CHICO, Calif. – The 2025 CCAA Men's Basketball Player of the Year can add another title to his repertoire, as the conference names him the Male Athlete of the Year for his heroics throughout the 2024-25 season.

During a season in which he racked up many awards, the junior from Oakland had a second standout season of his career at Chico State. Leading the CCAA in scoring throughout the season, Murphy was on a mission in his third season for the Wildcats, averaging 20.7 points per game and managing a 28th national ranking for scoring. 

He managed eighteen games with twenty or more points at the final buzzer, scoring 601 points in his third year and breaking the thousand career points mark. 

Shooting a 47-percent field goal average, he broke his career best by six percent while attempting close to forty more shots than he did in 2022-23. He sunk 73 shots from beyond the three-point line with a shooting percentage 38.6. 

Playing 1047 minutes for the 'Cats, tallying 116 assists and 44 steals, the fast-paced guard was a solid leader on the court.

The Wildcats finished the season 24-7 under first-year head coach Cevin Meador, appearing in the 2025 CCAA Championship game and the NCAA DII West Regional tournament. A historic season for the men's basketball program, the squad strung together a program-record 13-game unbeaten streak and collected 19 conference wins, the most in a single season for the 'Cats.

This is Murphy's first time claiming the award and his fourth conference honor. Murphy is the first Wildcat to win CCAA Male Athlete of the Year honors since Kyle Medina in 2017-18. At that point, Chico State had won six of seven CCAA Male Athlete of the Year honors. This is Chico's 11th all-time winner of the CCAA Male Athlete of the Year award. Murphy is the first men's basketball player to win the award since UC San Diego's Chris Hansen in 2018-19.