Trash-talking twins

“Should I do the Memorial Day one?” Keegan Murray asked his brother with a grin.

“Oh yeah,” Kris responded.

The Murrays were just asked something Iowa fans may not know about them. The first story that came to mind was a painful one. Literally. It was over Memorial Day weekend in fifth grade, a weekend that was supposed to be spent competing in neighborhood sporting events. That was disrupted when, during a backyard football game, Keegan landed on his arm and broke both bones in it. The next day, Kris went to play street baseball and was plucked straight in the eye. Keegan and Kris left school for the weekend perfectly healthy, but returned with one of them in a sling and the other with a swollen, closed black eye.

“Our principal was wondering what happened,” Keegan said, holding in a laugh behind a sharp grin. “Our mom is like, ‘I swear, nothing.’”

Their classmates and teachers assumed Keegan and Kris got into a fight. No wonder.

Everything between the twins is a competition. They just assumed that during one of them, a brawl ensued. It didn’t, though. The normally mild-mannered Murrays limit themselves to trash-talk. A lot of it. And during a variety of activities. Who has the better trash talk?

“Kris,” Fran McCaffery said before the question had even been asked completely.

“It’s some explicit language,” Keegan said, prompting laughter from both twins. “It’s usually just to light a fire under the other person to make them compete more. It’s more helpful than him getting down on himself.”

“Yeah, I’d say I’m more vocal if I’m trash talking someone, but Keegan will just kind of stare you down or something like that,” Kris said, imitating his brother by glaring at him.”

“I can [trash talk] if I want to,” Keegan said.

“People might think we’re fighting,” Kris said. “But it’s really just our way of communicating with each other that we respond to.”

After Iowa’s home win over Michigan State in February, Keegan described flexing in celebration after an and-one. Kris, sitting next to him at the press conference, chimed in that it was “his only celebration,” drawing laughs.

The trash talk isn’t limited to each other. Kenyon and the twins’ mother, Michelle — who was a four-sport athlete at Anamosa High School and golfed at Mount Mercy — aren’t exempt from it. Neither is Mckenna, their 16-year-old sister, or Demetrius Harper, their older brother who the Murrays adopted in 2012. The Murrays are avid board and card-game players. Bouts of Cards Against Humanity with the family gathered during holidays or long weekends can turn slightly hostile.

“It can get a little testy,” Kenyon said. “There are a few words that I’d rather not hear them say at the table. They’re just ultra-competitive at everything. And they pull their little sister in there too. She’s like, ‘I want to be the first Murray to graduate with a 4.0.’”

“They do everything together,” Fran McCaffery said of the twins. “They sit together. They’re so close. And you can tell they love each other so much. But they constantly give each other a hard time. And the players just are hysterical laughing about it, the stuff they say to each other. It’s a funny thing to watch. But nobody else better say anything about one of them with the other one around, I’ll tell you that.”

Hawkeye fans have had a chance to see this fiery spirit up close this season.

After Nebraska scored against Iowa inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena earlier this season, Keegan and Kris yelled at each other as they ran to the other side of the court, prompting their mother to yell, “Stop fighting.” The Murray twins know their mother’s voice from the crowd. It’s hard for them to miss. These are the types of interactions Keegan and Kris regularly have with each other during team meals and at practice, but with both players receiving significant minutes this season, it’s showing up in front of thousands of fans, too.

Kris was mostly limited to sitting on the bench as a freshman. Iowa was loaded with wings and had a roster that featured two current NBA players: Garza and Joe Wieskamp. Kenyon was under the impression the elder twin was going to redshirt, but he received limited minutes here and there, instead.

Keegan, though, played right away. Between injuries to CJ Fredrick and Jack Nunge throughout the season, as well as Keegan demonstrating his ability to rebound and defend even as a freshman, No. 15 cracked the starting lineup at times and made the Big Ten All-Freshman team during his first season as a Hawkeye.

Both Murrays knew they were going to take on larger roles coming into the 2021-22 campaign — particularly Keegan. They had to. Iowa lost Garza, a two-time national player of the year and the program’s all-time leading scorer, and three other players with starting experience from last season’s team. McCaffery approached Keegan last summer and told him he was “the guy” for the Hawkeyes. That meant he’d be one of the team’s leaders, but also its star.

That role has fit Keegan nicely.

The Big Ten announced on Tuesday that Keegan was unanimously named first-team All-Big Ten, making him the first Hawkeye to earn that honor as a sophomore since Ronnie Lester in 1978. Keegan is only 50 points shy of breaking Garza’s single-season scoring record at Iowa (747 points) and leads Power Five players in points per game while shooting 55.4 percent from the floor and 38 percent from 3-point range.

Infographic by Kelsey Harrell/The Daily Iowan

“He’s unbelievable,” said Tom Izzo, Michigan State’s head coach and the all-time leader in wins at a Big Ten program. “He’s as good as any player I’ve seen in this league in a while. Keegan is a special talent. They’ve got a star. He is a star, don’t kid yourself.

“[Iowa’s] got something special. Enjoy him.”

Coming into the season, the Murray twins were regularly found on an open court somewhere between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. They played one-on-one. And not the basement version.

Kris chimes in first to say the one-on-one games are usually pretty even. One brother will win a stretch of games, then the other will, he said. Keegan agrees and smiles.

If he thinks differently, he’s not saying so.

“If you’re looking for offense, those aren’t very fun to watch,” Kris said. “We both know each other’s moves really well. You have to really be creative in what you’re doing to score on the other person, and I think that has helped a lot in these past couple offseasons.”

Keegan’s emergence has led an Iowa team that was picked to finish ninth in the Big Ten in the preseason by ESPN to a 22-win season and an upcoming postseason appearance.

Both twins knew they were going to see significant playing time this season. They liked that. Playing at the same time is comfortable for them. But there was still plenty to improve on in the offseason. Keegan wanted to better his shot-creating ability coming into the season — to make moves off the dribble and be all-around more versatile on offense. Mission accomplished. Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg has called Keegan the “most versatile player in the Big Ten.” Kris wanted to use their one-on-one games to his own advantage. He wanted a more-consistent jump-shot to improve his efficiency from deep. Kris is leading Iowa with a 40.2 percent 3-point conversion rate this season.

That’s somewhat surprising to Rickertsen. Keegan was the better shooter in high school, he said, and now that’s Kris’ strength. Kris was always the superior inside presence, but that’s where Keegan thrives now. Keegan had a better sophomore year in high school, then Kris was better as a junior. As far as Rickertsen is concerned, Kris could be an All-Big Ten player next year, too.

“They’ve kind of fed off of each other,” he said. “One of their strengths, the other one tried to match it, and vice versa.”

Gallery • 14 Photos

Jerod Ringwald

Iowa forward Keegan Murray walks out to the court while being introduced in the starting lineup during a men’s basketball game between Iowa and Penn State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry told reporters following the game that Keegan Murray will have a long career in the NBA for however long Murray wants to play. “Now that I’m coaching in this league, I hope his long career starts next year,” Shrewsberry said. The Hawkeyes defeated the Nittany Lions, 68-51.

When the twins arrived in Iowa City, they often were tasked with matching up with Garza in practice. They had the bruises and scratches to prove it. But more importantly, they got to see how a two-time consensus All-American worked every day.

As a sophomore, Keegan is having a similar impact.

“When I first got here in the summer, I was going against him every day in practice,” freshman Payton Sandfort said after Keegan scored 37 points against Nebraska on Feb. 14. “I would go home, and I would call my dad and I’d be like, ‘This dude is kicking my butt. I don’t know if I’m built for this.’ I started getting a little better playing against him. And then I see him out here and he’s doing a lot worse than he did to me. That makes me feel a lot better.”