SF Gate Sacramento -- Troy Murphy knew exactly how Notre Dame felt when a lucky break gave the top-ranked USC football team another shot at beating his Fighting Irish this weekend. Murphy, who left Notre Dame after his junior season, couldn't quite corral a rebound during the Warriors' 114-99 loss to the Kings on Sunday night. He tapped it once, twice, three times, but on the last touch, the ball rolled off his fingertips and out of bounds to Sacramento. Seconds later, Kings guard Kevin Martin found Brad Miller for a 20-foot jump shot. "That was a tough one," Murphy said. So is evaluating his progress in developing a complete game. The forward is a fantasy leaguer's delight, good for 15 points and 10 rebounds on any given night. Murphy ranked fifth in the league in rebounding and 10th in double-doubles last season. Yet some considered the Warriors' drafting of Ike Diogu this summer as a red flag. Here was Diogu, the prototypical power forward, a player most comfortable using his body as leverage and banging away inside. Diogu was the anti-Murphy, but Murphy didn't panic. The New Jersey native rented an apartment in Manhattan during the offseason and worked out on his own. He said he focused on fine tuning his shot, getting stronger and developing more post moves. He even joked about adding "the Kevin McHale, up-and-under thing" to his repertoire. Murphy won't ever be confused with the Celtics' forward, but he showed flashes of being a different player Sunday night. In the first quarter, he set a screen for Baron Davis and rolled left. Davis got him the ball and Murphy drove inside against the smaller Peja Stojakovic, who fouled him. At the end of the quarter, Murphy even showed some finesse in hitting a baby hook shot on Shareef Abdur-Rahim. "It's just effort," Murphy said. "I know that guys are going to look for me down there when I post-up. I've been watching film with the coaching staff, and they said I haven't really utilized it. I've been hanging around the perimeter too much." He called his post-up game "a preseason work in progress," and that was evident when he tried the turnaround jumper against Corliss Williamson later in the second quarter. Source
Something tells me it's not just the lack of inside points in the paint, it's the fact we give up too many points in the paint... What did we allow in the Kings game? 50-60% shooting? Anyway, good for Murphy.
After Foyle picked up two quick fouls, nobody even challenged to block a shot. It felt like we were rolling a red carpet to Kings players...
With this team, we just have to run. It sounds like we didn't on Sunday. Championship calibur teams play a halfcourt set but we're far from that. No post players, one true ballhandler and a weak frontcourt. Run, run, run like last year and wait until our roster develops. Just getting a winning culture is priority #1.
