Keegan Murray Declares For 2022 NBA Draft

Earlier this week, the Iowa Hawkeyes got some big news as sophomore forward Keegan Murray declared for the 2022 NBA Draft. Most expected this after Murray put together an impressive 2021-’22 season, but he confirmed it officially yesterday.

During his two seasons in Iowa City, Murray played in 66 games and averaged an incredible 23.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game in his final season with the program. He was Iowa’s most explosive player last season and one of the program’s most productive offensive contributors in years, even rivaling some of Luka Garza’s outputs. He also helped push Iowa to a Big Ten Tournament title earlier this month.

For Iowa, this will be a tough loss to overcome. There’s simply no replacing a player like Murray, even with Fran McCaffery’s recent history of wing development. The team will hope some of the young contributors like Kris Murray step up. However, it’s hard to realistically hope for someone to play like Keegan.

From a Draft perspective, Murray is currently projected as a top five pick and seems to be an easily selection for the Lottery. We’ll have to see if he can push himself even higher with the forthcoming workouts, but it seems pretty obvious he’ll be landing somewhere solid.

We’ll have to wait and see what Iowa does to replace Murray’s contributions, but Hawkeye fans will certainly wish him the best of luck at the next level.