Ryan Murphy on Departure From Pitt and What’s Next

The roster shuffling at Pitt began on Sunday with the decision by guard Ryan Murphy to leave the program in order to enter the transfer portal.

Murphy joined Pitt last off-season and was being looked at to provide the Panthers a threat from 3-point range. In terms of numbers, Murphy did lead the team in 3-point shots made (42) but most of those were at the early portion of the schedule.

After a solid start in which he scored in double figures in 11 of Pitt’s first 19 games, things changed drastically towards the end of the season. In the team’s final 9 games, Murphy only scored a total of 17 points.

Along with a drop in production, Murphy also experienced a big dip in on-court game action, as he only averaged 10 minutes per game the last 9 games for Pitt.

Ryan Murphy (24) January 18, 2020 — David Hague/PSN

With things not likely to improve next season, Murphy decided to transfer, which means next season will be his fourth different team in the last four seasons.

Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with Murphy, who’s back home in Los Angeles, to talked about his time at Pitt, his decision to leave and what’s next for him.

“I went into every game thinking that I was going to play and wanted to do anything I could to help us win,” Murphy told PSN. “Even down the stretch, I never had the mindset that this might be my last game here or anything along those lines. Whenever my number was called, I wanted to do anything possible to help the team, it wasn’t about me.

“I just felt that I needed and wanted to go in a different direction going into my senior season.”

The concussion that Murphy suffered midway through the season is something that’s been brought up as a source for Murphy’s drop in production but he doesn’t believe that was a factor at all.

“A lot of people keep bringing up the concussion and yeah I was out for a bit but I did everything I could with our strength coach and team trainer in order to come back. I felt good when I returned but I felt that I just didn’t get the minutes once I got back like I did at the beginning of the season. That’s it really.”

Ryan Murphy (24) November 15, 2019 — David Hague/PSN

In terms of what’s next, Murphy said that he’s already heard from a number of teams including BYU, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Marquette, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Tulane.”

“I’ve heard from a good amount of teams and I’m home now and just want to make sure I make the right decision,” said Murphy.

With traveling and on-campus visits not possible because of the coronavirus pandemic, Murphy isn’t able to travel and visits prospective schools so he’ll have to adjust the way he ends up making his decision.

“The coronavirus is definitely impacting me and all guys looking to transfer,” said Murphy. “This will also impact high school guys who want to make official visits now. However, technology is so good now that I’ll be able to just Facetime, video chat or they can send pictures, which is the new way to do it.”