WEST LAFAYETTE − With 7:18 remaining and Purdue basketball comfortably ahead of Maryland by 25 points, Liam Murphy removed his warmups and walked to the scorer’s table at Xfinity Center on Sunday.
It marked the first appearance since Dec. 29 for the fifth-year senior forward.
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In previous stops at Columbia and North Florida, Murphy proved to be one of college basketball’s deadliest shooters.
With the Boilermakers, he’s caught in a numbers game.
“You can’t play one more guy there, especially when you got somebody like (Trey Kaufman-Renn) logging the minutes that he does,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said.
Murphy was hindered during the summer while recovering from shoulder surgery.
Jack Benter played out of position at the 4 in his absence.
“Circumstantially, Jack just played as one of our bigs because we wanted to have a productive practice,” Painter said. “We saw the advantage that it gave us. That just organically happened, and that wasn’t a break for (Murphy).”
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Kaufman-Renn missed the first two regular-season games with a hip injury. Benter started against Evansville and Oakland.
Murphy played a combined 29 minutes in those two games, then suffered a dislocated shoulder, the opposite one he had surgery on in a practice after, and wouldn’t play again for nearly a month.
In the meantime, Purdue found rotations that worked, with Benter standing out as a backup option for Kaufman-Renn.
Murphy has played in just seven games since his return from the dislocated shoulder, all games decided by lopsided margins.
Before arriving at Purdue, Murphy scored 771 career points and made 174 3-pointers, including 104 last season at North Florida while shooting 42.3%.
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“It’s a situation that I haven’t necessarily found myself at during my college playing time,” Murphy said. “But I’ve played in enough high-level basketball situations that with something we’re trying to do, win it all, we’re going to need everybody.”
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With playing time sparse and a lot of times nonexistent, he’s maintained readiness for a time of need but also shifted his focus to other areas where he can aid the Boilermakers.
He’s mentored younger players, such as Benter, whose success is a reason Murphy isn’t seeing minutes.
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“Liam has been through a little bit of everything through his college experiences,” Benter said. “I feel like him being able to help me through things and talk to me about experiences he’s had, I feel like that has really helped me.”
The lack of playing time hasn’t shown through Murphy’s actions.
“Everybody wants to play, obviously, but he knows his role right now and it shows when, even though he’s not getting to play, he’s in the gym every single day getting shots up and shows his work ethic,” Benter said. “He brings a good spirit to the team. He’s a good guy to be around and he uplifts our team in a very good way.”
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After last season, Murphy entered the transfer portal. Within a week, Purdue reached out.
There were never any hardline discussions about a role, just an opportunity to be on a roster the Boilermakers hoped could exceed what the program did two seasons ago when it lost to UConn in the national title game.
Murphy didn’t need to hear much more than that.
“In my last go around in college basketball, I’m trying to leave this program a little bit better off, talking to guys on the bench and talking during practice and after practice about what we see,” Murphy said. “I’m really fortunate to be able to learn from these guys, too.”
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Painter tells everyone on the roster that they’ll help the team win at least one game. For Murphy, that came in the season’s second game when he provided a difference with 11 points in an 87-77 victory over Oakland.
But, Painter says, you hope it’s more than one game.
“He has stayed ready here,” Painter said. “It hasn’t happened because we haven’t had much foul trouble there and we didn’t have many injuries there, but he’s a guy you feel very, very comfortable in going into a game and knowing he’s going to be able to stretch the defense and knock down some shots.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Liam Murphy Purdue basketball roster depth, shooter, leader, mentor
