Jaylen Murray took the long way to SEC basketball. It's been worth the wait for Ole Miss

OXFORD — The December 2019 SLAM Magazine headline made the proclamation in boldface: "Jaylen 'JuJu' Murray Runs New York City."

Murray turned the famous Dyckman Park, the outdoor hoops hub of the nation's most basketball-obsessed city, into a proving ground. He polished his credentials at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. He exploded on the 2019 summer circuit with the NY Lightning.

Murray's recruiting résumé flourished.

He reported some high-major interest on social media before verbally committing to Bryant, backing out and enrolling at St. Peter's in fall 2021. All of that production and notoriety did not carve out a straight path to the top of the collegiate game for Ole Miss basketball's 5-foot-11 point guard.

Why?

"The same question you asked, I would try to get the same answer," Murray told The Clarion Ledger in December. "I don't really know. I'm happy. I'm happy right now, you feel me?"

When Murray transferred this offseason to play at Ole Miss for coach Chris Beard, he faced questions from some onlookers in Oxford, a world away from the city where he made sure everyone who gathered around a blacktop knew his name.

Emphatically, he has answered each one.

Having started 14 games in two seasons at St. Peter's, how much would Murray play?

Only senior stars Allen Flanigan and Matthew Murrell average more playing time than Murray, who has started all 11 games for the Rebels and plays 32 minutes a night.

How would Murray fare in Power Five basketball? After all, he's one of just five scholarship players in the SEC listed below 6-foot.

The Rebels have played four games against programs that are either members of a power conference or inside KenPom's top 100. In those games, Murray has averaged 14.5 points and 4.5 assists, with a 44% conversion rate on his field-goal attempts.

A 2-guard for most of his career, could Murray effectively transition into an on-ball role and fill the giant hole at point guard for the Rebels?

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Murray owns a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. He has found open shot after open shot for Murrell, who has attached efficiency to his volume shooting in a way he never had previously.

Undergoing that change, especially while moving up the basketball ecosystem, required a leap of faith from both Murray and Beard, who said he watched Murray play "for several days" this offseason before welcoming him into the fold.

"I think a big part of it is evaluation," Beard said after Ole Miss beat Memphis on Dec. 2. "We all think of recruiting. You look at the four-stars, the five-stars, the internet, y'all's articles and stuff. But there's also basketball to be played . . . We still believe in evaluation."

Crucially for Murray, he said Beard didn't try to change him as a player to make him fit the new role. Facilitation is important, but his scorer's touch isn't going to waste, averaging 14.7 points per game — up from 12.5 last season at St. Peter's. Murray is also driving the most successful 3-point offense for the Rebels in years, taking 4.9 of them a game and cashing in on 40.7% of those attempts.

"Coach Beard is not the type of coach who will try to change your game or none of that," Murray said. "He's just trying to make it better. He honestly feels like, if I keep doing what I'm doing, scoring-wise, getting my teammates involved, and also being a pest on the defensive end, he feels like I got a shot."

The belief that bonds player and coach has already won the Rebels some signature moments. Murray drilled a go-ahead 3-pointer with less than a minute to play in Ole Miss' return to the "Tad Pad" event in November, helping the Rebels stave off an upset bid from Sam Houston State.

In a statement win over Memphis, Murray drove to the bucket with 18 seconds to go and scooped in the decisive layup, prompting Tigers coach Penny Hardaway to say his team "couldn't guard" Murray.

Those tools Murray used to raise eyebrows at Dyckman? There's no room to doubt whether they belong at high-level college basketball anymore.

"A lot of times, people don't really be trusting, or give their trust to people they never seen or heard of before," Murray said. "That's why my respect for Coach Beard, my love for him, is just through the roof."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How Jaylen Murray became an Ole Miss basketball difference maker