Chris Dokish, Pittsburgh Recruiting, Rutgers Recruiting, West Virginia Recruiting

AARIC MURRAY USES BASKETBALL TO TURN LIFE AROUND

Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia among those offerring 6′10 big man.

By Chris Dokish

One of the more intriguing big men in the country for the 2009 class is Aaric Murray of Glen Mills School in Concordville, PA. Despite not taking up basketball until a few years ago, Murray has gone from unknown to Top 50 prospect practically overnight. The fact that he reached this level is even more incredible when you realize where he was before he found basketball.

Glen Mills is a school for court adjudicated youth. In other words, it’s a school where judges send kids who get into trouble. In Murray’s case, it was because of truancy. A lot of it! One year Murray skipped school 150 times. Eventually he had to repeat 8th Grade twice before ultimately being sent to Glenn Mills. It was there, 30 miles outside of his home town of Philadelphia, that Murray first decided to play basketball just two years ago.

“He never played before coming here,” says Glen Mills coach Craig Mellinger. “Not even pick-up basketball. But once he got here, even just in practices, he was improving by leaps and bounds. His skills improved so fast that recently we had to go back and show him some more of the little things.”

Mellinger says his star player is getting by on pure athletic skills right now and is working on his technique. “His strengths are definitely his athleticism, his agility, and his soft hands. And he can really run. He runs with our guards in practice and though he is much bigger, he actually runs like he is 6’2” or 6’3”. His actual size, according to Mellinger, is 6’10” and 240 pounds.

It’s those physical gifts, combined with the great size, that has Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers, LaSalle, St. Joe’s, and Temple already extending offers to the future college power forward. The offer list would certainly be greater if Murray played AAU ball, but maybe it’s a good thing that he doesn’t have more.

“He hasn’t even thought about where he wants to go,” says Mellinger. “We are getting to that time where he has to start thinking about it more, but right now he says he has to concentrate on other facets of his life first.”

One of those things that Murray wants to concentrate on more, ironically, is his academic work. He is currently taking college prep courses at Glen Mills and despite having one more of eligibility left, he is already eligible to play in college.

“It’s an amazing turnaround,” says Mellinger. “He is getting more mature and it’s his maturity that’s the key to helping him get to where he wants to be.”

Chris Dokish is a NBE Basketball Report contributor as well as a contributing editor of the Pittsburgh Sports Report where his stories are often featured in their Keystone Recruiting newsletter series, which you can sign up for free at their website.