With Duke's season in the books, The Blue Zone will review the seasons of all the Blue Devils, beginning with the freshman Monday and ending with the seniors and graduate students Friday.
Alex Murphy
- Year: Redshirt Sophomore
- Height: 6-foot-8
- Position: Forward
- This year's stat line: 1.0 PPG, 1.0 RPG, 0.0 BPG (in 5 games)
- The Blue Zone's projected stat line: 3.3 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 0.3 BPG
Season breakdown: Murphy…we hardly knew ye. After playing in five games this fall, he traded in his Duke blue for Florida blue, announcing his intent to transfer a week prior to Christmas. He scored a total of five points this year in 33 minutes. I can list his other season stats, if you want, but it gets pretty boring after a while. You’ve got better things to do.
Results relative to expectations: Did we expect this? Rumors about Murphy transferring have been floating around for a while, but it was something that he had consistently denied during his redshirt freshman year and the beginning of this season. With the additions of capable forwards in Rodney Hood and Jabari Parker, playing time was even tougher to come by for Murphy this year, and he and the program decided that it'd be best if they both started seeing other people. Interestingly, Murphy became the second forward from the 2011 Duke recruiting class to transfer, following the lead of Michael Gbinjie, who jumped to Syracuse after the 2012 season.
On a positive note, Murphy did advance further in the NCAA tournament than anyone else who started the season on Duke's roster, getting a front-row seat as Florida weaved its way to the Final Four. He obviously wasn't able to play due to transfer stipulations, but I'd like to think that he provided valuable towel-waving skills for the Gators this year. It'll be interesting to see if him ply his on-court trade in the SEC and in Billy Donovan's system starting in December.
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