Murphy Carries Load as Irvine Beats Boise State

UC Irvine has played five games this season. That adds up to 200 minutes of available playing time. Senior forward Tod Murphy has played in 193 of them.

Murphy played 38 minutes in Saturday night’s nonconference game against Boise State. As far as UCI Coach Bill Mulligan is concerned, there is no rest for the talented.

“I don’t see why not,” Mulligan said, when asked if Murphy can keep up this pace. “The ball’s not that heavy.

“That’s an old John McKay line, from when he used to have O.J. Simpson carry the ball 30 or 40 times a game.”

McKay was also fond of telling reporters that he gave Simpson the ball so much because he liked to watch him play.

The same can be said of Mulligan and Murphy. And Saturday night, Mulligan liked what he saw.

Murphy scored a career-high 35 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and generally dominated play inside in leading the Anteaters to an 87-74 win before 1,067 fans. The win put Irvine (3-2) over the .500 mark for the first time this season.

The 6-9 Murphy was 13 of 21 from the field against a Boise State team that simply didn’t have the size or talent to stop him. Murphy had 18 points and 6 rebounds by halftime. And points were easier to come by in the second half, when Murphy began putting Boise State’s front-court players Brian Sperry (6-8) and Jeff Kelly (6-9) in foul trouble.

“They don’t have a lot of height,” Murphy said. “They just try to make up for it with quickness outside. That opens up a lot of one-on-one opportunities inside.”

And that meant trouble for the Broncos (3-5) and Coach Bob Dye. When Murphy didn’t score inside, it was usually because he was fouled, and he made 9 of 11 free-throw attempts.

“That’s the way he can play,” Irvine guard Mike Hess said. “He’s just been gradually working up to this. There’s no way they can match up on him. Guys his size have a hard enough time.”

After playing 38 minutes in Thursday night’s 85-72 win over Montana, Murphy was asked how he’s able to endure the long stretches of play without taking a breather.

“When I get tired, I just try to push myself a little harder,” he said. “It’s worked so far.”

All of this has come in a week when Murphy has been studying for final exams. He estimated that he averaged four hours of sleep per night this week.

He also averaged 23.5 points and 7.5 rebounds over that span.