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Indiana jumped into the Jamal Murray sweepstakes this week by offering the 2016 Canadian four star point guard. Murray is a junior at the Athlete Institute Basketball Academy in Toronto. He is currently ranked #55 overall by the 247Sports Composite Index which ranks him as the 15th best point guard in the class.
The one thing that really stands out about Murray is his height of 6'5" for the point guard position. That is typically the type of player you would see playing for Syracuse - and sure enough, the Orange are one of the main players in Murray's recruitment. In addition to Indiana, Murray has been offered by Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois, Florida State, Virginia, N.C. State, Missouri, and of course Syracuse. Currently the Crystal Ball has 6 predictions on where Murray will end up, and all 6 have him going to Syracuse. Also of note is former Hoosier star Dane Fife is leading the recruiting efforts for Michigan State.
Murray could be the next big thing out of Canada. He obviously has a big body for a point guard, but has a very good handle on the ball and also shoots the ball extremely well. His height and athleticism allow him to easily glide to the rim when he chooses as well. Here is a short video showing some of his skills:
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Murray would clearly fit the Syracuse game plan very well and that may be hard to overcome for the other schools involved in his recruitment - but only time will tell. The list hasn't been narrowed down and no timetable for a visit schedule has been laid out, so Coach Crean will have ample opportunity to make some in roads here as he tries to land potentially the next Canadian super star in college basketball.