ucriverside new coach murphy

socalogo.gif (8739 bytes)
SoCalHoops Recruiting News

UC Riverside Hires New Men's
Assistant Coach, Tod Murphy--(Sept. 20, 2001)

UC Riverside has hired a replacement for Rusty Smith, a long-time assistant who left the Highlanders recently to take on the head coaching job at College of Sequoias. The new assistant is Tod Murphy, and we just received this press release from Ross French, the Sports Information Director at UC Riverside, so we thought we'd pass it on:

UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team Hires Former NBA Forward Tod Murphy as Assistant Coach
For Immediate Release September 20, 2001

The University of California, Riverside men's basketball team has hired former NBA forward Tod Murphy as an assistant coach, Head Coach John Masi announced Thursday.

Murphy joins the Highlanders following an outstanding collegiate and 11-year professional career that has taken him around the world. Murphy will assist the Highlanders in recruiting and will coach the post players.

"We are very excited to have Tod joining our staff," Masi said. "His professional experience and knowledge of the game will be a tremendous benefit to our program."

Murphy replaces Rusty Smith, who left UCR earlier this month to become the head coach at College of the Sequoias in Visalia.

Murphy had a storied career at UC Irvine for Coach Bill Mulligan, where he concluded his four-year career as the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,778 points. He was second in rebounding with 837 caroms. He also holds the school record for free throws made with 488 and games played with 117. He graduated from UCI with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1986 and was voted into the UCI Hall of Fame in 2000.

As a junior, Murphy earned Associated Press Honorable Mention All-America Honors and First-Team All-PCAA (now Big West) honors, after averaging 17.0 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. He duplicated the honors the next year, as he averaged 20.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. As a freshman, Murphy was placed on the All-PCAA freshman team.

Following the season he was drafted in the third round (53rd overall) of the 1986 draft by the Seattle Supersonics but suffered an injury and missed the season. In 1987-88 he signed on with the Albany Patroons of the CBA, then joined BBV Villaiba in Spain in 1988-89. In 1989 he returned to the NBA as a member of the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves.

Murphy was a member of the Timberwolves' original starting five in their first ever game, joining Sam Mitchell, Brad Lohaus, Tony Campbell and Sidney Lowe. The highlight of his season came when he set a then Minnesota single-game record with 20 rebounds against the Los Angeles Clippers. Murphy was traded to the Houston Rockets in 1992-93, then returned to Europe, playing for Pistoia in Italy in 1993-94, Valvi Gerona in Spain in 1994-95, Virtus Roma in Italy in 1995-96, and Daiwa in Japan in 1996-98. Following his playing career, Murphy had been the assistant varsity coach at Capistrano Valley High School from 1998-99 and the head freshman coach from 1999-2001.

Murphy graduated from Lakewood HS in 1982 and was named the CIF 4A Player of the Year in 1981-82. He was elected into the Lakewood Hall of Fame in 1982.