Trey Murphy didn’t actually see it when it happened Saturday night.
He was too busy on the Smoothie King Center court helping the New Orleans Pelicans get past the Los Angeles Clippers in one of the most thrilling victories of the season.
But he had heard about San Diego State beating Florida Atlantic University 72-71 in the final seconds of the semifinals of the Final Four to reach Monday night’s NCAA Tournament championship game.
“You know what’s crazy?” Murphy said. “I didn’t know who hit it. I just knew that right before the game they were saying they hit a buzzer beater. When I came in here after the game and I saw the Bleacher Report picture and it had Lamont’s name and they were holding him up, I said ‘Oh, Lamont hit it.’ Then I saw the video. That’s dope man. I’m very happy for him.”
Lamont is Lamont Butler, San Diego State’s 6-foot-2 junior guard who buried the 16-foot jumper as time expired to send the Aztecs to the title game to face UConn.
The sharp-shooting Murphy wasn’t surprised. He’s followed Butler’s career since they met just a few years ago.
Murphy, who played collegiately at Rice before transferring to Virginia, hosted Butler on his recruiting visit to Rice. Murphy was a sophomore at the time.
“I was the host to every recruit at Rice because, you know, why not?” Murphy said with a laugh.
It didn’t take long for Murphy to find out how good Butler was. It also didn’t take long for Murphy to realize that he and Butler probably weren’t going to ever be college teammates. Just a few games of playing in the gym that day was all Murphy needed. Shortly afterwards, Murphy went to his coach and told him this.
‘He’s not coming to Rice. He’s a little too good for Rice.”
Turns out, Murphy was right.
Butler, whose list of scholarship offers included Stanford, Washington, California, Colorado, Southern California, Boise State and Utah State, chose San Diego State. Butler played his high school ball just 90 minutes away from San Diego State at Poly High School in Riverside, where he broke Hall of Famer Reggie Miller’s all-time scoring record with over 1,800 points.
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