Another season, another dominant Iowa men’s basketball scorer

Iowa forward Chris Murray, 24, has a shot after being fouled in the Hawkeyes win over Michigan on Jan. 12 at Carver Hawkeye Arena. (Jeff Stelfox/Gazette)

Iowa City — One Big Ten men’s basketball game was played on Tuesday. Wisconsin beat Pennsylvania State University 63-60.

One Big Ten men’s basketball game was played on Wednesday. Nebraska defeated Ohio State 63-60.

Iowa is the meeting taste cleanser. The Hawkeyes are scoring his 82 points per game and are on pace to lead the Big Ten in scoring for 5 straight seasons.

Barring any setbacks along the way, Chris Murray would become just the third Iowa player to average over 20 points in the last three seasons.

Luca Garza averaged 23.9 and 24.1 points in 2019-20 and 2020-21, Keegan Murray averaged 23.5 points last season and Chris Murray averaged 21.2 points this season (23.7 in Big Ten games).

Only five Big Ten players averaged 20 points over the past decade. No player scored as many points as Garza and Keegan Murray in an All-America season.

Chris Murray now. He has averaged 25 points over his last 5 games. He scored 17 points in the second half in Iowa’s 81-67 win over Maryland.

Between 1972 and 2020 Garza, only four Iowa players averaged 20 points per season. Scoring Garza and Murray in his four years is not uncommon.

“All three are versatile in their own way,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffrey said Thursday. “You look at Luca and you say he’s a low post guy, but he’s not. He shoots 3 to 44 percent, every elbow jumper and every baseline he hits the jumper. He can make his 12 foot jump hook look like a 2 foot jump hook.

“Keegan was a coast-to-coast guy, a very difficult matchup, and a phenomenal one that jumped off the screen.

“I think you see Chris in the same way. You can’t really plan your defense because it’s never in place.”

All three made an unusually big leap in their breakout season. Garza, who scored 16 points in 17 minutes with his Timberwolves in Minnesota on Wednesday, took his 23.9 points per game from his 13.1 points per game in his sophomore year.

Keegan Murray is scoring 11.7 points per game as a rookie for the #1 Sacramento Kings. He averaged 7.2 in his freshman year in Iowa, and last season he averaged 23.5 in his sophomore year.

Chris Murray scored 9.7 points per game off the bench one season ago. He currently ranks 13th nationally with a 21.2 scoring average. Purdue’s Zach Edey is the only Power Five conference player to score more than that.

“I’m playing with a lot more confidence than I did last year,” Murray said. “I think just going through the (NBA) pre-draft and going to Damian Lillard’s camp in August gave me a lot of confidence in myself about how good a player I could be.

Last season, Chris Murray often played as good as his first shot or two. If they entered the basket, he left. Otherwise he will disappear into the background. For someone getting important college minutes for the first time, it wasn’t unusual.

Murray said the mental side of the game has made the biggest progress this season.

“I knew I had the skill set,” he said. I worked as if I knew

Iowa’s attack is fast, but not over-caffeinated. The team has the fewest turnovers per game, his assist-to-turnover ratio is his third, and he ranks tenth in the nation.

“We want to take it, attack it, move it and share it, which seems like a no-brainer,” says McCaffery.

“It’s one thing for a coach to say ‘I want you to share the ball’, but everyone has to decide they want to share the ball. You have to throw it.’ You have to realize that.

“Keegan Murray, he didn’t lead the league in scoring or lead the nation in scoring. I was trying to, and in the end I could be recognized like him or Luca, so I’m happy with Chris.”

Iowa is averaging 85.3 points in its current four-game winning streak. This definitely beats his 63-60 slog for the Big Ten nightly.

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