BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — When the going gets tough, Desean Murray is there to help the WKU Hilltopper Basketball team keep its eyes on the prize.
“I keep reminding everybody,” Murray said Thursday in his first media session at WKU. “Every time we’re working out and something gets hard, we’ve got to make it to this (NCAA Tournament). We can’t sit back watching.”
Murray, a graduate senior forward, got a taste of the NCAA Tournament last season as a key piece at Auburn, which won the SEC regular-season championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Following a season in which he averaged 10.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists for a 26-win Tigers squad, Murray opted to transfer to WKU for his final season.
He’s already received his undergraduate degree and is pursuing his master’s in intercollegiate athletic administration at WKU.
“It’s been great so far,” Murray said. “I love the guys, love the coaches, love the campus. It feels like home. I’m glad to be here, and I’m just ready to start practice, start games and get to work.”
As WKU began recruiting Murray, he said he set out to research every aspect of the program and even talked with former Hilltopper star Justin Johnson to find out about the atmosphere, his potential teammates and Rick Stansbury’s coaching style.
He also took note of WKU’s success in recent years with graduate transfers. Murray is the program’s seventh graduate transfer in the last four years.
Dwight Coleby and Darius Thompson were stars for WKU last season during a 27-win campaign, while guards Junior Lomomba, Que Johnson and Pancake Thomas provided leadership in the 2016-17 campaign. Aaron Cosby was also a key piece of the 2015-16 squad the year before.
The previous six grad transfers earned 205 of 206 possible starts in their time with the Tops, and each averaged a career high for minutes on The Hill.
Five of the previous six graduate transfers averaged career highs in scoring with the Hilltoppers, and five averaged at least 11 points per game.
As a group, WKU's six most recent graduate transfers increased their scoring from the year before they joined the Hilltoppers by a combined 20.3 points per game.
In Stansbury’s first two seasons at WKU, all eight outgoing seniors have signed professional basketball contracts after leaving the school.
“They hit on that a lot, about Dwight and Darius coming in and their stats at those schools, and how they improved here,” Murray said. “They sold me on the way they improved physically and also mentally on the court and everything.”
Murray comes with a reputation as a tenacious player, starting every game at power forward for Auburn and leading the team in rebounding despite his relatively small size at the position at 6 feet, 4 inches. He also averaged 2.7 offensive rebounds per contest.
The Stanley, N.C., native admitted rebounding is one of his favorite aspects of the game, but what he puts above all else is winning.
“I want to get what everyone comes to get out of a grad year,” he said. “I want to win this season, I want to do big things, and I also want big things for my team.
“We have some young leaders on this team, also. But I feel like it’s in my character and my personality – I’ve always been a leader.”
