Three years ago, Troy Murphy stepped onto the Notre Dame campus unsure he could succeed in Division 1 college basketball. He joined a Fighting Irish program that had tow winning seasons in the previous six and hadn't made the NCAA Tournament since 1990.

Murphy’s apprehension is long gone. After capturing the Big East Rookie of Year award, Murphy was the Big East Player of the Year and a consensus All-America selection last season. He's sure to rake in the awards again this spring as a junior, and he's likely to have a future in the NBA.

And just as significant, Notre Dame is coming off a 22-15 season that saw the Irish take the sting from being left out of The Tournament by advancing to the NIT final. That elusive NCAA bid is what drives Murphy.

"Making the NCAA Tournament would just be unbelievable for our program and for everyone on this team," he says. "It would mean a lot. I think you’ve really played college basketball when you’ve taken part in the NCAA Tournament. We were in the NIT last year and were still playing, but it just wasn’t the same."

Murphy averaged 22.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game last season to become the first player in history to lead the Big East in both categories,
but he feels like he still has some doubters. The smooth-shooting forward says some people have labeled him "too soft and too slow."

Others call the 6-foot-11, 245-pound lefty "versatile." He's adept at the playing with his back to the basket, and he has a deft outside touch that extends beyond the 3-point arc, soft hands and good ball-handling skills.

But Murphy has dealt with doubters for a while now.
He was a New Jersey prep star, but some recruiters deemed his success a byproduct of inferior competition at the expensive private school he attended.

"When I was in high school, everyone told me that I would never be a good player in the Big East and wouldn’t succeed," he says. "After my first year (at Notre Dame), I thought I’d shown people, but I was scared that everyone would say it was a fluke – and some people did. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t one of those guys that had good year and was never heard from again.

"So I just worked hard, and last year I did the same thing. I think I work harder than anyone else."

That fear of meeting his doubters' expectations rather than his own has caused Murphy to develop maniacal workout routines. The past two summers
he had a regimen that included 500 or so 3-point shots a day.

The work has paid off in the form of steady statistical improvement, and the doubters are probably sitting behind the NBA scouts in the front row. Murphy will almost certainly be a lottery pick were he to leave school after this season.

So a tough decision awaits.
He says he's not sure what he's going to do, just as he's not sure what his legacy will be at Notre Dame or in the Big East. But he knows how he'll feel if he leaves college without experiencing college basketball's most electric atmosphere.

"I think deep down inside," he says. "I’ll know that I haven’t played in the NCAA.