Former UCLA star and NBA-er Tracy Murray sat down with the Daily Bruin’s Brantley Watson to discuss this year’s NCAA tournament, the current state of UCLA basketball, and give some advice to college kids looking to make the transition into the NBA.
Daily Bruin: First off, having been involved in the NCAA tournament yourself years ago, what are your impressions of this year’s tournament?
Tracy Murray: A lot of people don’t like it, but I think it’s good for basketball that the Cinderellas are pressuring some of these big schools. It’s kind of leveling out the playing field, and it’s forcing big schools ““ that aren’t getting players like they used to ““ to go out and recruit some of these kids now. It makes things interesting.
DB: So it is a good thing to have these mid-major schools going deep in the tournament?
TM: Yeah, because some of these schools that are favored to win, they don’t come in with the mentality of taking care of business; they come in with the mentality of, “We’ve got an easy game.” And then when they’re in a dogfight halfway through the second half, it’s too late. Mentally, if they approach the game like, “We’ve got to take care of business,” then business will be taken care of early instead of in a panic mode towards the end.
DB: Who do you think is going to win this thing? I mean, it’s been pretty up in the air so far.
TM: It’s a toss-up, man. My brackets were busted in the first round (laughs). But I did have West Virginia, and I did have Duke in the Final Four. All of them are well-coached, but Krzyzewski has been there and West Virginia hasn’t. But I don’t know man, it’s a toss-up. I have to give the edge to Duke because of the fact that Krzyzewski has been there and they’re playing pretty well right now.
DB: In your three years at UCLA, you made it as far as the Elite Eight but never the Final Four. Does that ever haunt you when you watch the tournament today?
TM: It haunts me all the time because of all the talent we had on our team. I told my dad earlier this morning, that with the talent we had, I wish I sacrificed a little bit more of my game for the sake of the team, especially during tournament time because it’s not about individual performances, it’s about winning championships.
DB: You declared for the draft before your senior year. What do you think about the limitations implemented by the NBA on when players can enter the draft, and what do you think about the best players being one-and-done?
TM: Being a guy who went in early, I think that every kid should at least go (to college) until their junior year, because even when I left early, I wasn’t really ready from a maturity standpoint. It takes a lot of maturity to sit on somebody’s bench, especially if you’re one of the guys that goes mid- to late-first round. If you go mid- to late-first round, you’re going to a playoff team, so you’re sitting the bench. You have to be mentally tough and very, very mature to deal with that type of situation. Even if you’re told you’re going to go lottery ““ like I was ““ and then I slipped. … I slipped to a team that just came out of the (NBA) Finals. That’s kind of tough.
DB: Another route that college kids are beginning to consider is skipping college and going overseas for a year. Having played overseas yourself, what do you think about this decision players are making?
TM: If I had a choice, I wouldn’t go overseas from high school because it’s not for everybody. That whole style of play over in Europe is different from the style of play over here in the United States. If you’re just an athletic guy and you think you’re going to go overseas and make some money, you’re sadly mistaken. If you look at all the players that come over to the NBA from overseas, they’re very fundamentally sound. They work on their game 24/7. There are two practices a day that these kids are not ready for over there. … They’ll just find themselves coming right back.
DB: What are your impressions about coach Ben Howland and the Bruins not making the tournament and finishing under .500 on the season?
TM: I mean, it’s disappointing. I’m sure they’ll tell you it’s disappointing. But that’s why ““ I was at the state championship game this past week ““ you see Coach (Scott) Garson up there looking for players. They’re looking for guys that are UCLA-type players, Ben Howland-type players; guys that are going to come in and defend and be ready to go. I think the team wasn’t as athletic as people anticipated this year, and I think that’s what we got beat with in games … lack of athleticism. But trust me, next year the Bruins are going to be more athletic and I think they’ll be better with the freshman class coming in.
DB: A lot of the same guys are returning, so what do you think it’s going to take to turn this team around by next season?
TM: It’s going to take leadership because, honestly, I thought leadership was lacking this year. Mike Roll did a good job of doing the best he can to lead this team. He had … a very good senior year. But I don’t think there were very many people following Michael Roll’s lead. If they were following his lead, then the team would have done better.
Leadership is key. If there are guys that are leaders on that team, and they’re stepping up and they’re getting in people’s faces and getting people into the gym to work their behinds off and get better for next year so this won’t happen again, then the team will go in the direction that it should go.
DB: What are some of the major differences between this year’s team and when you played?
TM: I think the biggest difference is the mental approach to the game. We had friends on the other team, but they weren’t our friends during the game. They weren’t our friends during warm-ups. We didn’t go hug them, laugh with them, joke with them; they were the enemy. We grew up with guys from USC, but we were hammering each other. It was almost like we didn’t know each other. The mentality is totally different.
You got to attack the other team like it’s personal. I don’t think the team this year took losses personally like we did. Our practices were dogfights because we were trying to take each other’s positions.
We were literally fighting in practice. That type of fighting in practice is healthy because you got guys busting their tails, trying to be the best they can be and snatch a position. I’m not too sure if that kind of competitiveness was going on with this team. I didn’t see much fight this year. And I’m pretty sure Coach Howland was frustrated about this because most teams he coached, they fought.
DB: Having played in the league, what player on UCLA’s team today has the best chance to be a solid pro?
TM: Right now, no one because they haven’t proved themselves yet. Honestly, there are some people talking about putting their names in the draft or have put their names in the draft that have no business doing it. If your team doesn’t go to the NCAA (Tournament) or the NIT (National Invitation Tournament), and do well, what type of stock do you have? You don’t have any stock. NBA teams want to see that you can win. If you can’t win, and you’re not putting up crazy numbers, you’re not going anywhere.
A lot of kids don’t understand what they have to deal with nowadays that’s different from what I had to deal with when I came out, I only had to deal with kids coming out of the universities around here. I never had to deal with the element of the unknown that’s coming from overseas.
So everybody that thinks they’re doing well, or their parents are telling them to test the market, or their boys are telling them they’re great; you better look in the mirror and be real with yourself. It’s a lot harder to just throw your name in the draft now unless you’re one of the top guys in the country.
E-mail Watson at bwatson@media.ucla.edu.