Jan. 11, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. —- University of Notre Dame junior forward Troy Murphy (Morristown, N.J.) is one of four nominees for an ESPY Award as the Men’s College Basketball Player of the Year. The ESPYs — Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly — honors the best athletes, teams and coaches in a number of different categories based on their performances from the past year.
The ninth annual ESPY Awards will be shown live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. on Mon., Feb. 12 at 9:00 p.m. EST on ESPN. Overall, there are 34 categories highlighted and winners are chosen by a newly expanded voting body — the ESPY Awards Academy — which includes Hall of Fame athletes from each of the sports disciplines the ESPYs honor as well as national recognized print, and broadcast sports journalists representing every major outlet.
Murphy, the 2000 BIG EAST Player of the Year, is joined by Mateen Cleaves (Michigan State), Marcus Fizer (Iowa State) and Kenyon Martin (Cincinnati) as the four nominees for the ESPY as the top men’s college basketball player. All three of the other award candidates are former collegians and presently are on rosters in the National Basketball Association.
Murphy was a consensus first-team All-American last season as he averaged 22.7 points and 9.7 rebounds.