Courtesy of Sean Elliot
Camel of the Edition is a continuous series which seeks to highlight extraordinary Connecticut College athletes who have stood out for their recent performances.
David Murray ‘24 closed out his career as a Camel in historic fashion, becoming the first player in program history to win NESCAC Player of the Year. Additionally, the Center was named to the 2023-24 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-America First Team, D3Hoops.com Region 1 Player of the Year, NABC District 1 Player of the Year, and won NESCAC Player of the Week twice this season. The Jackson Heights, NY. native led the Camels in scoring, blocks, and rebounds as the Camels finished 18-7 overall with a program high eight NESCAC wins.
Recently, The College Voice caught up with Murray to learn how he had little interest from colleges coming out of high school, how the team went from winning no NESCAC games to winning all but two this season, and how he deals with pressure and double teams from opposing teams.
Could you please introduce yourself? (pronouns, majors/minors, any clubs/organizations, other involvements on campus)
My name is David Murray. I’m a senior and Economics major. I go by he/him pronouns. I’m on the basketball team and outside of that I really don’t do too much but we do a lot of stuff through being on the basketball team. We work with the Boys and Girls Club in New London and do community service through Whalers Helping Whalers to help get and deliver others in New London food.
Talk me through your journey in sports?
I played a lot of sports growing up. I played soccer, tennis, baseball, and obviously basketball. Basketball has always been the big sport for me. My dad played basketball in college and he really pushed me to play basketball. He would often take me to games to watch and he would drive me to my AAU games. When I was younger, I did a lot of CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) and AAU. When I got older, I got to high school and did one year of junior varsity and three years on varsity.
When and why did you decide to focus on basketball?
Obviously my dad played basketball and all my siblings as well, but I guess out of all the sports I played that was my best one. I was always pretty tall so when I started out playing when I was a first grader, I would play with third graders. I always had to play with kids older than me because I was bigger than kids my age. Being bigger pushed me to play with bigger kids and that competition helped me improve.
What was your recruitment process and how did you end up choosing Conn?
I didn’t really get recruited too much out of high school and had to do a lot of reaching out myself. A lot of the schools I reached out to said no. I applied to some NESCAC schools and most of them said I couldn’t play on the team while some schools wanted me to try to walk on. But Conn really offered me a spot and gave me a chance.. Not too many schools wanted me but Coach [Tim] Sweeney and Coach [Corey] Beegley reached out a lot and came out saying we’re not great right now but if you come here we can really work to change the culture of the school and that appealed to me a lot and they offered me a chance when most other schools didn’t.
The season before you arrived at Conn, the men’s basketball team finished 4-20 and won no NESCAC conference games. This season, the men’s basketball team finished 18-7, winning eight NESCAC conference games. What would you say sparked this shift in competitiveness and number of wins over the four year span?
I guess I would say our approach to treating how seriously we took it changed. My first year was a COVID year and it allowed us to get a year under our belt as freshman to kind of understand what the competition would be like so it gave us an extra year to prepare. One of our founding rules is don’t matter, get better, which helped us focus on getting better in practice every day and staying focused. Doing this every day for a long period of time every day helped us improve and led to results over the four years.
You arrived at Conn as a first-year student during COVID, what was the experience practicing and playing games during this season?
It was hard honestly. We had to play with masks on and it was hard to breathe with the masks. We would practice five days a week and sometimes games got canceled so it kind of felt like it was kind of all for nothing. In hindsight, I realized this experience was so necessary for the years to come.
What were the team’s expectations heading into this season, having already made the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons?
My expectations were that I knew we were going to be good [because] we have a lot of guys [on the team] who work really hard. I felt like Conn doesn’t get the respect it deserves in basketball a lot of the time because we beat some really good teams and [the other teams] would still be in the top 25. It felt like they would downplay our success but my expectations were that we would be good. I guess it makes sense why we are overlooked because there were a lot of years where Conn [basketball] went 0-10 in the NESCAC but we wanted to work hard and show that Conn can compete in basketball.
You came into this season having already been named All-Region Third Team and All-NESCAC Second Team, how did you manage to continue scoring and contributing knowing that other teams knew of your strong playing ability?
I would say during my junior year, about halfway through [the season], teams started to double team me and make it really hard for me to score. One of the things that I really worked on was passing out of the double because a teammate would be open if the other team chose to double me. This made other teams hesitate to double me because I could send the ball out and we could score. In terms of managing the pressure, basketball is a sport I’ve played my whole life and I really love it and find it fun to overcome those challenges. I try to not let pressure throw me off.
The men’s basketball team had a historic season this year, finishing third in the NESCAC Conference and winning 18 total games, the most since 2001. How did this improvement from last season’s record happen?
I guess we really tried to embody the mindset of improving each day and turning that into each month and each year. That hard work has been consistent really since my freshman year. [Additionally], there are individual guys who have taken a big step [this season]. We had two other guys make the All-NESCAC team and it shows that we work hard individually and as a team.
How did your team stay focused this season amid all the success?
We have four rules that we follow and try to embody every day in practice. The first one is to choose gratitude. It is a privilege to play college basketball so knowing that we’re fortunate and to have fun is important. Two, one possession at a time, really focusing on each individual play. If you value your possessions more, that will help you win the game. Three go for it, giving it your all in practice. Four one play at a time. Taking things one play at a time. Those principles really helped us focus in on a day to day basis and if you sustain that for a long period of time your habits and abilities really help to get better, it’s really a formula to winning because it puts you into a spot to be successful and win games.
How do you prepare yourself for games? Do you or your team have any pre-game rituals?
I myself have a lot and my team has a few. Coming down to the game, I come down about two hours before if it’s a home game. For home games, I put my phone on the do not disturb mode two hours before. Sometimes the good luck today texts can make me nervous. I listen to a lot of music before the game and I spend about 15 minutes before the game focusing on my breathing and trying to meditate. We also get scouting reports [on opposing teams] two days before the game so I like to study that and see the details of the opposition. Things like knowing which hand my opponent prefers or which new moves they’re using helps me perform better.
The do-not disturb is a team-wide thing, players and even coaches follow that because the coaches believe that if the players follow something the coaches should too. We also try to get as much sleep as possible before games. I usually try to get at least nine hours and most players try to get at least eight hours of sleep. We have a 24 hour rule of no going out 24 hours before a game. We’re also suggested to drink a lot of water in the two days before the game. Personally, I would try to drink a gallon of water the day before the game.
What did you do during the offseasons to improve and prepare for the year ahead?
We work closely with Coach Analisse [Ríos]. So, we lift a lot during the summer and try to come back stronger than the year before. We always came back in relatively good shape because we don’t really take summers off. We run, we lift, and we play [basketball]. It’s honestly pretty similar to what we do during the school year. I would play 4 times a week, lift 4 times a week, and run two times a week. Individually each of us did different things – I worked on passing and kicking out of the double team and also on handling the ball. Each guy has something that they know they can work on and that becomes the focus for the summer.
Recently, you were named to the NABC All-America First Team and won NESCAC Player of the Year, D3Hoops.com Region 1 Player of the Year, NABC District 1 Player of the Year, and NESCAC Player of the Week during the season. Were you expecting to win so many awards this year?
I think that I was definitely shocked to win some of the awards I got. The player of the week awards, I knew if I had two really good games I had a good shoot at getting it. But, the yearly awards I got I was pretty surprised by. Hearing external validation from outside could hurt me sometimes so I tried to instead focus [on taking] one game at a time. I wasn’t ignoring the validation but minimizing it because I don’t like to get too wrapped up in it.
Playing as a center embodies a lot of heavy contact and physicality. How do you manage to stay focused during games knowing that you will get hit?
The sheer amount of basketball that I’ve played, that experience definitely helps me [stay focused]. In high school and middle school I played on like five different AAU teams at a certain point. Through playing so much basketball, you learn how to drown the crowd out and know that getting hit is part of the experience [of playing]. This experience helps me stay calm during the games.
What is your favorite and least favorite thing about your position?
I would say my favorite thing about my position as a center is that my position allows me to play one on one a lot more in game which is my favorite thing to do. Playing in the park growing up, I played a lot of one on one. I get to play more one on one comparatively because I often get the ball in the porch and it’s hard to send a double team there because it’s not like there are guys coming in to help which happens when a guard drives. You have to make an active decision to either double or leave me one on one. Having that freedom to play one on one and also the ability to make the decision to either go one on one or pass out to a teammate is something I enjoy. I enjoy the mind game to [one on one] too. My least favorite thing about my position is maybe that I’m not allowed to shoot from farther out as much because of my positioning on the court. It’s not something that I’m really doing during games.
What do you hope for the future of the team when you all have graduated? Is there anything you would change about college soccer/the team?
Obviously I’m really hopeful. There’s a great group of guys that the seniors and I are leaving, a lot of guys that are willing to work hard and embody everything that we have done. We have a very good team and I know the coaches are recruiting guys that have a similar mindset to us. I don’t know what I would like to change but I have a deep gratitude for the program. Even during the times where it seemed like we were struggling and days where we didn’t want to do it and felt like quitting, every session was really super meaningful and it all helped build the program to where it is today.
What are your plans following graduation?
I’m currently applying to grad school and a couple schools have reached out asking whether I want to play next year. I just entered the transfer portal so I’m excited to see what happens next year. Most of the schools reaching out are [NCAA] DIII. I have about 50 emails from DIII schools as well as a couple from DII and DI schools.
Since everyone’s talking about it now, who do you have winning your March Madness bracket?
I have two brackets and in one of the brackets, I have UNC vs. UCONN in the final and UCONN winning. My old point guard plays at Texas Tech so I’m also rooting for him.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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