-on-one Erik and I have to battle it out now, my dad can’t handle us anymore, he’s getting a little old, Erik’s still got me right now, but I’ll be there soon, I’ll catch up to him.”

The game of basketball courses through his veins.

His passion was evident on the Keaney Gymnasium floor Friday, when he returned to his home town with St. Mark’s to play to play in the 13th Annual National Prep School Invitational hosted by the University of Rhode Island.

“It’s great, obviously my school is a little ways away and I live up there, but whenever I have the chance I come back home and any time I have the chance to play in my home town is pretty awesome,” Murphy said.  “I have a lot of friends and family out here, so it’s been really good.”

All of those skills that have scouts salivating at Murphy’s potential were on display at Keaney, as he shredded Christian Faith Center Academy of North Carolina for 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Growing up Murphy attended Broad Rock Middle School, where he shared fond memories of playing basketball.

 “It was a lot of fun, my three years of middle school we actually had a good team, those were awesome times,” Alex Murphy said.  “My sixth grade year I got to play with my brother when he was in eighth grade, my dad was the coach, but unfortunately we lost in the state championship.”

After Broad Rock, Murphy went on to spend a year at The Prout School, where he made friendships that have lasted to this day.

“He still comes back and practices with the team here and there, and I’m still contact with him,” Prout head coach Eric Simonelli said.  “He’s still friends with a lot of the Prout guys, and he came to a few practices over Christmas break.”

“Alex is unbelievable, it’s a privilege to work with him and coach him, having had his brother they’re completely different players,” St. Mark’s head coach Dave Lubick said.  “Both had unbelievable impacts on the high school level, and Alex is starting to have more of an impact around the rim as you can see.”

Therein lays the problem, however, that in today’s world high school basketball success comes hand-in-hand with waves of college scouts and fans rabidly following who is going to be the next great player at such a young age.

“It’s a part of the whole thing and of course thrilling for the kids, thrilling to the dads, it’s thrilling to me as a coach, but it becomes a distraction during the season and Alex and the rest of our team have done a pretty good job of shutting it out,” Lubick said.

“These kids should have the right to think more and have more space, it shouldn’t be like a boyfriend, girlfriend thing where it’s who’s paying you the most attention, who’s calling you the most, it shouldn’t be like that, they should have more time, unfortunately it’s not like that.”

The reality of the situation is that the success of collegiate programs ultimately comes down to drawing the best recruits to a respective school.

“It’s a business at the top and there’s a lot of pressure on guys to recruit, so they impose themselves on these guys and distract them,” Lubick said.  “It’s all trouble to tell you the truth, it’s a big distraction.”

Alex Murphy has seen the side effects of his success on the court, both from the recruiting side and the nearly 2,000 followers he has on twitter.

“It’s definitely a lot with this whole recruiting thing, and coaches calling you all the time, and no offense, talking with guys like you all the time,” Alex Murphy said. 

“It can get hectic, and there are definitely times when you want step back from it all and get back to playing the game and having fun like you did, but I’ve done a pretty good job of that.” 

Fortunately for Murphy he does appear to have done a good job of avoiding getting caught up in the college basketball storm that makes a category five hurricane look like a tropical depression.

“As talented as a he was when he was at Prout, he scored over 450 points in just 23 games, what stands out most in my mind was that he was a very humble kid and so mature for his age, which just speaks volumes to how he was brought up by his parents,” Simonelli said.

While some may have trouble finding sympathy for this future Blue Devil, the important thing to remember about this humble kid from South Kingstown is that he is just that, a kid - albeit a 6’9” one.

“I try to just be any other regular kid, do stuff that any regular kids do, go to the movies, hang out with my friends when I’m home,” Alex Murphy said. 

It will certainly be interesting to see where his talent takes him as he begins his trek upon a path that any kid who has ever picked up a basketball has dreamed of, but few has ever traveled.

“Alex is the kind of kid who wants to be really good, so he’ll make himself stronger and I expect him to not just play well, but excel wherever he goes,” Lubick said.

Tennis great Arthur Ashe once said that, “success is a journey not a destination, the doing is often more important than the outcome,” and while the destination of Alex Murphy’s basketball career is impossible to predict right now, he is certainly on one special journey.