Jim Christian and the rest of the TCU basketball staff received the first commitment in the class of 2012 from Reggie Murphy of Los Angeles, Calif.

Murphy is a 6’9 and 270 pound power forward whose size and athleticism are hard to find from 20-year-old athletes.

He has a good skill set in the post and welcomes contact when finishing at the basket.
He graduated from Westchester High School in Los Angeles. Out of high school, Murphy had full scholarship offers from the University of Arizona, Marquette University and Univeristy of Oklahoma, among others.

Westchester won the city and state championship his senior year with Murphy starting at center.

Out of high school, Murphy chose Washington State University, but he decided to attend junior college to continue to develop his skills and physicality.

John Taylor, Murphy’s coach at Antelope Valley College, said of Murphy, “At 6’9 or 6’10 and 270 pounds, Murphy is very physical, but he is also very light on his feet with a good first step, and he runs the floor well.”

Antelope Valley is an elite national junior college in basketball, and the college recruiting landscape is changing drastically.

More and more players are opting to attend junior college to work on their skills so that they can eventually play division one basketball.

As a result, the talent level in junior college has increased dramatically, and the junior college level is sending more and more players off to national powerhouse programs.

After the 2010-2011 season, TCU Head Coach Jim Christian knew that his team had to get more physical, so he signed Adrick McKinney from Angelina College in Fort Worth.

Murphy is similar to McKinney in size and physicality. He will provide the Frogs with a bruising post presence like the Frogs have not had since Kevin Langford.

Taylor said Murphy is one of the best passing big men that he has ever seen.

“Reggie has the opportunity to be a great player for TCU. He has all the tools and all the ability. He just simply needs to put all of that together,” Taylor said. “This is a steal for TCU to get him so early on. If he continues to improve, the way he has over the last twelve months, then there are going to be a lot of schools wishing they had gotten Reggie.”

Taylor said the Frogs will be able to use Murphy both as a back to the basket post player and as a guy who can work at the free throw line in the high post area.

In TCU’s first year of Big East Conference play, the Frogs will now have three skilled big men giving the Frogs the type of front court depth that is needed to play in a physical league.

McKinney will be joined by Murphy and Ryan Rhoomes, who is redshirting this season.