Keegan and Chris Murray signed letters of intent with the Iowa basketball program in November 2019.
They had signed with the Hawkeyes a month ago as they prepared to play one season at the DME Sports Academy in Daytona Beach, Florida. The reaction to their commitment was not well received in some circles.
In fact, some people went on social media to criticize coach Fran McCaffery for taking the twin sons of former Hawke Kenyon Murray.
Not three years later, Keegan seems to be selected in the Top 10 of the NBA Draft on June 23. Chris, who is also involved in the draft, is still deciding whether to stay or return to Iowa for his youth season. The deadline expires on Wednesday.
Kenyon Murray heard that negative chatter that surrounded his sons in 2019. It upset him, as well as any father who has seen his children dedicate themselves to the game. Today, Kenyon could stand on a bar of soap and shout, “I told you. He chose not to do that.
“If you had talked to Kenyon four years ago, I would probably give a middle finger to everyone right now, stand on the roof and say, ‘I told you,'” Kenyon said. “But I also know that God chooses a path for everyone, right?” I think what he did for these two boys was give them a platform to show that if you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything. I just think Fran believed in them, we believed in them and they believed in themselves. I always told them, “Just do the work and trust the work, because when the time comes to shine, you will be ready for it.”
Keegan exploded on the national stage last season. He finished fourth in the nation with 23.5 points per game, more than three times above average as a freshman. Keegan also averaged 8.7 fights and 1.94 blocks in 2021-22, while winning consensus pan-American laurels.
Chris didn’t have his brother’s glamorous numbers, but his rise was just as impressive. He was invited to the NBA Combine after scoring a total of eight points in 2020-21. He averaged 9.7 points and had 16 double-digit games last season.
“I think their story is one that many children can fall behind, children who are neglected or underestimated,” Kenyon said.
Colleges did not come up with scholarship offers when the Murray twins were in Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids. And Kenyon, who was an assistant coach and also coached them on the AAU track, struggled with some self-doubt.
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“It was a sobering moment for me, just because we were trying to hire them,” Kenyon said. “There were many sleepless nights for me. I kept thinking, “Am I doing something right? Do I have them in the right team? Are we playing in the right tournaments? ‘ After their last year, without a scholarship offer, I blamed myself a lot. Maybe I didn’t do what was right for them. ”
But Keegan and Chris believed in their parents, Kenyon and Michelle, that they were doing what was right for them. The twins continued the course and continued to work hard. They continued to grow and become stronger and were highly trained in both DME and Iowa.
“That was the culmination of, ‘Well, we did it the right way,'” Kenyon said. “It’s not the right way for everyone. But it was the right path for them. “
McCaffer has been advertising the Murray family for several years. He could also say “I told you” to his legion of suspects.
“And I took a lot of nonsense that I took JoBo (Jordan Bohannon),” McCaffery said.
Bohannon ended his career as a leader in the Big Ten with 3 points, becoming only the third player in the program’s history to reach 2,000 points and leaving as the leader of the assistants in Iowa’s career.
Kenyon, who scored 1,230 points while playing for coach Tom Davis from 1992-93 to 1995-96, found criticism of Bohannon and others wrong.
“For a lot of guys who have played or trained at this level, you can’t measure anyone’s heart,” Murray said. “Aaron White was a recruited man and had the heart and passion to be the player he was. Devyn Marble in the same way. Luke Garza. Chris and Keegan. You can’t measure the drive if you haven’t been to the gym, the driveway, and you haven’t seen how much time he’s spent. You have no place to talk about how good or bad a player is. ”
McCaffery has made a career in recruiting high-profile players and this has been the foundation of a culture that seems to work for him. Murray said last season was a great example of that.
“When Fran switched to point guard (Bohannon to replace Joe Toussaint), if it was a team that didn’t love and care about each other, it could fall apart,” Murray said. “And they wouldn’t have the run they did. But because of the boys he recruited, they obviously connected. Now Joe has decided to continue after the season (in West Virginia). And we are happy for him. But at this point, to encourage ourselves as such a team, it says a lot about the character of the children on the list. That’s why you have to give it to Fran.