How underrated is Gophers star Jordan Murphy? Player rankings show lack of respect

per Marcus:

Jordan Murphy doesn’t pay attention to where he’s ranked among the top players in college basketball, but maybe he should to be motivated by how he's perceived nationally entering this season.

After a breakout year with the Gophers as a junior, it comes as a surprise to see the lack of respect Murphy’s receiving in various preseason publications and player rankings for 2018-19.

Street & Smith’s College Basketball Preview hit newsstands this week with Murphy’s face on the regional cover with Iowa’s Tyler Cook and Illinois’ Trent Frazier. That’s rare for a Gopher – and it shows somebody recognized his talent.

But inside the magazine’s pages, Murphy was a no show as a preseason All-American and didn’t get picked on the preseason All-Big Ten first team.

The same goes for lists with Athlon Sports, Lindy’s Sports and Blue Ribbon. Lindy's ranked Murphy No. 54 in the top 150 college basketball players for 2018-19. Athlon ranked Murphy even lower at No. 66, behind 10 other Big Ten players (Purdue’s Carsen Edwards, Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ, Indiana’s Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan, Michigan State’s Cassius Winston, Nebraska’s James Palmer Jr., Michigan’s Charles Matthews, Michigan State’s Nick Ward, Iowa’s Tyler Cook and Maryland’s Anthony Cowan.) Wow.

No love for Murphy at all.

http://www.startribune.com/how-unde...ayer-rankings-show-lack-of-respect/493965071/

Go Gophers!!

I saw a story that had him ranked as a top 10 senior nationally, for whatever that's worth

There is a tendency among many media people and basketball sports fans to evaluate a college player, if they don't really know the player, based on the NBA recruiting analysts that their evaluation of whether the player's ability is enough to be highly successful in the NBA.

From the modest amount of info I have the view is that Murphy is undersized for his position - to play in the NBA. The media experts than base their evaluation of players on that simple and potential likely outcome. Murphy is overlooked as one of the best college players because he may not get drafted or if he does it may only be in the second round.

In my view, Murphy the college player will be one of the top 10 and certainly one of the top 20 college players in the country once the season is over and the players compared. Not a perfect comparison but I'll compare him a bit to Tyler Hansbrough from North Carolina. Hansbourgh was college player of the year in 2008 but I remember having a discussion w/ a friend at the time and we both agreed he would at best be a very average NBA player based on his body and the position he played (center). I greatly admired Hansbourgh's skill around the basket but he was ridiculously undersized to play the position in the NBA nor did he have the quickness nor was he a drop dead outside shooter. But in college very few people could guard him effectively because of how good his dribble drive was with both hands, footwork and ability to shoot with either hand.

Now Murphy won't win college player of the year, but he will have unbelievable success this year and put up double-doubles again and again and probably break last year's record and Tim Duncin's record. Enjoy the season. He may well be the most dynamic player we've had since Willie Burton. Jordan Murphy will be fondly remembered as one of the best players to have worn the Gopher uniform - he'll be a legend if they make to the Sweet 16.

Murphy is arguably the most productive high major player not to turn pro