'It was silly': Collin Murray-Boyles showing how unguardable he can be in other aspects of his game
In these tighter moments during games, South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris would like to see Collin Murray-Boyles take over and be the scorer. But it’s hard to fault him for being unselfish and making the play that he did on Thursday.
With over 14 minutes left to play in the second half against Mercer, Murray-Boyles caught a pass in the post from Myles Stute. His back was turned towards the defender in a one-on-one situation where he could’ve made a move to the basket.
On the opposite end of the floor, though, Zachary Davis was being left on an island, not a soul near him. Out of the corner of his eye, Murray-Boyles saw this and flung a one-handed pass to Davis, who drilled the catch and shoot three-pointer to extend the lead to eight.
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With a solid performance from the sophomore forward, South Carolina would go on to pick up an 84-72 win over the Bears at Colonial Life Arena. Murray-Boyles finished with 16 points and nine rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting.
“What a big-time pass by Collin,” Paris said. “He’s in the post in the second half and and just wings it over his shoulder on a 45 to Zach for open shot, and Zach buried it. So that was good.”
On the surface, it may have looked like an ordinary play, but Paris believed it was “really important” for Murray-Boyles to be able to make that pass. After seeing how Indiana went after him to get him to foul out in just 19 minutes, it made sense for Mercer to put more of an emphasis on him. But plays like this one showed just how dangerous he can be when he’s using all his tools, which in this case was his court vision.
“I found him right as I was coming here to do media, and I told him, also, he needs to establish, it was a great pass, man. It was silly that a guy, he’s a sophomore — sophomore big — can make that pass,” Paris said.
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“And so, I told him, while it was an incredible pass, tremendous pass, that we also need him to sometimes just take that moment over and score, unless they play you in a way that they’re not letting you do that, which they weren’t on that one. Because as he establishes himself as as the guy that does that in that moment as a scorer, then the moments as a passer happen naturally.”
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Murray-Boyles also went 2-for-2 from three-point range for the first made attempts of his college career. There had been so much talk about what adding a three-point shot to his game could do and Thursday was the first glimpse of what that looks like.
But Paris liked what he saw with Murray-Boyles’ passing abilities. It’s a good trait to have as a basketball player, as they still are developing that side of the game with him.
“He’s a willing passer, very willing passer and very capable passer,” Paris said. “… He can catch ball and be go-to in some of those moments. But I think that’s an important part of him generating offense for us.”
