Have Gun, Will Travel : Murray Made U.S. Team for Pan American Games as a Shooter, but He’s Showing a More Complete Game for UCLA

TEMPE, Ariz. — Representing the United States in the Pan American Games last summer was a bittersweet experience for Tracy Murray, who was honored to be selected but disappointed to spend much of his time on the bench.

It occurred to the UCLA forward that the reason he made the team and the reason he didn’t play a lot might be one and the same.

He was a hired gun.

“They put me in when it was time for a three(-point shot),” said Murray, who might be the most proficient long-range shooter in college basketball. “And when I hit it, it was time to come out.

“I didn’t understand it. I thought I was better than that. I came to the conclusion that all I could do, in their eyes, was shoot.”

He returned to UCLA determined to prove otherwise--if not to the U.S. coach, Purdue’s Gene Keady, then at least to himself.

“It made me realize that I’ve got to work harder,” Murray said. “It got into my head, ‘You’re just a shooter and that’s it.’ If I was a better all-around player, I would have been playing more.”

But probably no better than he has played this season.

If Murray is trying to prove a point, he is succeeding.

No Bruin has been more consistent, more productive, more spectacular or more multidimensional than the 6-foot-8, 225-pound Murray. He has helped UCLA get off to an 8-0 start and the No. 2 national ranking by averaging 23.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists while making 60.2% of his shots overall, a staggering 60.5% of his three-point shots and 90.9% of his free throws.

“If I had written a script about how I wanted him to play this season, he would have exceeded it,” Coach Jim Harrick said this week as UCLA prepared to meet Arizona State tonight in a Pacific 10 Conference opener. “He’s doing everything I ever wanted him to do to be a complete player--he’s passing, rebounding, defending, scoring. . . .

“I think the big thing has been his maturity from one year to the next and understanding what it takes to be a complete player. He’s getting lost in the game, waiting for things to come to him instead of forcing them.”

Murray certainly wasn’t bad last season--among Bruin sophomores, his average of 21.2 points was exceeded only by Lew Alcindor’s average of 29.0 in 1966-67--but he seems leaner and quicker this season.

He has dropped 15 pounds from last season, when he bulked up to 240 pounds to fend off the rigors of defending in the post.

Harrick used a shorter, quicker lineup last season, with Murray frequently drawing the assignment of guarding a center and often finding himself banging bodies with players who outweighed him by 30 or 40 pounds.

“I knew if I needed to lean on somebody, I’d better have some leverage,” said Murray, explaining his reason for adding weight.

But at what cost?

Both his quickness and his stamina suffered, Murray said.

Working out with the U.S. team last summer in the heat and humidity of West Lafayette, Ind., he easily shed the unwanted weight.

He kept it off and now feels lighter on his feet.

Harrick has gone to a bigger lineup this season, with 6-9 Rodney Zimmerman replacing 6-5 Mitchell Butler as a starter, and Murray no longer has to spend as much time in the lane at the defensive end.

UCLA has reaped the benefits.

“I just have a lot more energy,” Murray said.

His brilliant play has again sparked rumors, ongoing almost from the day he enrolled at UCLA out of Glendora High School, that Murray will leave school after this season to make himself available for the NBA draft.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” his father, Bob, said. “But I’ve heard talk from a lot of reliable sources that he could be a lottery pick because he’s the best shooter in the country at his size.”

Murray said he hasn’t really thought much about it. “I’m just having so much fun in school,” he said.

It wasn’t always so.

A homebody, Murray had a difficult time adjusting to college life, both academically and socially.

“I was always friendly but not real outgoing,” Murray said. “I kept more to myself, a little bit. Now, I’m a little more outgoing, out there having fun with the students and my teammates.

“I needed to grow up.”

The No. 1 scorer in the history of California high school basketball, Murray has been a starter at UCLA since midway through his freshman season, when Harrick inexplicably inserted him into the lineup only three days after his worst game, an 0-for-8 shooting night at Stanford.

Murray responded by contributing a season-high 25 points, six rebounds and a personal-best seven assists while making five of six three-point shots and nine of 10 shots overall in a 106-97 victory over California at Berkeley.

He has been a starter in all but one game since.

Two seasons ago, he made two free throws with nine seconds remaining to give UCLA a 71-70 upset victory over Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament, sending the Bruins into the round of 16.

Last season, he was one of the Pac-10’s best players.

And last summer, he was one of the country’s best.

But he played less than 12 minutes a game in the Pan Am Games, averaging 7.7 points while making only 43.2% of his shots.

“He was kind of upset,” his father said. “He called home, and my wife and I told him, ‘Hey, Tracy, there are millions of guys who would want to be at the end of that bench.’ ”

Murray, though, would have rather been on the floor.

He is determined now to show that’s where he belonged.