Aaric Murray (born July 3, 1989) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who spent his brief career playing for Panelefsiniakos of the

Greek Basket League The Greek Basketball League (GBL), and also known as the Stoiximan Greek Basketball League (GBL) for sponsorship reasons, is the Greek basketball league system, first tier level professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by the ...

. Murray played college basketball for the

Texas Southern Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically Black university in Houston. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schoo ...

, as well as La Salle and

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. Murray was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2014.

Early life

Murray was brought up in

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

. He didn't begin playing basketball until relatively late, since he didn't want to be made fun of for his height and not knowing how to play the game. Murray was sent to the Glen Mills School, a school for court-adjudicated children, due to being frequently truant. He was the number 31 overall prospect in the class of 2009 according to Scout.com.

College career

Murray started his collegiate career at La Salle. Despite only being able to read at an elementary level, he was given a chance with Explorers coach

John Giannini John Manfredo Giannini (born October 31, 1962) is an American college basketball coach, Director of Athletics at Rowan University, and college basketball analyst for NBC Sports and other networks. He served as the head men's basketball coach at ...

. "I just had a little attitude problem, I guess," Murray said. "I was young or something, and I didn't know how to read." As a sophomore, Murray averaged 15.2 points and 7.7 rebounds. Giannini forced Murray to transfer after his sophomore year. Murray opted to transfer to

. During his

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

year, he was arrested for possession of a crack cocaine pipe. He was also suspended in 2012 by coach

Bob Huggins Robert Edward Huggins (born September 21, 1953), nicknamed "Huggy Bear", is an American college basketball coach. He was the head coach at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State, and West Virginia. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial ...

for multiple disciplinary violations. In his junior year, Murray averaged 8.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on a 13-19 Mountaineers team. Murray acknowledged that he partied too much and got into trouble at West Virginia. After the season, he decided to transfer again, this time to

. where he was arrested again for possession of crack cocaine. At Texas Southern, Murray worked out with John Lucas. Lucas recalled that Murray at first resisted his training regimen, but eventually came to accept it. On December 18, 2013, Murray scored 48 points against

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

in a one-point upset at the

Liacouras Center The Liacouras Center is a 10,206-seat multi-purpose venue which opened in 1997 and was originally named "''The Apollo of Temple''". The arena was renamed in 2000 for Temple University President, Peter J. Liacouras. It is part of a $107 mil ...

, setting records for the most points scored against Temple by one player as well as a new arena record. He was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2014. He also picked up SWAC Defensive Player of the Year honors after averaging 21 points and almost 8 rebounds a game on a team that captured the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Professional career

Following a lengthy collegiate career, Murray signed with Panelefsiniakos of the

References

External links

Texas Southern profile
@ sports-reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Aaric 1989 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Greece American men's basketball players Basketball players from Philadelphia Centers (basketball) La Salle Explorers men's basketball players Panelefsiniakos B.C. players Texas Southern Tigers men's basketball players West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball players