LaMurriel Page (born September 18, 1975) is a former American college and professional basketball player who was a forward and center in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for eleven seasons. Page played college basketball for the University of Florida, and was drafted in the first round of the 1998 WNBA draft. She played professionally for the Washington Mystics and the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. Currently, she is an assistant women's basketball coach at Mississippi State.

Murriel Page
Mississippi State Bulldogs
PositionAssistant coach
LeagueSEC
Personal information
Born (1975-09-18) September 18, 1975 (age 48)
Louin, Mississippi
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight160 lb (73 kg)
Career information
High schoolBay Springs
(Bay Springs, Mississippi)
CollegeFlorida (1994–1998)
WNBA draft1998: 1st round, 3rd overall pick
Selected by the Washington Mystics
Playing career1998–2009
PositionForward
Number10, 00
Coaching career2010–present
Career history
As player:
1998–2005Washington Mystics
2006–2008Los Angeles Sparks
As coach:
2010–2017Florida (assistant)
2018–2020Central Michigan (assistant)
2020–2022Georgia Tech (assistant)
2022-presentMississippi State (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
Career WNBA statistics
Points2,154 (6.1 ppg)
Rebounds1,603 (4.5 rpg)
Assists412 (1.2 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals
Women's basketball
Representing the  United States
Jones Cup
Silver medal – second place 1997 Taipei, Taiwan Team competition

Early years edit

Murriel Page was born in Louin, Mississippi in 1975. She attended Bay Springs High School in Bay Springs, Mississippi, where she led her Bay Springs high school basketball team to two state championships.[1]

College career edit

Page accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she played for coach Carol Ross's Florida Gators women's basketball team. At the end of her Gators career, Page was ranked second all-time in points (1,915), rebounds (1,251), field goal percentage (.550), and free throws made (334). She graduated from the University of Florida with her bachelor's degree in 1998, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2009.[2][3]

Florida statistics edit

Source[4]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1994-95 Florida 33 349 61.4% 0.0% 52.2% 7.2 0.9 0.6 0.3 10.6
1995-96 Florida 30 432 48.6% 0.0% 62.9% 9.0 1.6 1.2 0.5 14.4
1996-97 Florida 33 522 54.3% 0.0% 59.9% 10.3 1.6 0.9 0.5 15.8
1997-98 Florida 32 612 57.1% 16.7% 67.3% 12.6 2.2 1.3 0.6 19.1
TOTALS Florida 128 1915 55.0% 16.7% 61.5% 9.8 1.6 1.0 0.1 15.0

USA Basketball edit

Page competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1997 Jones Cup Team that won the silver medal in Taipei. Several of the games were close, with the USA team winning four games by six points or fewer, including an overtime game in the semifinal match against Japan. The gold medal game against South Korea was also close, but the USA fell 76–71 to claim the silver medal for the event. Page was the leading scorer for the team, averaging 14.7 points per game.[5]

Professional career edit

Page was selected third overall in the first round of the 1998 WNBA draft by the Washington Mystics, where she played for eight seasons. In March 2006, Page was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks along with Temeka Johnson in exchange for Nikki Teasley. During the 2008–2009 WNBA off-season, she played in Spain with Mallorca.[6] During the 2007–08 off-season she played with San Jose, also in Spain.[7]

College coach edit

Following her retirement from professional basketball, Page worked as an assistant coach for the Florida Gators women's basketball team under head coach Amanda Butler beginning with the 2010–11 season until 2016-17.[8] Page then served as an assistant coach at Central Michigan from 2017 to 2020 before joining the Georgia Tech staff in July 2020. In 2022 she joined Sam Purcell's staff at Mississippi State.

WNBA career statistics edit

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader

Regular season edit

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
1998 Washington 30 30 31.8 .479 .000 .631 6.9 1.3 0.6 0.4 1.9 8.3
1999 Washington 32 26 28.6 .574° .000 .683 6.7 0.9 0.8 0.9 1.5 8.8
2000 Washington 32 32 32.7 .590° .000 .565 6.5 2.0 0.7 1.0 2.0 9.8
2001 Washington 32 32 30.9 .433 .235 .583 5.5 1.7 0.9 1.1 1.9 7.0
2002 Washington 32 15 23.4 .451 .500 .566 4.8 1.2 0.4 0.5 1.4 6.5
2003 Washington 34 34 25.0 .377 .417 .750 4.5 1.0 0.5 0.7 1.2 6.3
2004 Washington 33 19 24.5 .463 .000 .550 4.2 1.1 0.8 0.5 0.9 5.6
2005 Washington 34 4 17.3 .395 .273 1.000 2.4 0.7 0.4 0.3 0.7 3.2
2006 Los Angeles 34 4 20.3 .471 .000 .761 3.6 1.0 0.5 0.3 0.9 4.9
2007 Los Angeles 34 8 18.4 .418 .200 .792 3.3 1.3 0.4 0.3 0.7 4.8
2008 Los Angeles 27 1 9.0 .327 .250 .667 1.3 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.4 1.6
Career 11 years, 2 teams 354 205 23.9 .464 .259 .651 4.5 1.2 0.6 0.5 1.2 6.1

Playoffs edit

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2000 Washington 2 2 34.5 .444 .000 .750 3.0 0.5 1.0 0.0 2.0 5.5
2002 Washington 5 0 22.6 .630 .000 .933 4.4 0.8 0.2 0.8 0.6 9.6
2004 Washington 3 3 30.0 .313 .000 .500 4.7 1.3 0.0 0.3 1.0 3.7
2006 Los Angeles 5 1 23.6 .310 .500 .818 4.6 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 5.6
2008 Los Angeles 5 0 3.0 .000 .000 .500 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.2
Career 5 years, 2 teams 20 6 20.3 .422 .500 .824 3.3 0.7 0.3 0.4 0.6 5.0

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Dana Gelin, "Murriel page, Florida," Sports Illustrated (March 1998). Retrieved November 3, 2011.
  2. ^ F Club, Hall of Fame, Gator Greats. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
  3. ^ "Eight 2009 Honorees Inducted Into UF Athletic Hall of Fame Archived 2012-10-04 at the Wayback Machine," GatorZone.com (April 17, 2009). Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  4. ^ "Florida Media Guide" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  5. ^ "1997 Women's R. William Jones Cup". USA Basketball. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  6. ^ "WNBA.com: Offseason 2008-09: Overseas Roster". www.wnba.com. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  7. ^ "WNBA.com: Offseason 2007-08: Overseas Roster". www.wnba.com. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  8. ^ GatorZone.com, Women's Basketball, Coaching & Support Staff, Murriel Page Archived 2011-09-02 at the Wayback Machine.

External links edit