Senior forward Jordan Murphy was insatiable.
His ravenous appetite on the floor Saturday night propelled the Gophers to a desperately-needed 65-64 victory over Penn State as Murphy stuffed the box score with 19 points, 21 rebounds, six assists, three blocks and three steals.
It also made him thirsty after the game. After nearly downing a bottle of water during his six-minute press conference, Murphy took his postgame Sprite off the interview table, swiped teammate Eric Curry’s as well and pocketed both of them.
“I need it,” he said of the extra hydration.
Likewise, the Gophers quenched their own thirst by avoiding a disheartening second straight loss to a foe that was winless in conference. With upcoming games against No. 2 Michigan and No. 23 Iowa, Minnesota couldn’t afford to drop a so-called gimme. Not at home. Not after getting run off the floor against a four-win Illinois team three days before.
“At one point Coach told us, ‘Just forget Illinois. You’re playing just to be perfect,'” said Murphy. “He told us that not everything is gonna be perfect, just forget that last game. We’re gonna have to win ugly.”
A loss to Penn State would’ve been cataclysmic. Other than a surprising one-point win over Virginia Tech in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, the Nittany Lions had nary a signature win on their schedule and had not won a road game. Yet they led by 11 points early in the second half as restless onlookers booed every sloppy offensive possession and defensive breakdown by Minnesota.
Then Murphy acted as a human jumper cable.
His 15-point, 17-rebound second half was a sheer force of will. So magnetic was Murphy to the basketball that he held starting center Daniel Oturu at one rebound for the game even though the freshman played 21 minutes.
“Coach just told me to keep my mind on rebounding because I was too much in my head in the first half,” said Murphy. “He just told me to keep my mind on rebounding, just getting stops, then everything else would follow, so that’s what I did.”
Pitino has often had to remind Murphy about his optimal persona on the floor. Not a jump shooter. Not a ball handler.
Murphy settled for several jumpers in the first half that were atypical of his standard attack-the-rim approach. While adding a jump shot would certainly supplement Murphy’s game nicely, it wasn’t the time to experiment from the mid-range.
His second-half barrage came almost exclusively in the paint, including a monstrous putback dunk with under a minute to play that gave Minnesota a 64-61 lead.
“‘When you have the right mindset, you’re a beast,'” Pitino tells Murphy. “He’s not insanely vocal. I just think when you watch a guy go out at 6-6 and get 21 rebounds, I think his play does the talking.”
The Illinois loss was lodged in the Gophers’ collective head after the Fighting Illini demoralized them in Champaign on Wednesday, causing Pitino to say his team “played like crap.”
As much as Pitino said he would like his players to toss opponents’ records out the window, the untimeliness of playing a second straight team that was pining for a conference win ostensibly rattled the Gophers’ psyche early on. At half, they were 5 of 9 from the line, allowed 5 of 8 three-point shooting, got outrebounded 16-10 and coughed the ball up nine times.
When the Gophers have settled for jump shots in the past, they’ve gotten exposed. Their greatest strength is reaching the free-throw line, where they attempted 30 foul shots Saturday night. Minnesota’s winning offensive play came on Dupree McBrayer’s drive into the paint that earned him the go-ahead free throw with 2.7 seconds left.
“The whole scheme of this game was just to get their bigs in foul trouble and run,” said forward Eric Curry. “I guess they weren’t in shape or something, so we were just told to run and post and seal. Just work them as much as possible.”
Murphy played a taxing 35 minutes in Minnesota’s shallow, seven-man rotation. There was an ice pack crinkling around his knee as he left his postgame press conference, a massive load having taken its toll on the senior.
Like his teammate Amir Coffey, Murphy is one of the Big Ten’s best players when he finds the right mix of aggression and discipline. Foul trouble has plagued him throughout his career, but Saturday he played with just one foul for over 30 minutes of game time. Unencumbered by a foul count, Murphy unleashed his High-Motor Murph alter ego that has turned him into fan favorite.
The performance helped earn the Gophers a win, buying them some time as they figure out how they’ll approach some of the conference’s elite, saving them from an onslaught of negativity nearing the conference season’s midpoint.
“At the end of the day, we had to look ourselves in the mirror,” said Pitino. “When you lose like that [at Illinois], the way that you lose and you don’t compete, that’s a problem. Even today, we weren’t an offensive masterpiece by any means, but we fought and we got tougher as the game went on.”
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