The growing pains are in full effect for the Florida basketball program.
With a slew of suspensions behind them and a not-so-stellar pre-conference schedule finished, the Gators are moving toward the possibly greener pasture of the Southeastern Conference.
Sitting with a 9-6 overall record and 2-0 in the SEC, the Gators seem to have turned a new page.
And so has Alex Murphy.
Although he practiced with the team throughout training camp, the transfer from Duke was not able to see game action until Florida’s 63-50 win against Wake Forest on Dec. 20, per NCAA transfer regulations. Murphy scored nine points off the bench in his debut.
"I think I’m comfortable now, in the game … but I definitely want to get better," Murphy said. "I’m not settling for where I’m at right now or anything. I need to improve and do what I can to help the team."
The road to Gainesville has been a winding one for the Rhode Island native, who initially attempted to bypass his senior year of high school at St. Marks School to join Duke’s 2011 recruiting class.
After finishing up several requirements at South Kingstown High School, Murphy was able to join the Duke basketball team after his junior year.
The son of former NBA player Jay Murphy and brother of former Gator Erik Murphy, Alex has a natural ability to pivot between various positions on the basketball court.
He attributes the diversity to a high basketball IQ.
"I’ve been in college for a while now so I’ve learned a lot here and my past experiences too," Murphy said after Florida’s 65-63 loss to Florida State on Dec. 30. "I guess it’s just something where things come easy to me. Plays, different schemes, stuff we want to do (offensively) or defensively. I don’t know I kinda just pick things up fast."
While Murphy’s college trajectory may seem journeyman-esque, he’s really only played one full season of college basketball — his redshirt freshman year at Duke. He redshirted his freshman year and played in just five games his junior year before transferring to Florida, where he sat out last season.
Since making his Florida debut on Dec. 20, Murphy has played in all five games and started one.
But his stats have been subpar at best this season. Averaging 16.8 minutes per game, Murphy is shooting 50 percent from free-throw line, second worst on the team only to Chris Walker (43.5 percent). He has yet to sink a three-point shot, going 0-for-5 from behind the arc, and he’s averaging 2.4 rebounds per game.
Murphy was quick to note that he’s confident he can perform better than what he’s shown so far — especially from the free-throw line and three-point range. He said improvement on those fronts will come as his confidence grows.
"Sometimes when you’re shooting a bad percent from the free-throw line, you’re gonna stop shooting," Murphy said on Monday. "You’re gonna stop attacking the rim aggressively because you don’t want to go to the free-throw line. That’s something that I can’t do. I’m not gonna do that."
Coach Billy Donovan has said in the past that a key to Murphy’s and other player’s growth will be contingent upon how they handle themselves as they attempt to correct the struggles they’re facing on the court—in Murphy’s case, his offensive struggles.
"I have a totally different view because I think you can get so caught up into the result and you want to the same result," Donovan said after UF’s loss to Florida State on Dec. 30, "but at the same point, they’ve got to have the correct, competitive, disposition, we don’t have that. We don’t."
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa
Alex Murphy attempts a layup during Florida's win against Mississippi State on Saturday in the O'Connell Center.
