The Ole Miss Hoops Handbook: Jaylen Murray

OXFORD, Miss. — In today’s installment of “The Ole Miss Hoops Handbook” we take a look at another new face on the team, transfer point guard Jaylen Murray.

So far, we’ve profiled returnees Matthew Murrell, Jaemyn Brakefield and TJ Caldwell, and then moved to a newcomer, yesterday, in Auburn transfer Allen Flanigan. If you haven’t had the chance, you can click the above links or take a look at those articles here.

Editor’s note: This “Ole Miss Hoops Handbook” series is set to help the Ole Miss community get familiar with these players and help build excitement for the upcoming season. Every day, The Rebel Walk will highlight an individual player to break down his game and describe what you can look forward to and where we can look for more growth this season.

Each player’s breakdown consists of notes from both the summer scouting and re-watch of film this fall. On top of watching game film, I formed an analysis along with a statistical breakdown from several different sources. I have watched multiple games for each player to help give an accurate picture of their game. In an effort to give a more comprehensive view, I tried to watch one game where a player had larger success statistically and one where his impact may have been overlooked by the box score.

Let’s take a look at today’s focus player: Jaylen Murray

Last year and the offseason

After spending two seasons at Saint Peter’s, Murray decided to enter the transfer portal back on May 3rd. The 5-foot-11 guard was a freshman rotation piece on the miraculous Saint Peter’s team that went on a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Murray added 8 points in the first round upset over Kentucky.

This past year, Murray became the center point of the Peacock offense under new head coach Bashir Mason. On the year, he started 11 of 29 contests and was second on the team in points per game (12.5). He also averaged 2.9 REB and 2.3 AST per game as well. Some of the notable performances Murray had are below:

 vs Rider (3/8): 22 PTS | 2 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 8-15 FG | 3 – 6 3PT FG

 vs Bucknell (11/15): 22 PTS | 4 REB | 7 AST | 9 – 17 FG | 4 – 6 3PT FG

After the year, Murray decided to enter the transfer portal and Rebel head coach Chris Beard was quick to make contact with him and get him in for a visit. Murray would later go onto commit to Ole Miss on May 31st.

Jaylen Murray

The Breakdown

In the offseason, the Ole Miss coaching staff expressed the need for a true guard. Ole Miss brought in two point guards in Austin Nunez and Murray. Both of the two will have their opportunities to compete alongside TJ Caldwell for minutes in the backcourt.

Murray has a scoring acumen and fits the archetype of a primary scoring lead guard. At St. Peter’s, the Peacocks loved to get the ball in Murray’s hands and have him push the break on any turnovers or long rebounds. This is where the first noticeable thing about Murray stands out to me. He is so quick with the ball in his hands, especially when it comes to getting that first step. He has a low center of gravity and can really get the edge on those taller defenders by being so quick and low.

Saint Peter’s heavy reliance on Murray was fascinating last year. His usage percentage was top-three in the MAAC last year at the 30.8% mark. Murray was primarily featured as a pick-and-roll ball handler and in isolation. Those two made up 198 of 353 possessions in the half court. That figure works out to be 56% of his possessions. One of the reasons for this is that Murray was the lead option for St. Peter’s when the shot clock was waning down. Murray totaled 44 shots in the final four seconds of the shot clock and made 6/18 threes in those situations.

Now that we have mentioned the frequency of his usage in these situations, I do need to mention his ability as a passer. Murray rated in the 70th percentile in P&R possessions that included passes. In these scenarios, players who were cutting are usually met with quality passes that lead to quick and easy shooting possessions. Murray can fire live dribble passes primarily with his right hand. Even more effective was when he dished off to the roll man where his TO% dipped to 7.0%, one of the lowest for his entire career.

The Peacocks were at their best when Jaylen could get downhill and put pressure on the interior for other teams. At a smaller conference, he was only able to finish at 39.8% of his finishes at the rim. With the size difference of the SEC, Murray is going to have to find more success on the outer two levels of the court.

The good news is that he was solid in the mid-range last year. Murray did take 52 runners last season and finished them at a 40.4% clip. You can pair that with 34 jump shot attempts in the midrange where he made 13 of them. He really knows how to use his body and burst to create space and angles to get off those midrange shots. He knows to decelerate and use that quickness to pull up while stopping on a dime.

On the perimeter is where Murray made the biggest jump. Every indicator shows that Murray will continue to be a valuable shooter from the outside. With an increased volume, Murray shot 83.3% from the line, the aforementioned 40% on runners, and an increase in his outside shooting percentage that went from 32.8 to 35.7% last year. This includes a bump of nearly 250% more three-point attempts in his sophomore year. Now at Ole Miss he may be in more of an on-ball lead guard role. When he got the opportunity to catch and shoot, that number bumped even higher to 38.6%. Off the dribble, he shot 32.8% from deep.

An area for concern could be that while Murray possesses a tight handle, there are instances where he may over-dribble. It’s been an overall improvement as his turnover numbers are identical from his freshman season two years (45 total) to this year (46) as he logged well over 200 minutes more. At Ole Miss, he shouldn’t have the same usage with the infusion of talent on this roster so we could see another dip in the turnovers per game column this season. Last year it dipped from 3.5 to 2.6 per game.

There’s a smoothness to his game where things never feel forced. He keeps himself calm and composed. It never seemed that Murray was forcing anything, especially as the year went on. The counter point to the prior paragraph is that starting in January, there were only two performances where he committed 3+ turnovers. Prior to January he had five games with 3+.

One of the final things of note is that Murray really played some of his best basketball toward the end of the season. He earned All-MAAC tournament honors and finished the season with strong performances, including three 20+ point outings. Seeing him play some of his best ball on the biggest stage for his conference means Ole Miss is getting a confident player.

Overall, the Rebels are adding a slightly undersized guard who can score in the mid-range and perimeter effectively. His ability as a passer is underrated and you can sense the calmness in the way he plays the game — but don’t let it take away from the competitiveness of how he plays the game.

Earlier in an exclusive interview with coach Chris Beard, I asked him to describe each player in a few short words. Here’s what he said regarding Jaylen Murray: “The Bronx. Chip on his shoulder. Talented guy with a lot to prove.”

Check back with us as we continue “The Ole Miss Hoops Handbook” en route to the first game of the season.