In 10th grade, Jayla Murray was playing basketball for Tampa Bay Tech High School when Jasmine Peaks joined the team.
The duo went on to win the Florida State Championship together before deciding to transfer to another high school for their senior year. Coincidentally, they ended up at the same school, making them teammates once more.
Four years later, the cycle has repeated itself at Wichita State as the juniors continue finding themselves on the same roster.
“Shoot, we were just meant to be together,” Murray said.
High school teammates
Murray said she thought Peaks was the “smoothest point guard I’ve ever seen” at Tampa Bay Tech. Meanwhile, Peaks praised Murray for her toughness back then, even though she was less technically gifted than she is now.
“She (Murray) basically did all the work down low, like she would clean up,” Peaks said. “She was basically doing the dirty work.”
Peaks and Murray also played AAU basketball together, although that was less coincidental as their coach was the same one they had in high school.
The duo won the state championship with Tampa Bay Tech in 2019 and both chose to transfer elsewhere for their senior year of high school. One day, they talked about where they would play and realized it was for the same school.
“(I) had no idea she was coming,” Murray said.
Journey to WSU
Murray and Peaks began their collegiate careers at junior colleges in Florida — Murray for Florida SouthWestern State and Peaks for Indian River State College. Peaks said they would “check in here or there” with each other but mostly lost contact being far away despite residing in the same state.
Both maintained goals of playing Division I basketball eventually. The dream appeared unlikely for Murray when she tore her ACL during her sophomore year at Florida SouthWestern State. That’s when Wichita State head coach Terry Nooner began recruiting her.
“I thought I was going to go back to JUCO, and then Nooner, like, came out of nowhere … and he had so much belief in me,” Murray said. “It felt like a family atmosphere, like, ‘You believe in me this much, and I just tore my ACL?’”
The leap to Division I is no small task physically for even the most healthy players. Coming off a torn ACL, Murray knew she had to put in work not just to get back to her old level of fitness, but to get in even better shape.
“The off-season was crazy,” Murray said. “Like, my daddy stayed on me. I was running non-stop every day. (I) also had to fix my diet, too.”
Near the end of Murray’s first season with the Shockers, she noticed a familiar face at Wichita State’s games. Nooner had begun recruiting Peaks, who never expected to see herself on the same court as Murray again.
“I was like, ‘Oh, Jayla’s there?’” Peaks said. “That’s probably what pulled my attention the most too, besides the coaches and how good of people they are, and the family atmosphere, she was definitely a factor.”
When Murray found out that Peaks might become a Shocker, she was immediately excited.
“I’m making TikToks already in my drafts, like, ‘We back,’” Murray said.
Reunion and on-court chemistry
Having gone through the rigorous adjustment to Division I, Murray warned Peaks about what to expect.
“I was warning her about conditioning and the type of shape she needed to be in coming here and starting through camp,” Murray said.
Murray, having lived a year in Wichita prior to Peaks’ arrival, also showed her the ropes of the city. The pair went out to eat almost every night when Peaks first arrived.
On the court, Peaks said it’s easy to play with Murray because they know each other’s tendencies, a big advantage in chemistry over other players.
“It just comes natural,” Peaks said. “Just because we played for so long together, so it’s just like we never left.”
Murray agreed.
“Every time Jasmine gets an assist to me, I’m like, ‘Tampa Bay Tech,’” she said.
Both players expressed interest in playing professionally overseas after college. While it’s unlikely they’ll play together again after Wichita State, the duo has learned by now that anything is possible.
“If that happened, that would be crazy,” Peaks said, laughing.
