If you want to know how Jamal Murray is enjoying what is likely his only year on a college campus, all you have to do was watch a postgame interview between him and coach John Calipari following Kentucky’s 93-80 victory in the SEC semifinals on Saturday.

A smiling Murray walked past his coach early in the interview, only to circle back around and spend the next few seconds being a general nuisance to Calipari; leaning over his shoulder, peeking into the camera and “photo bombing” Coach Cal.

Murray finally got his coach’s attention late in the interview, at which point Calipari began teasing the 6’5 freshman from Kitchener, Ontario.

“Then we’ve got this Jamal Murray kid, but he shoots too much,” Calipari said, loud enough for Murray to hear. “I’m trying to get him to stop shooting, but he shoots it anyway.”

When the reporter followed up by confirming that Calipari wanted Murray to stop shooting, the coach responded in the only way he could.

“I want him to guard someone,” Calipari explained. “Like stay in front.”

The face Murray can be seen making in the background is priceless, but if there’s one example which shows just how quickly Murray has adjusted to life in Lexington (not to mention how much Wildcats’ players adore Calipari) this was it.

Things haven’t always been easy for Murray, despite what the stat sheet might say. But as the season comes to a close, he’s evolved into one of the most complete and deadly scorers in college basketball. That was on display again in Sunday’s SEC title game when despite an off shooting night, Murray hit a dagger three with 18 seconds to put Kentucky up by six, in what ended up as an 82-77 win.

The early part of the season was a time of adjustment for both Murray and the Kentucky coaching staff. Murray was one of the youngest players in college basketball when he arrived, after deciding to reclassify and come to college a year early. He also got off to a later start after spending the summer playing for Team Canada in the Pan-Am Games.

Not only did Murray have to adjust his game to his new teammates, but his coaches also had to figure out exactly what his skills were. Early on, he was featured as more of a true combo guard, somebody asked to not only score, but also handle the ball and help set up teammates as well.

That led to some difficulties early.

Murray wasn’t bad per se, but he did struggle with turnovers and shot selection. 

“He had good games, he had bad games, there were times where you were like ‘wow’ and there were times where he’d go 1-for-10 in a half and have seven turnovers,” said Rob Dauster, a senior writer for NBC Sports. “There were times where you’d watch him and say ‘Jamal, what are you seeing?’”

It wasn’t just the media who felt that way.

“You try to explain to him really, really good players make hard plays look easy,” Calipari said back in February. “Bad players make easy plays look really hard. And he started the season, that's what he was doing.

“So you saw turnovers like ‘why is he doing tough shots?’”

But things slowly began to change. And with two significant moves by Calipari, Murray began to shine.  

The first was taking most of the ball-handling and playmaking responsibilities out of Murray’s hands and letting fellow guard Tyler Ulis run the offense. That allowed Murray to become much more of a traditional scoring guard.  And when forward Derek Willis moved into the starting lineup, it created spacing which has allowed Murray to thrive.

“Right around that loss to Auburn (on Jan. 16), they moved Derek Willis to the starting lineup and then they moved Jamal Murray almost strictly off the ball,” Dauster explained. “They had him more running him off screens, they got him buying him into this idea that he is a jump shooter.”

And once that happened, there was no turning back.

Over the second half of the season, Murray has not only evolved into a deadly catch-and-shoot scorer, but is also putting up numbers that haven’t been seen in a generation at Kentucky. Murray scored at least 20 points in 11 straight games  and now owns a Kentucky record with 34 straight games with at least one three-pointer made.  And as it stands, his 20.2 point per game average is the most ever for a freshman under Calipari at Kentucky.

In perspective, Murray is doing things that even current NBA All-Stars John Wall, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins never did at Kentucky, not to mention other recent stars like Brandon Knight, Devin Booker or Eric Bledsoe.

“Calipari is not one of those guys who puts handcuffs on his freshmen,” said Seth Davis, who covers college basketball for Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports. “So frankly if you’re doing things at Kentucky that no other freshmen have done, then you’re outperforming some of the best players in the world.”

More important than stats is the fact that Murray has also spent the second half of the season evolving into a more complete player. And Coach Cal is happy with where Murray is at this point.

“I mean, how much better is he?” Calipari said back on Feb. 23. “Oh my gosh. He's not even the same player. His shot selection, he's not turning it over, he's defending better, he's getting by people, he's drawing fouls.

“He's that big guard that he can be. You put him in pick-n-rolls, we did that late, he got to the rim. He's a lead guard who scores it and is playing pretty well right now.”

And there’s more to come with the NCAA Tournament over the next few weeks. With Murray, Ulis and others under Coach Cal, the Wildcats are again favored to make a deep run and potentially take home a title.

And beyond that, there’s the NBA Draft.

Prognosticators almost universally agree that he will be a Top 10 pick. DraftExpress.com projects him to go No. 7 overall to Sacramento and ESPN has him as the sixth best player on their most recent ‘Big Board.’

“The good thing about the NBA is that he has a defined position,” Davis said, when asked about Murray at the pro level. “It’s not like he’s one of those smaller two-guards who has to learn how to play the 1. He’s got a very defined position.”

Simply put, the sky’s the limit. He’s still got a few college games to play, but once he makes it to the NBA, Davis expects him to be there for a long time.

“Yeah, he’s got a lot of good things ahead,” Davis said. “I wish I was his accountant.”

Aaron Torres covers college basketball for Fox Sports, is a contributor to TSN.ca, and is the author of a new book on Kentucky basketball, “One and Fun: A Behind the Scenes Look at John Calipari and the 2010 Kentucky Wildcats.” For more of his writing, follow him on Twitter at @Aaron_Torres or  e-mail him at ATorres00@gmail.com.