Jimmy Murray (above) and Plymouth-Whitemarsh have high hopes for 2014-15. (Photo: Josh Verlin)
David Hassinger (@david_hassinger)
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Jimmy Murray can’t remember how long he and Andre Mitchell have been best friends. All he knows is how much time the two have spent together over the years.
“We go on vacations together,” Murray said. “The chemistry is great…say one of us does something wrong, we understand it. We have gone through so much together, we know who we are–there are no problems with us on the court, off the court and everything in school.”
Murray and Mitchell are both senior guards at Plymouth-Whitemarsh. They are both scoring guards, who like to attack the basket and can also knock down jump shots. On the court, they are both good at getting each their teammates and each other involved.
Together, they form a formidable backcourt, for not only P-W but on the AAU Circuit for Team TLG where they get to increase the already good chemistry they have.
Mitchell, who has been playing for TLG his whole AAU career, knows how important it is to use AAU season to ready yourself for high school season.
“It’s great when you are together for a while a lot of these teams they have tryouts for their teams we don’t really have a tryout, we just have a core group of guys and we have a lot of chemistry together,” he said. “And that helps us on AAU, as well as Plymouth-Whitemarsh.”
Team TLG, consists of mostly Colonials teammates, with a few players from LaSalle HS mixed in.
“It’s basically just us, playing together, keeping our chemistry together and feeling each other out for the high school season,” Murray said.
As a senior, Murray knows how important experience is to winning games come February. He and his Plymouth-Whitemarsh teammates are able to get there younger a little ahead of the learning curve in the spring, by playing together for Team TLG.
“It helps very well, because you get to feel some of the younger guys coming in who you have never played with before the season starts,” he said. “So you don’t have to have those couple games where you mess up, now you have a feel for each other.”
Mitchell (above) and Murray are both capable of scoring 20-plus on any given night. (Photo: Josh Verlin)
Experience is something that Plymouth-Whitemarsh lacked last season. They entered the season with only two main players that had varsity experience, Mitchell and Cameron Johnson.
Come February, the Colonials had themselves in a good position to win a few playoff games and possibly advance to states, going 19-3 during the regular season, including a 13-game winning streak in the middle. They earned the sixth seed in District 1’s AAAA bracket, which would send a full 10 of its 32 teams into the PIAA tournament.
They were stopped short when they lost to Central Bucks East in the second round and then to Wissahickon on February 21 in the playback bracket, ending their season with two swift losses before they even had a chance to realize what happened.
“It was heartbreaking,” Murray said. “I really wanted to go [to states]. It was my goal during the summer, last year around this time, to go. But it’s another goal for this upcoming year.”
The Colonials will get a shot at redemption this season, led by their backcourt of Mitchell and Murray. District 1 seems about as wide-open this year as it did last season, and with the scoring talent in the backcourt the Colonials and head coach Jim Donofrio will have their eyes set on making it to Hershey next March.
Murray says one thing the Colonials are working on this summer is getting everyone involved on offense and having more than just two main options.
Whatever happens after this season remains to be foreseen for the two best friends. Right now, Murray says he has interest from Chestnut Hill, and Mitchell says he has interest from a few schools but didn’t name any specifics. For now, they get to enjoy at one more season of playing together for Plymouth-Whitemarsh.
“We have been waiting to play together at the high school level,” Marshall said. “Now that’s its happening, it’s kind of fun.”
