Texas Basketball: Breaking down transfer guards interested in Horns

The Rice Owls are going to lose one of their most special talents on the roster heading into the 2020-21 season. This 6-foot-8 and 200 pound Durham, NC, native Trey Murphy III is also one of the more surprising names to hit the transfer portal so far this offseason. He had a really good run with Rice in Conference-USA during his sophomore campaign last season.

Jake Weingarten of stockrisers.com reported on March 20 the teams that are looking into Murphy III after he put his name in the transfer portal. It appears that the highlights of the schools that were in contact with Murphy III thus far includes the Villanova Wildcats, UConn Huskies, Cincinnati Bearcats, Arizona, Iowa State, and Alabama Crimson Tide.

And last season with the Owls, Murphy III played in 29 games while averaging 13.7 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.6 blocks, while shooting 43.4 percent from the field, 36.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 82.4 percent from the charity stripe. Murphy III also got to the line nearly double as many times as he did during his freshman season.

Coming out of Cary Academy High School in North Carolina, Murphy III only held interest from the Campbell Fighting Camels, Yale Bulldogs, and Columbia Lions. The Ivy League interest obviously didn’t bring any scholarship offers, though. Murphy III was also an unranked prospect coming out of high school.

The need that Murphy III could fill for the Longhorns is that of a capable two-way guard that could fill a similar role off the bench to that of someone like to-be senior Matt Coleman or junior Courtney Ramey.