BILLINGS — Karsen Murphy wanted to — needed to, really — get off the mat. But how best to do that?
Murphy, previously a three-sport standout at Glendive, had just completed her freshman 2019-2020 season of basketball for the Montana Lady Griz.
Amid the turnover and turmoil in the Lady Griz basketball program following the school’s decision not to extend then-coach Shannon Schweyen’s contract in April of 2020, Murphy said her scholarship was rescinded by incoming coach Brian Holsinger.
And just like that everything changed. Playing Division I basketball wasn’t a lifelong dream for Murphy like it is for most prospects. As a young girl, dance was her thing. But eventually her height and basketball skills blossomed, and getting to play at a place like Montana had become a reality that she relished. And now it was … over?
“I could have just said, ‘I'm done playing basketball, like, that's it for me,’ “ Murphy told MTN Sports recently. “But I knew I couldn't do that. And I knew there was more for me, somehow, some way.”
In that darkness, Murphy saw opportunity. It had always been her desire to see what was outside of her home state, to have different experiences and get out of her comfort zone. Murphy thought that would come later in life, though, when she was done with school and basketball.
But it dawned on her that that chance was thrust upon her now, even if it was sooner than expected. She entered the transfer portal and settled on a school and a league she’d never heard of: The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga of the Southern Conference.
Murphy had just moved into a new apartment in Missoula that month of April. On the same day she was moving her belongings out of that apartment, she committed to the Mocs. That was in May.
By late June, without ever seeing the campus or city (her recruitment consisted of one Zoom-call conversation, she said) Murphy was in Chattanooga.
Time to sink or swim.
“You learn a lot about yourself,” Murphy said. “You learn how you handle adversity and how fast you have to adapt to situations. You can't sit and dwell on the what-ifs and be sad about everything. You have to be like, ‘All right, what's next? Where can I go next?’
“I'm not just going to give up on my basketball dream because one thing didn't work out, you know?”
We do now.
In the four seasons since Murphy moved south, she has been in the Mocs’ starting five for the past 53 games and has made 62 career starts overall.
The 6-foot-tall Murphy, who won Class A high jump and triple jump state titles for Glendive in 2019 and still holds the Class A record in the latter event, led the Mocs in blocks last season despite logging the sixth-most minutes on the team.
This season, her final one, Murphy averages 8.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in helping the Mocs (10-10, 5-2 SoCon) chase a third straight NCAA national tournament appearance.
Chattanooga is located near Tennessee’s southern border with Georgia and is within an easy drive — in Montana terms, at least — of other major southern cities Atlanta, Knoxville and Nashville in Tennessee, and Huntsville and Birmingham in Alabama.
Joining the Mocs has afforded Murphy the opportunity to play at places like Mississippi State, Nebraska, Alabama and Tennessee, among others. She counts playing at Virginia Tech in front of 9,000 fans in the 2022-23 NCAA tournament and at North Carolina State in front of 5,000 fans at least year’s national tourney as career highlights.
“That NC State game will be one of my favorite gyms I've ever played in,” she said. “It was one of the coolest experiences of my life, and I think that's one of the benefits to coming down south. You’re around a lot more of those big schools, so you have the opportunity to play them more.
“That's honestly always been a goal of mine as a basketball player, to play against the best of the best.”
That’s not to say it’s been all highlights at Chattanooga. Fluctuating minutes her first two seasons left her questioning her status within the Mocs’ program. She’s played for three coaches in her four seasons while at Chattanooga, meaning, in five seasons of college basketball between Montana and UTC, Murphy will have played for four coaches.
Through it all, though, she believes she’s maxed out her capabilities. Murphy already has her degree in exercise science and is taking prerequisite courses in order to apply for an accelerated nursing program.
She’d like to stay in the South to do that. Murphy thinks she’s found a second home.
“I did doubt myself a lot of the time, but I think there was just wanting to prove not only others who didn't believe in me, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,” Murphy said. “And so, yeah, I could have jumped in the portal every single year until I found a place that was going to play me right away.
“But that wasn't who I was, and I built the relationships here. I knew Chattanooga was home for me, and I knew if I kept doing the right things and kept working hard, I was going to be successful here at Chattanooga.”
Sink or swim. In the end, Murphy found dry land.
