Murrell emerges as top 2020 recruit
It happened when Whitehaven’s Matthew Murrell pulled up for a jumper off the dribble, or knocked down a 3-pointer, and especially when he rose for a dunk in which his hand reached the top of the square on the backboard.
College basketball coaches lining the baseline for the Elite 32 event at McEachern High School outside Atlanta this past weekend would open up their information booklet and scan Team Thad’s roster until they found Murrell’s name.
“This is my first time playing in front of this many college coaches at one point,” he said with a smile after one game Saturday, “so it’s a big difference.”
Murrell cemented himself last week as the top rising junior from the Memphis area, confirming to others outside the region why Memphis coach Penny Hardaway offered him a scholarship in April less than three weeks after he took over the program.
Which schools have offered Matthew Murrell
The 6-foot-3 guard elected to switch from the Nike-sponsored Bluff City Legends to Under Armour’s Team Thad ahead of the July evaluation period in hopes of gaining more exposure, and the move appears to have paid off. Murrell subsequently received offers from Florida and Cincinnati, adding to a list of suitors that already included Memphis, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, Georgetown, Illinois and Tulsa, among others.
These new developments were particularly rewarding given what Murrell went through at the end of his sophomore season at Whitehaven. In the final game of the regular season, facing Hardaway’s Memphis East team, Murrell suffered a broken wrist when current Tigers freshman Alex Lomax committed a flagrant foul while Murrell attempted a breakaway dunk.
Murrell subsequently missed Whitehaven’s playoff run to the TSSAA AAA state championship game, which ended with a loss to East.
But the wrist healed in time for April’s recruiting period, around the same time Hardaway called Whitehaven coach Faragi Phillips. He and Memphis assistant coach Tony Madlock wanted to come by the school to formally offer Murrell a scholarship.
Murrell called the experience “wonderful,” noting that he and Hardaway have “always been close and he’s always liked my game.”
Murrell, rated as a four-star recruit in the 2020 class by 247Sports, added that Memphis remains “very involved” in his recruitment. Madlock was on hand to watch several of his games with Team Thad over the past week.
Matthew Murrell already had a Penny Hardaway connection
Phillips, one of Hardaway’s close friends in the area, said he’s been coaching Murrell since the second grade and could tell quickly he had a potential high major prospect when Murrell was able to touch the backboard as a 9-yearold.
Phillips believes Murrell will eventually grow another inch or two, and foresees him developing in the mold of former Kentucky star Malik Monk.
With a few more tweaks to his game, his stock could rise even more.
“I need to be more dominant because sometimes I’m a little too passive,” Murrell said. “I have to have that killer mentality.”
“Once he sures up his handle and really fine-tunes his ball-handling ability,” Phillips added, “I don’t think there are many things on the basketball court he won’t be able to do. He can shoot it very well. He can score in bunches, in any type of way.
“He has a knack for finding the bottom of the net, and obviously a tremendous finisher in transition and attacking the rim.”
That athleticism is still what stands out most. According to Murrell, his running vertical jump has been measured at 39 inches.
As Team Thad teammate Jaykwon Walton, a top 2019 priority for Memphis, put it: “He runs the floor hard and he can jump out the gym. I love playing with him.”
It’s a sentiment more and more college coaches are expressing now, too.