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Fulfilling an Iowa dream

March 8, 2022

Kenyon sat in the bleachers of Kirkwood Community College’s gym during an Eastern Iowa All-Star Game after Kris and Keegan’s senior season in high school. As the game unfolded, Fran McCaffery — who was there watching his son, Patrick, play — made his way over to inquire about the two players “dominating” the game.

“He’s just like, ‘Hey, what’s the plan?’” Kenyon said. “‘I think they have a chance to play at this level, so what are you going to do?’”

Keegan and Kris had been playing against Patrick, who attended Iowa City West High School, since they were in fourth grade. Patrick still calls them the best fourth-grade basketball players he’s ever seen. The Murray-McCaffery connection has already been established for decades, though. As an assistant coach at Notre Dame in the early 90s, Fran recruited Kenyon. They first interacted at an AAU tournament McCaffery was scouting in Texas. It was clear to the current 12th-year Hawkeye head coach that the first Murray he would recruit was the best player in the gym. Kenyon visited South Bend, but inevitably wanted to play in the Big Ten.

So, he became a Hawkeye.

In four years (1992-96) as a forward at Iowa, Kenyon — a former McDonald’s All-American — started 95 games and averaged 9.9 points per game. Keegan and Kris will tease their dad now, saying they both have already surpassed his career-high of 23 points. Keegan has scored 37 points in a single game. Kris’ best total is 29. Their father isn’t afraid to fire right back.

“I always try to tell them that I was such a good defender that they wouldn’t get 20 on me,” Kenyon said. “I’d make it really hard… I stopped playing them when they were in seventh or eighth grade because I knew they were getting better than me then.

“I finished undefeated.”

The Murray twins’ connection to the Hawkeyes, even as children, was deeper than simply being the kids of a former Iowa men’s basketball player. Kris and Keegan were both born on Aug. 19, 2000. Kris was born first and, as a tribute, named after Chris Street, one of Kenyon’s former Iowa teammates who died in an auto collision in 1993. Kenyon said he never directly heard it from Keegan or Kris as they grew up, but both imagined playing at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. They dreamed of being Hawkeyes, of wearing the same uniform their father did. Kris wanted to play in the venue where his namesake is honored.

“We were trying to get a scholarship somewhere,” Kris said. “We honestly didn’t think it would be in the Big Ten or at Iowa. Iowa was definitely a dream school growing up and I’m grateful that I’m here right now.”

To realize their dream, the Murrays had to take an indirect path to Iowa City.

Kenyon and McCaffery chatted in the Kirkwood stands as their sons ran up and down the court. McCaffery likes to say he practically watched the Murrays grow up. He accepted Iowa’s head coaching job in 2010. Kenyon went to McCaffery’s introductory press conference. With Patrick, Kris, and Keegan all in the same grade, the families ran into each other in gyms all over the state over the years. Patrick, who has always been tall, was surprised in high school when he suddenly had to start looking eye-to-eye with the Murrays. By the All-Star Game, Kenyon said McCaffery — because of his busy schedule — hadn’t seen his sons play live in a little over a year. But what he saw on Kirkwood’s court was enough.

“I said, ‘Hey, we’re going to be interested in both of them,’” McCaffery said.

At the time, Iowa only had one available scholarship. But the Hawkeyes wanted both twins. McCaffery recommended a year at prep school, saying it would be a “game-changer.” The Murrays were already ahead of him. They were headed to DME. The idea was for Keegan and Kris to gain weight to their taller, longer frames and receive a boost in confidence while going against superior talent than what they faced in high school.

“The skillset was already there,” Kenyon said. “It was just a matter of putting the other pieces together.”

Keegan and Kris both gained about 25 pounds during their year in Florida, all while playing against other elite prep, Division II, and junior college programs. After the first weekend recruiting showcase DME held, Kenyon said Keegan and Kris received about 40 calls from schools interested in recruiting them. But Iowa had spent the last several months intensifying its recruiting with the Murrays. The Hawkeyes wanted them on campus that same week for a visit.

After a plane ride to the UI campus, Keegan and Kris had a sort of family reunion. They saw their parents, and were reunited with Patrick and Connor McCaffery, as well as other Iowa players they used to play against. The previous summer, Keegan and Kris played pick-up games with the McCafferys and other Hawkeyes.

“When they first stepped on campus,” former Hawkeye Luka Garza said, “we were playing pick-up games and it was like, ‘Who are these guys?’”

“Our guys were like, ‘These guys are good. We need to get these guys,’” Fran McCaffery added. “Plus, how could you not like those two kids? They fit perfectly, I think.”

McCaffery and Billy Taylor, an assistant coach at Iowa, had just gone down to Florida and offered both Murrays scholarships. Iowa was an appealing destination because of the program’s up-tempo, motion style of offense that allowed stretch-forwards like Keegan and Kris to do a little bit of everything on the court. In his second year, Keegan regularly rebounds a missed shot, dribbles up the court like a guard, and then defends the paint like a center on the next possession.

There was no hesitation in bringing both Murray twins to Iowa City. Mostly, McCaffery said, that was because he viewed them as Keegan and Kris, not an identical pair.

“Fran viewed them as individuals as opposed to, ‘The twins,’” Kenyon added. “They’ve always been known as that. But we’ve always talked about how Kris is Kris and Keegan is Keegan. That’s how we look at it.”

Beyond continuing their family’s Hawkeye legacy, the Murrays wanted to play at Iowa so their parents could make a half-hour drive and watch them play (although, despite the proximity, Keegan and Kris still regularly FaceTime their mother at night to catch up). They would play for a coach that saw their similarities, but knew Keegan and Kris had different personalities on and off the floor — a coach who wasn’t worried about bringing in the Murrays as a “package deal.” Keegan and Kris both committed to Iowa on Oct. 21, 2019. Iowa’s coaching staff high-fived each other after the Murray family’s visit ended.

The Hawkeyes got who they wanted, both of them, and McCaffery wasn’t caught up in bringing twins onto the same team.

“I wish there were three of them,” McCaffery said.

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