Wildcats For Life: Jason Terry and Jack Murphy

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TUCSON, Ariz. – When head coach Sean Miller announced that former Wildcat and national player of the year Jason Terry was joining the staff as an assistant coach last week, it marked another return to Tucson for an alum and someone that is passionate about the program.
 
Terry will join fellow UA alum and associate head coach Jack Murphy on the sidelines after they spent the 1998-99 season together in Tucson – Terry as a student-athlete and Murphy as a freshman manager.
 
Some might think that the age difference between those two during that season might not have led to a meaningful relationship because Terry was near the end of his collegiate career and Murphy was just getting started.
 
But that's not how A Players Program works. Once you are in, you always have the bond as Wildcats for Life.

 
"When I was a freshman at Arizona," Murphy said, "Jason was a senior. He walked on water. He was the best college basketball player in the country, and I was just a freshman manager starting at the bottom. But both Jason and A.J. Bramlett were unbelievable to me and the other managers. There is a reason Jason and I have been friends for over 20 years now and that's because of that one year. The way he treated and still treats people is special."
 
But their paths that led to that one season together in Tucson were much different.
 
As a senior at Franklin High School in Seattle, Terry had the option to attend schools like Washington, Georgetown, Arizona State, UCLA and Northwestern. The University of Arizona wasn't even in the picture when he decided to verbally commit to go to Washington.
 
But is his mother had other plans.
 
"She said to me 'I think I'm going to call Arizona," Terry recalls his mother telling him after he told her was going to choose Washington, " I just don't like the feeling of you going to Washington."
 
So his mother called head coach Lute Olson to find out if there were any open spots at Arizona.
 
"By God's good grace, two guys had decommitted (from Arizona) and that opened up a spot for me" Terry said. "Coach Olson called me and flew me down to Tucson on a fall night and it was 85 degrees outside. I thought this is it, get me out of the rain in Seattle, I'm going to the desert. And the rest is history."
 
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For Murphy, growing up a college basketball fan in Las Vegas, getting the opportunity to attend the University of Arizona and be involved with the basketball program was something that dreams were made of.
 
He knew of all the great players that had come through Tucson prior to his arrival – names like Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Sean Rooks, Damon Stoudamire just to name a few – and he was excited to be a part of that and help in any way he could.
 
After completion of his undergraduate degree in English, Murphy stayed involved with the basketball program for four more years while serving in a variety of roles on staff like recruiting coordinator, administrative assistant, video coordinator and director of operations.
 
"When I think back to meeting some of the best friends that I still have in my life," Murphy recalls, "they came from my time at Arizona. They were people that I had in my wedding and I went to their weddings. They are people that have been there when times have been good and bad for me, personally, and they all come back to Arizona."
 
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When Terry looks back on his arrival to campus as a freshman, a couple things stood out to him that left a lasting impact.
 
"From the moment I got on campus, you are playing pickup against former 'Cats, guys like Sean Elliott, Ray Owes, Sean Rooks, Jud Buechler, Steve Kerr, Khalid Reeves and Damon Stoudamire. We are playing against these guys in the summer, so you can imagine being a freshman and a fan of the game and seeing some of the guys you idolize there in front of you competing against you. That's when you start to realize your dreams are coming true because if you hold your own against those guys, it gives you that confidence that your dreams of the next level could be just around the corner."
 
But the connection went deeper than just the competition on the court. The former players made sure to let the current players know that they supported them and were rooting for them, on and off the court.
 
Proof of that deeper connection to the program came as the team boarded the bus in Indianapolis to head to the arena for the national championship game in 1997.
 
"The best memory that signifies A Players Program is in 1997," said Terry. "We were about to make history and play in the national championship game, when all of a sudden Sean Elliott and Steve Kerr walked on that bus right before we were headed over to the arena. Goosebumps or nerves, you can call it whatever you want – and I had already slept in my uniform – I know guys were nervous. But those guys getting on that bus and speaking to us about how they had an opportunity when they played at Arizona and they let it slip away and that this was our time and they had our backs, that's all that we needed to bring that national championship back to Tucson."
 
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Arizona has sent countless players on to long and storied NBA careers, and while Murphy wasn't one of those to make it to the NBA on the court as a player, he did make the jump there as an assistant coach.
 
He served as an assistant coach to George Karl with the Denver Nuggets from 2006-09. In that time, he was constantly running into former players on opposing teams that had played at Arizona. That feeling of 'family' carried on in the NBA as if they were back in Tucson reminiscing.
 
"Then when I was in the NBA as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, we played Jason and the Mavericks in the 2009 playoffs. And every time before we played them, Jason would come over and give me a hug. It was the same thing when we played the Lakers and Luke Walton was on their team or when we played Richard Jefferson and the Nets. That brotherhood was always there."
 
 
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As if there was any doubt about Terry being a Wildcat For Life, he eliminated all doubt in 2015 when he completed the requirements to officially earn his undergraduate degree in General Studies with an emphasis on Social, Behavioral and Human Understanding.
 
"It is very special to me," Terry said. "I'm very proud. This opportunity in the coaching realm would not have come about if I didn't have my degree. I put all my eggs in one basket and stopped school a semester early to put everything into becoming a pro. I accomplished that and had a 19-year career in the NBA, but I never stopped. My mom told me when I left home in Seattle that once I started my work towards a degree, I had better finish it. I have to give credit to one woman, Jennifer Mewes from C.A.T.S. Academics. She called me every summer and asked me 'Did you get those credits?' And 15 years later, I finally got those credits and finished. Whether you do it in four years or 15 years, we always finish the job. That's what it means to be a Wildcat for Life."