Dime Magazine

NO73 2013

Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.

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of how the system worked correctly is from the story of Ole Miss forward Murphy Holloway. Coming out of high school, despite struggling academically, Holloway was rated a three-star recruit and the No. 133 player in the nation by Rivals. Entering his senior year, he was unsure if he would qualify immediately to play college basketball during the 2008-09 season. Because of that, many schools stopped recruiting him. Throughout it all, Holloway says the Ole Miss coaching staff was there for him. He repaid them for their support by committing to play for the Rebels. During his frst year in Oxford, the Rebels fnished 16-15 and Holloway averaged 8.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, but it wasn't exactly what he envisioned. The team was beset by injuries, and fnished barely above .500. During his sophomore season, he averaged 10.1 points and 7.6 rebounds on a Rebel team that went 24-11 and won the SEC West Division during the regular season. Yet they still didn't make the NCAA Tournament. That left a sour taste in Holloway's mouth, despite reaching the NIT semifnals. "That was really disappointing," he says, " 'cause we worked hard throughout the season but we just couldn't pull through." After the season ended, Murphy expected to return to Ole Miss for his junior season, but a series of family circumstances forced him to reconsider that plan. He loved Ole Miss. He loved the school, the coaches and his teammates. It was where he wanted to be; just not where he needed to be. He needed to be at home with his family in Irmo, South Carolina, just outside of Columbia. His mother was ill, and the mother of his daughter was planning to re-enroll in high school. Someone needed to take care of his mom and daughter, and Holloway realized that it had to be him. "My family was struggling a little bit," Holloway says. "My mom was dealing with an illness and the mother of my daughter had dropped out of high school when she got pregnant, and she was looking to go back to school to graduate and get her diploma, so I thought it would be best if I went home for a year and took care of that and put basketball to the side." He ended up at South Carolina in Columbia, saying, "If it weren't for those circumstances, I never would have considered transferring." Unlike most players, Holloway put his 40

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