Long Beach State Sports : Re: The Whereabouts of Joel Murray

Joel went to the NBL1, the 2nd semi pro division in Australia, divided into geographic divisions. He was MVP of the West division. They have their playoff game on the 27th. There isn't promotion to NBL, just a regional tournament.

I would suspect he'll be known to the NBL teams now as an option, and hopefully can make a better living. He clearly didn't belong at that level:
34.3 pts per game
7.37 Asst per game
8.3 Free Throws made per game
2.5 steals per game

Ennis was MVP of the top national division and making decent money.

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He was injured in a practice scrimmage before the season started that 2 years ago. At that practice, I could see the "Oh no!" looks on the coaches' faces as Joel stayed down for several minutes with a wrist and hip injury. Had we won back-to-back BW tourneys CDM would still be the coach at LB. I'm not saying I wanted that, but that was a likely scenario. It shows how an injury to a key player is so devastating.

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So frustrating his senior season was mostly lost to injury. I strongly believe had we had a healthy JM two seasons ago we would be looking at back-to-back NCAA years

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So great to see Joel having this amount of success. At the least he could have an Ennis like mini career down there and make some decent money. Great kid and no surprise he's scoring in bunches. Throw in the engineering degree and he's well setup for his future.

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Mandurah Magic's Joel Murray has been crowned the 2024 NBL1 West MVP.

The American import joined the Magic at the start of the season averaging a huge 34.3 points per game.

Murray also went on to have four 40-plus point games and two 50-plus point games during the season.

He helped steer the Magic from a 2-20 record in 2023 to a fourth-placed finish in 2024.

Mandurah coach Mark Utley said at no surprise he also took out the club's MVP award on Sunday night.

"Really amazing story, he came out here looking for opportunity and he's done everything in his power to show the talent that he's got," he said.

"I think there's a lot of players around the league that'll be telling people in the future that they played against this guy called Joel Murray."