NCAA Basketball: 15 undervalued players in 2020 recruiting class

#82 Caleb Murphy, CG – South Florida

The Bulls were unable to expand on their solid 2018 season, largely due to stud center Alexis Yetna’s season-ending inury prior to the start of the year. Yetna’s emergence as a freshman boosted South Florida from 329th nationally on offense to 221st, the defense from 280th to 23rd, and a 14-win increase from 2017. Without him, USF leaned heavily on the play of guards David Collins and Laquincy Rideau.

Unfortunately, the Bulls cannot count on the play of Rideau this season after exhausting his eligibility in 2019. Zack Dawson and Xavier Castenada are capable options to fill the void, but the most talented and ready player to help South Florida next season is freshman guard Caleb Murphy. As a dynamic scoring talent, he offers the team a lot of upside and will draw a lot of attention from opposing defenses.

Murphy is an elite athlete in simplified terms. He embodies speed, physicality, and quickness to beat defenders 1-on-1 or knife through the lane. His offensive game is still developing, specifically as a consistent perimeter shooter, but the downhill ability is very strong. His first step dribble is going to provide him significant looks around the rim and his consistency and touch finishing around the rim are already fairly developed.

While defenses will begin to adjust to Murphy’s play, his penetration into the lane will produce opportunities to reach the foul line or increase his showing as a facilitator down low. The addition is assuredly going to help boost the Bulls outlook in 2020.