1999-2000 Awards
MURPHY AN ALL-AMERICAN:
Murphy was named a consensus first-team All-American by the NCAA
on March 23 and became Notre Dame's first pick to that team since Adrian Dantley in 1974-75 and
and 1975-76.
The other members of the consensus first team were Chris Carrawell of Duke, Marcus Fizer of Iowa
State, A.J. Guyton of Indiana (unanimous), Kenyon Martin of Cincinnati (unanimous) and Chris Mihm
of Texas.
Murphy was been named first-team All-American by the Associated Press, the United States
Basketball Writers Association and Basketball Times. Murphy became Notre Dame's first player to
earn first-team AP honors since Dantley in 1975-76 and 1974-75. Murphy has been named
second-team All-America by The Sporting News and the National Association of Basketball
Coaches.
Here's a complete look at Murphy's postseason honors and awards from during the season:
- First Team All-American, Associated Press
- First Team All-American, United States Basketball Writers Association
- First Team All-American, Basketball Times
- Second Team All-American, The Sporting News
- Second Team All-American, National Association of Basketball Coaches
- BIG EAST Conference Player-of-the-Year
- All-BIG EAST Conference first team (unanimous)
- First team, all-district (District 10), NABC
- One of top 30 candidates for 2000 John R. Wooden Award
- Finalist for United States Basketball Writers Association national player-of-the-year
- Finalist for Naismith Trophy
- Finalist for Chip Hilton Award, given by the Basketball Hall of Fame
- Named to USA Today's midseason All-America team
- Named to The Sporting News midseason All-America team
- Named by ESPN's Dick Vitale to his midseason All-America team
MURPHY HONORED BY BIG EAST:
Murphy was named the 1999-2000 BIG EAST
Conference player-of-the-year last Tuesday before the BIG EAST Championship in
New York. Murphy became the second Notre Dame player to earn that award as Pat
Garrity was also honored in 1997. Murphy was also an unanimous pick to the all-BIG
EAST Conference first team.
MURPHY 18TH IN CAREER SCORING:
Murphy became the 40th player in Notre Dame history to score
1,000 points on Jan. 29 when the Irish defeated St. John's. Murphy now has a career total of 1,320
points, which places him 18th in school history. John Shumate (1972-74) is in 17th with 1,334 and
Ken Barlow (1982-86) is in 16th with 1,342.
Murphy became the second-youngest player in Irish history to score 1,000 points at 19 years and 272
days old. Former Irish All-American Adrian Dantley (1973-76) was 18 years and 355 days old when
he scored his 1,000th point. Murphy also joins Dantley as the only Irish sophomores with 1,000
points. Murphy scored his 1,000th point in his 48th career game - the fifth-fastest among Notre
Dame's 39 previous 1,000-point scorers. All-time leading scorer Austin Carr (1968-71) needed just
35 games, while Dantley needed 44. It took John Shumate (1972-74) and Bob Arnzen (1966-69) 46
games to score 1,000 points.
MURPHY GETS 20TH DOUBLE-DOUBLE:
Murphy had his 20th double-double of the season in the
quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Championship with 15 points and 16 rebounds against Miami. His 20
double-doubles lead all players in the BIG EAST Conference. His 17 double-doubles were tied for
fourth nationally (as of Feb. 27) in statistics researched by STATS, Inc.
The sophomore forward has led the Irish in scoring in 29 of 35 games this season and has been the
leading rebounder or tied on 29 occasions. He scored 35 points against St. Francis (Pa.) on Nov. 20
and vs. Seton Hall on Feb. 19 for his career high, topping his previous mark of 32 set vs.West Virginia
last year.
Murphy has now played in 62 games as a collegiate performer and has scored in double figures in
all but one of them. He has posted double-doubles in 31 games and has scored 20 or more points
in 35 games and 30 or more points in 12 games.
This season, Murphy has scored in double figures in every game, scored 20 or more points in 24
games and 30 or more points in nine games.
MURPHY AND THE NATIONAL LEADERS: Murphy is among the national leaders in scoring and
rebounding. As of March 23, Murphy was tied for sixth in the country in scoring at 21.3 points per
game, while Courtney Alexander of Fresno State was first at 24.8 points per game. In rebounding,
Murphy was tied for seventh at 10.5 per game while Darren Phillip of Fairfield is first at 14.0. Murphy
is the only player in the country currently to be ranked among the top 10 scorers and rebounders.
MURPHY NAMED BIG EAST PLAYER OF THE WEEK, TIES RECORD
Murphy was
named the BIG EAST co-player of the week on Monday for his performance in the
Seton Hall game. Murphy has now won the award a total of six times this season,
which ties the conference record for most player-of-the-week awards with Syracuse's
John Wallace in 1995-96.
Murphy won the award in four consecutive weeks earlier in the season (Dec. 20
through Jan. 10), which was one short of the conference record of four - also set by
Wallace in 1995-96.
As of Feb. 16, Murphy is the leading scorer and leading rebounder in the BIG EAST in
overall games and conference games.
Murphy was named the BIG EAST rookie of the year in 1999 and won the BIG EAST
rookie of the week award eight times - the second-highest in league history.
1999-2000 POSTSEASON HONORS
Murphy has earned a number of honors during the season and as postseason awards start to be named, including:
- BIG EAST Conference Player-of-the-Year
- All-American, second team, National Association of Baksetball Coaches
- All-BIG EAST Confernece first team (unanomous)
- First team, all-district (District 10), NABC
- One of top 30 candidates for 2000 John R. Wooden Award
- Finalist for United States Basketball Writers Association national
- player-of-the-year
- Finalist for Naismith Trophy
- Named to USA Today's midseason All-America team
- Named to The Sporting News midseason All-America team
- Named by ESPN's Dick Vitale to his midseason All-America team
1999-2000 PRESEASON BIG EAST HONORS FOR MURPHY
Murphy was picked first team preseason all-BIG EAST for the 1999-2000 season by the league coaches. The honor was announced at BIG EAST Conference Media Day on Wed., October 25, 1999, and was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
Also named to the first team was: Khalid El-Amin of Connecticut, Johnny Hemsley of Miami, Erick Barkley of St. John's and Etan Thomas of Syracuse.
The second team was Kevin Freeman of Connecticut, Isaac Hawkins of Pittsburgh, Bootsy Thornton of St. John's, Jason Hart of Syracuse and Marcus Goree of West Virginia.
The preseason player of the year was El-Amin and the preseason rookie of the year was Ajou Deng of Connecticut.
1999-2000 PRESEASON HONORS
In addition to the BIG EAST honors, Murphy garnered a number of preseason accolades heading into the 1999-2000 campaign, including:
- Second Team All-America, Dick Vitale's College Basketball
- Second Team All-America, Basketball News
- Honorable Mention All-America, Athlon
- Ranked second in country among centers, Dick Vitale's College Basketball
- Ranked fourth in country among power forwards, Lindy's
- Ranked 11th in country among power forwards, The Sporting News
- First Team All-BIG EAST, Dick Vitale's College Basketball
- First Team All-BIG EAST, The Sporting News
- First Team All-BIG EAST, Lindy's
- Best NBA Prospect in BIG EAST, Lindy's
- Best Rebounder in BIG EAST, The Sporting News
- All-Windex Team (The kids can really clean the glass), Dick Vitale's College Basketball
