Four Burning Questions Ahead of the Pan-American Games Basketball Tournament

How Good is Jamal Murray?

The Kentucky Wildcats convinced this Canadian combo guard to reclassify in order to get him on campus ASAP. After losing both Harrison twins and Devin Booker to the NBA, bringing in Jamal Murray a year early was the only option available to John Calipari.

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The huge loss of so many early departures (even by Kentucky standards), and a few uncharacteristic misses on the recruiting trail, has left Calipari reliant on this young man who planned on playing another year of high school ball until recently.

As it currently stands, Murray will likely be a starter alongside Tyler Ulis in the Kentucky backcourt. Is he ready for that type of challenge? Normally, college basketball fans have more of a rapport established with Kentucky’s blue chip prospects. There was no McDonald’s All-American game for us to see Murray run roughshod through. We haven’t seen any of his high school games on ESPN.

In this era of overexposure, Murray is a virtual unknown, and Big Blue Nation takes basketball much too seriously to leave anything to chance.

Pay close attention to how Murray manages playing with Team Canada. He won’t be the star player on his team, which includes NBA talents Andrew Nicholson and Anthony Bennett, but he will have opportunities to play both guard spots and test his skills as a scorer and facilitator. A good tournament from Murray will drastically impact how we forecast the potential of this year’s Wildcat team.