South Carolina Basketball: Exploring Collin Murray-Boyles’ Impact

Mononucleosis couldn’t stop South Carolina basketball star Collin Murray-Boyles. So what hope would the SEC defense have? The freshman missed the first six games of the season due to the illness and didn’t get a start until the win over Missouri in the conference’s third game, but once he got the chance, he shined.

The Columbia native transferred to Wasatch Academy in Utah for his senior year of high school before coming home to Lamont Paris’ program. After starring in the Gamecocks’ trip to the Bahamas over the summer, he was considered a key part of the frontcourt when the season started. That didn’t end up happening due to the unforeseen mono condition, but as the season progressed, CMB turned out to be everything he expected to be, and a little more.

At just 6 feet tall, he isn’t the tallest in the conference. In fact, it’s one of the shortest. However, it turns out that it just doesn’t matter. What Murray-Boyles brings to the field can eliminate the height advantage an opposing big man can have. Who needs to be six feet tall to reach the basket if footwork is enough?

Take, for example, one of his dunks against Vanderbilt this season, at the 3:35 mark this video. CMB, located just outside the paint along the baseline, fakes the pass and then looks outside to Zachary Davis and BJ Mack. With nothing going on there, he swings Davis to the perimeter to move the Vanderbilt interior defense away from the basket, steps away from the basket with his left foot, then spins around and gets closer to the baseline and the basket with a a few dribbles, where he gets to the basket. the paint and back his defender. He then uses a final spin move to launch from sixty yards to the rim, leaving his defender behind and dunking on top of the other Vanderbilt player who had come to help.

Unless opposing defenses can produce a player who can guard these types of post moves, Collin Murray-Boyles will remain a force on the inside for South Carolina. The raw stats support what the eyes can see in the film. 6th in the SEC with 2PT%, ahead of Auburn’s Johni Broome. 6th in the SEC in true shooting percentage, ahead of Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht.

However, his post game isn’t the only asset the CMB brings to the table. Two aspects of his game that improved the most over the course of the season were undoubtedly his ability to distribute the ball and crash the boards. Over the last 13 conference games, starting with the win over Kentucky, he has averaged 8.0 RPG and 2.2 APG, a ranking that, if held over the course of the season, would rank first and the team would finish third.

In terms of rebounds, Murray-Boyles simply has the “see ball, get ball” vision that not every big man possesses. In fact, most don’t. That is not a talent that can be taught; a player either has it or he doesn’t. CMB is firmly in the ‘has it’ group. Distributing the ball is another skill that the average big man cannot do at the CMB level. If he puts his defender in the paint, more often than not there will be a man open. Somehow, the freshman already has the patience to keep an eye on his defender, the rim, the backup defense and his teammates all at once. That’s about two more eyes than what normal humans have.

His all-around offense was perhaps the most effective on the team for Lamont Paris’ team, and the advanced stats back that up. Murray-Boyles ranked in the top 10 in the conference in offensive rating, player efficiency rating, offensive box plus/minus and offensive rebounding percentage. His PER ranked below Johni Broome, but ahead of all other qualifying players in the SEC.

Defensively, he is a much bigger player than his listed height suggests. There is no better example of this than the crucial block on 7’5” Jamarion Sharp against Ole Miss at home, located at the 0:09 mark in this video. Sharp is wide open on the left side of the paint, calling for the ball after Josh Gray follows Matthew Murrell to the rim off a screen, while Collin Murray-Boyles is on the other side of the baseline, just outside the right side. of the paint guarding his own man. By the time Sharp catches the ball, CMB is already jumping to contest the shot at the rim, then meeting the tallest player in college basketball at the height of the shot, sending the ball off the backboard and the rebound takes.

Causing chaos in the passing lanes is another form of defense, but CMB has demonstrated that too. The freshman was the only player in the SEC to rank in both the top 10 in steal percentage and block percentage. Against Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi State, he picked up four steals in each game. South Carolina won all three of these games. If there is a better thief of the ball in the form of an SEC post player, we haven’t seen it yet. No other Gamecock averaged a steal per game, not even Meechie Johnson or Ta’Lon Cooper.

It seems like the only asset CMB hasn’t developed yet is his outside shot, as he didn’t hit a three-point shot all season and only attempted five on the year. But it would be unwise to suggest that he doesn’t develop that. In conference games starting in February, he shot 83.9% from the free throw line. If that’s the kind of shooting we can expect from Murray-Boyles, the defense could be in for a surprise next year.

But it’s not just college defenses that need to prepare for CMB, it’s the NBA too. It’s hard to succeed in the NBA without a three-point shot, that much is true. But it turns out that as a freshman, Collin Murray-Boyles can basically do anything a coach asks him to. It is not a question of if this player will make it to the competition, but when. It’s more likely that CMB won’t be in Columbia for at least four years. Not because he’s leaving, but because it will be hard to pass up a first-round pick in the NBA draft. His footwork, passing vision, physicality, it will all translate into the competition. The most impactful player on this team will most likely be Collin-Murray Boyles next year, and the hometown prospect will not only be an All-Freshman, he’ll also make the All-SEC team.