Say this for Florida senior forward Erik Murphy, he’s not afraid to fail.
After front-rimming a hook shot in the final 10 seconds that could have tied the game in Florida’s SEC Tournament final loss to Ole Miss, Murphy said he would welcome being in that situation again if called upon.
“That’s something I’m comfortable with,” Murphy said. “If that happens again, I have to try to make the play again, whether it’s for me or one of my teammates. I want to be in that situation and it’s something I’ve accepted.”
ESPN/ABC analyst Jimmy Dykes said that Florida coach Billy Donovan told him Wednesday that the ball would go to Murphy in crunch time for a last-second shot. Donovan said Monday that was “not entirely accurate” but that he wanted to get the ball inside to the 6-foot-10 Murphy either try to draw a double team or draw a foul. Florida trailed 65-63 at the time.
“I wanted to get some action toward the basket,” Donovan said. “There’s 22 seconds to go, we’re in the double-bonus and I just felt like in that situation, Erik is a really good free-throw shooter. He’s probably our most consistent guy down inside. He got it in there and he got a shot that he’s capable of making that he didn’t make.”
The missed shot capped off a rough SEC Tournament final for the 6-foot-10 Murphy, who finished 3 of 11 from the floor and 1 of 6 from 3-point range for nine points. Murphy scored a career-high 27 points in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal against LSU, but followed it up by averaging just 7.5 points in his final two SEC Tournament games.
