USBWA Picks Jamal Murray For Freshman All-America Team

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Clearly one of the best freshman and one of the most prolific scorers in the country, freshman guard Jamal Murray was named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Freshman All-America Team on Wednesday. 

Murray joined California’s Jaylen Brown, Marquette’s Henry Ellenson, Duke’s Brandon Ingram and LSU’s Ben Simmons on the team. 

Last week, Murray was named to the Sporting News Freshman All-America Team. 

The USBWA Freshman All-America Team was voted on by members of the USBWA, which is comprised of more than 900 sportswriters and sports journalists who cover college basketball for newspapers, magazines and websites.

Murray’s postseason honors list continues to lengthen by the day. Among the honors he’s been recognized for already:

ABOUT MURRAY: Murray has been one of the nation’s best scorers all season long and led the league with five SEC Weekly honors. He currently leads the Wildcats in scoring at 20.1 points per game, which, if the season ended today, would be the highest individual scoring average at Kentucky in the John Calipari era. 

 

With 685 points this season, he already owns the school’s freshman single-season scoring record surpassing Brandon Knight (657 points in 2010-11). He’s posted three 30-point games this season, two of which came against league competition. The three 30-point games are the most by a freshman in school history, and his 35 points vs. Florida tied Terrence Jones (Jan. 11, 2011 vs. Auburn) for the school record single-game scoring mark by a freshman. It also tied Jones for the most points in a single game in the Calipari era.

 

Murray is the first Wildcat to reach double figures in 32 straight games since Jodie Meeks did it 32 times in 2008-09. He racked up a 12-game streak of scoring 20 points or more matching the longest such streak for any UK player since Kevin Grevey topped 20 or more points in 12 straight games in 1974-75.

 

Having hit a 3-pointer in every game this season, Murray owns the UK freshman record for most 3-point field goals in a single season with 110, surpassing Knight’s previous record of 87. His 110 made 3-pointers are already second on the UK single-season 3-point field goal list and the most of any freshman in the history of the SEC. Entering the NCAA Tournament, he has a shot at breaking Stephen Curry’s NCAA freshman record for 3-point field goals in a season (122). 

 

Murray and the Wildcats will play Stony Brook on Thursday at approximately 9:40 p.m. ET in the NCAA Tournament first round in Des Moines, Iowa. That game will be televised on CBS.

For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.