DAILY DISH: Texas Southern’s Aaric Murray goes off, so does SIU’s Barry Hinson

This Daily Dish is dedicated to those who spent this week in college basketball going off.

First off, as Stuart Scott would say, big ups to Texas Southern big man Aaric Murray, who exploded for an NCAA season high 48 points in the Tigers’ upset win at Temple on Thursday.

Murray, a Philadelphia native, looked like Roy Hibbert out there, tooling on the Temple bigs in the post and having his way inside. He was athletic, skilled and relentless down low, knocking in 20 field goals on 20-28 shooting. He also recorded 8 rebounds, 2 assists, one block and a steal.

The 6-10, 245 pound graduate student spent the first two seasons of his career at La Salle, where he made an immediate impact as one of the best big men in the A-10, averaging 12 points, 7 boards and 2.3 blocks per game in his freshman season. He put up 15.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game in his sophomore year before transferring to West Virginia in 2012.

Murray had some disciplinary issues in Morgantown, getting arrested for marijuana possession and suspended for a violation of team rules in 2012.

He subsequently saw his minutes go down, and he averaged just 8.8 points and 5.9 boards in his only season for the Mountaineers. Still, the big man graduated early and took advantage of the NCAA rule that allows players who earn a diploma in 3 years to transfer to another school to earn their graduate degree without having to sit out a year.

So, Murray chose Texas Southern, where former Indiana and UAB coach Mike Davis is turning things around. The Tigers were the class of the SWAC last season, going 16-2 in league play, but missed out on the NCAA Tournament thanks to a poor APR score.

Texas Southern is back this season and could make some noise in the Big Dance if Murray has anything to say about it. He looked like a man among boys against Temple, and is playing his way into legitimate NBA prospect.

He’s a little thin, and his game needs to be refined in the low block, but he’s got the requisite size and athleticism to compete at the NBA level. Any 6-10 guy who can put up 48 points in D-1 college hoops is going to get a serious look at the NBA, and there’s no doubt that Murray has the talent to make it there.

—

CHILL OUT, KORNHEISER.

The guys at PTI hammered Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson for his hilarious and awesome rant during last night’s postgame press conference after the Salukis lost to Murray State. Tony Kornheiser said Hinson was “lucky he still has his job” after the rant and Wilbon insinuated that he would have given Hinson a smack-down if he was one of the players’ parents.

While Tony and Mike usually know what they’re talking about, they were way off base on this one. Hinson is a terrific coach with a squeaky-clean track record, and has gotten the short end of the stick more than once in his career. He did a fantastic job at Missouri State, lifting that program into the thick of the Missouri Valley Conference almost every season while he was there, then was unceremoniously fired when the Bears had a (very) rare down year.

Somehow, Hinson didn’t get another coaching job and ended up being the George Costanza of Kansas basketball (assistant to the traveling secretary), making flight and hotel arrangements and making sure there were extra mints under players’ pillows for three years. After KU head coach Bill Self gave him a glowing recommendation, Southern Illinois hired him to turn around their once-proud program. I’d bet on him to do it, if only the soft-as-jello-pudding members of the media would let the guy do his job and coach his players.

Judging by the reaction of some of his players on Twitter, this SIU team is immature and soft, and needs to be toughened up a bit. Not to mention, this rant was one of the most entertaining and awesome postgame soundbites in a long time.

“MY WIFE would get more than 2 buckets on 11 shots, because I KNOW my wife would shot fake at least once!”

What a classic line. It was hilarious, brilliant, and to the point.

We need more postgame rants like that.

 

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