High school basketball: Wasatch's McKay Murdock following in idol's footsteps

SALT LAKE CITY — If you didn't know any better, you'd look at Wasatch's McKay Murdock and his funny hair and say, "that's the best point guard in 3A? No way."

You'd be very, very wrong.

Yes, that 5-foot-10, 140-pounder is the best point guard in 3A and he has the Wasps on the verge of its second consecutive state championship.

That should ring a bell for those in Heber City. Josh Cottle was also an undersized, quick point guard who led Wasatch to back-to-back state titles in 2003 and 2004, and was named the Deseret News 3A MVP both years.

Ironically enough, Without Cottle's exploits Murdock probably wouldn't be the player he is today.

"He was my idol growing up. I wanted to be just like him," said Murdock, who scored 11 points in Wasatch's 55-42 semifinal victory over Judge Friday night. "He was my inspiration. I came and watched him win two state championships. He was the point guard, he was small, he was quick, so I've tried to base my game a lot off of him."

Their games aren't exactly the same; Cottle was much more of a scorer while Murdock does little bit of everything. What they do have in common is their leadership, and nobody would no better than Lonnie Magnusson.

He was Wasatch's head coach during Cottle's title years, and now he's an assistant coach watching Murdock try and follow in his idol's foot steps.

"Great leadership takes you a long way, especially in the state tournament. Having that point guard that can get you into your offense and control the things when you need them under control is huge," said Magnusson. "Josh was extremely good at that. McKay does an exceptional job of that. If you don't guard him he'll kill you with the shot."

Cottle averaged 16 points his junior season and 18 points his senior season. Murdock averaged 9.5 points his junior season and he's averaging 13.7 points this year heading into tonight's championship game against Morgan at 7:30 p.m.

Both are outstanding free throw shooters too, averaging around 90 percent. The importance of that can't be overstated.

During the championship game of Cottle's senior season, he took over the game in the second half and led Wasatch to a 42-34 victory over Lehi by making 13 free throws. Murdock has routinely iced games for No. 1 Wasatch from the free throw line as well this year.