When an elbow smashed into the side of his face two weeks ago in practice, splitting his eyebrow the length of eight stitches, Erik Murphy didn’t panic.
Though the blood and the pain certainly came as a shock, the injury above his right eye was nothing new. He had been hit in the same spot years ago in a high school practice, and then, just as now, it hurt.
With trickles of blood developing down half of his face, Murphy, a 6-foot-10 forward, recalled a tidbit of information that calmed him after sophomore center Patric Young accidentally cut him.
“When you get hit in the face or the head, it bleeds a lot,” Murphy said. “So after I looked in the mirror, I wasn’t too worried about it.”
In his third year at Florida, Murphy has learned from more than just his injuries. According to coach Billy Donovan, it is Murphy’s newfound maturity that has been the most important development in the first-time starter’s junior season.
Last April, Murphy and redshirt freshman Cody Larson were suspended indefinitely by Donovan after the two players were arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing outside a bar in St. Augustine. They were not reinstated until September.
When Murphy rejoined the team, Donovan noticed a change in the person he said could be unreliable on the court and known to disappear at times during games.
“Believe it or not, I felt terrible about what happened in the spring,” Donovan said. “I know Erik does too. It’s been rehearsed and talked about, but I do think there was a lot of good that came out of that. You know, as painful as it was for everybody … I think it really forced him to do some soul searching.”
Donovan asked Murphy to reflect on how his career at Florida had gone up to that point.
Sitting for two years in a deep frontcourt rotation, he had as many suspensions as starts and was running out of time to change how his collegiate career would be remembered.
The message sunk in. Murphy quickly made a point to mentally prepare more for games as well as practices.
“Especially this year, playing a little bit bigger of a role than I have in the past, trying to come out and do everything the team needs and coach asks for,” he said.
While Murphy was known heading into the season as more of a finesse big man who could shoot, rather than a defensive stopper, he now leads the Gators with 21 blocked shots — one more than the 6-foot-9 Young, who has played in three more games.
Though Murphy had just 23 blocks in his career prior to this season, he has rejected a shot in six straight games — something he attributes to rededicating himself to watching film and lifting weights.
“The one thing that’s probably a little bit unassuming about him is he does have really good length, he’s got long arms,” Donovan said. “I wouldn’t classify him as a shot blocker, I think guys have shot balls into his hands more so than he’s gone up and rejected them.”
Since recovering from a knee injury in late November, Murphy has also emerged as one of Florida’s more reliable scorers.
On 54 shots, he has hit a team-high 46.3 percent of his threes and has reached double-figures in seven of his last nine games, including a career-high 18 points against Yale.
“The offseason issue, you grow up really quick,” Murphy said. “Definitely, it was a blessing in disguise I think to grow up mentally and mature. And then the injuries, that stuff just happens. At the end of the season, you have to deal with that.”
After spending the last couple weeks with a bandage over his eyebrow, Murphy finally had his stitches taken out on Wednesday, revealing a red, inflamed scar.
While he’s hoping it won’t linger as a permanent reminder of how hard Young can swing his elbows, in comparison to what Murphy has had to overcome just to play this season, it wouldn’t really matter.
“It should go away, hopefully,” Murphy said. “If not, not a big deal.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida forward Erik Murphy has used an offseason arrest and a spell of injuries to mature in his junior season in Gainesville. Murphy leads the team with 23 blocks this year.
