Doyel: Murray State star Ja Morant is more ridiculous than advertised

HARTFORD, Conn. – Ja Morant doesn’t have to dunk to be ridiculous, but luckily for all of us in the XL Center for Murray State’s 83-64 victory Thursday against Marquette, he dunked. And, yes, it was ridiculous. But you knew that, right? Even if you’d never heard of Ja Morant before this season began — who else has their hand in the air? — you know all about his dunking now. You’ve seen the highlights. Social media loves itself some Ja Morant, as does ESPN, because he doesn’t dunk the ball like most people dunk it. He dunks like he’s mad at somebody, or everybody. And the rim. He’s definitely mad at the rim. Since you’re here, let’s go ahead and discuss that dunk in the second half Thursday in this NCAA tournament opener, this upset of fifth-seeded Marquette by the 12th-seeded Racers, the one where he started on the left wing without the ball and made a backdoor cut. He received the pass, rose like a helicopter and floated past one Marquette defender and encountered a second one at the rim. And when he got there, Ja Morant was angry. Morant threw the ball down with both hands, mad at the world or at least the Hauser brother in his way. Joey Hauser, pretty sure, not his older brother Sam. By the time the dunk was through the net, the crowd was roaring and a fan behind the basket was dumbfounded, her mouth agape, and Morant was dangling from the rim and using it to climb over Hauser like a gymnast over a pommel horse. Ridiculous. But to see Morant in person, to see an entire game and not just the viral snippets on social media, is to see someone unlike any player in college basketball. Very few guards, if any, have his vertical leap, his ability to play so far above the rim at a height of 6-2. Very few guards, if any, have his first step, which reminds me of a video game I played as a kid in the convenience store, a game called "Asteroids." In that game, on occasion, the gamer can punch a button and make his ship disappear, only to appear somewhere else on the screen. Hyperspace, they call that. Ja Morant does that when he has the ball in his hands and somewhere else to be. He does something — he takes his first step, I guess — and disappears and shows up somewhere else. And very few guards (though there are some) have his ability to control the ball, or his ability to see the floor. And all of that, in the same package? The vertical, the explosion, the ballhandling and the vision? Nobody has all of that. Nobody but Ja Morant. Nobody in college basketball, anyway. The comparisons Morant most commonly draws are to Russell Westbrook and Allen Iverson. Folks say he has the vertical power of Westbrook, and the first step of Iverson. You hearing me? People are saying Ja Morant is like some hybrid superhero, the best of Westbrook and Iverson. Ridiculous. Unless you were lucky enough to be in the XL Center on Thursday, as I was, killing time, minding my own business, just waiting for the Purdue game to start in several hours. And then you’d understand the comparisons. You’d maybe even agree. Pretty sure I do. Listen, I’ve watched a ton of basketball this year, but I’ve felt this way — blown away by the basketball player before my eyes — just once. And that guy? Zion Williamson. He was at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in November, he and Duke playing Kentucky, and Zion looked like something out of a comic book: Built like an NFL offensive lineman, assuming you can find a 6-7, 285-pound NFL offensive lineman without any fat, but exploding into the air with a 45-inch vertical like Michael Jordan. Oh, I know. That’s impossible. That’s what people told me after I wrote what I wrote about Zion in November. Four months of viral Zion highlights later, nobody would tell me that today, right? From a physical standpoint — not skills, just physically — the closest thing I’ve ever seen to Zion’s combination of power and explosive athletic ability is LeBron James. Only … Zion is at least 20 pounds heavier. Ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous … The other day, ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler was saying that he wasn’t sure Zion Williamson should be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft. This grabbed my attention. Who did he mean, Zion’s Duke teammate, R.J. Barrett? Nope. Legler said he’d be inclined to draft Ja Morant ahead of Zion Williamson. ------------- TOP, murray state, ja morant murray state, morant murray state, ja morant nba, ja morant stats, ja morant draft, ja morant highlights, nba draft, ja morant nba draft, murray state basketball, murray state basketball ja morant, ja morant college, zion williamson ja morant, zion williamson, ja morant espn, nba mock draft, marquette, ja morant marquette, ja morant ncaa tournament, ja morant high school, ja morant height, ja morant recruiting, markus howard, nba draft 2019, ja morant nba draft 2019, , RISING, ja morant vs markus howard, marquette vs murray state, ja morant vs marquette, phil cofer