Gamecocks signee Collin Murray-Boyles talks body transformation, senior season

Collin Murray-Boyles laughs about it now, but that first week was likely hell. The South Carolina signee, knowing he had to slim down before arriving in Columbia, was on a diet and having a hard time starting it. 

A diet that included just two cheat meals–not days–a week with limited carbs sounded tough for someone who had to adjust quickly. And Murray-Boyles had to do it a lot by himself thousands of miles away from home in Utah.

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Self-discipline became integral. Once the results started to show–both on the scale and on the court–things really began falling into place. 

“I learned you have to be serious. If you’re not serious about it, it’s gonna really bite you in the ass,” he said in an exclusive interview with GamecockCentral. “Yeah, I got real disciplined out there. Just like eating right, working out a lot, doing the right things on and off the court. Because images is everything now.”

Back in Columbia a few days before moving into his dorms, Murray-Boyles now sits anywhere between 225 to 227 pounds. It’s a far cry from the 245 pounds he was before heading out west for his senior season. 

He shed fat, added muscle and looks like a college forward as he prepares to begin his South Carolina career. And it’s that weight loss he attributes his massive senior season to.

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“It’s just made me able to hustle. My hustle has gone through the roof. Even when I was watching games, I wasn’t at my peak anything,” he said. “I was still hustling for boards and all that. But now, it’s way different. I played picked up my last couple of weeks at Wasatch. It was totally different. Just way more energy and all that. It makes the game way easier.”

Telling Murray-Boyles in September after he moved from his hometown of Columbia to Utah to play for Wastach about the year he was getting ready to have, he probably wouldn’t believe you. 

But the power forward, thanks to hard work and slimming down, turned into an all-conference player at arguably the best high school basketball leagues in the country. 

Playing against some of the best prep players in the country, Murray-Boyles finished third in the NIBC in scoring (15 points). Murray-Boyles also led the league in both rebounds per game (8.8) and field goal percentage (69.5 percent).  

He was top 25 in the league in assists (2.1 per game) despite being a forward. He also finished fourth in the league in blocks per game (1.8), doing it all in just 23.3 minutes per game. 

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“I was surprised at myself. I didn’t think I was going to come in and skyrocket like how I did. And I thought I really thought I was gonna be like a sixth man like a come-off-the-bench type of guy,” Murray-Boyles said. 

“But I really just took what my coaches were telling me during practice. You got to really go get it and just do the best that you can do. And that just helped me throughout the whole way.”

Because of that, he skyrocketed up the rankings. He now sits now as the No. 103 overall player in the class and a four-star prospect in On3’s Industry ranking. 

He’ll now try and translate that into making an impact as a freshman at South Carolina, trying to bring versatility and skill to the Gamecocks’ frontcourt.

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“I really pride of myself on my IQ. Okay. I think I’m very smart when it comes to basketball. I know where people are supposed to be and just have an on-court awareness. Just being able to make plays for my teammates, I think that’s probably my biggest strength,” Murray-Boyles said.

“But it’s not really looked as much as like, my interior force or me being this young and so strong and stuff like that, right? Rebounding is out the roof rebound against footers and grabbing a whole bunch of boards and stuff like that. Yeah, my rim-protecting ability, I really added a good amount of vert in the past two, three months.”

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