Among the 40 men featured in this series, Troy Murphy is the only one with a bachelor's degree not from the school he played for. But we'll get to that a little later.

Instead, let's start with the story of one of the most impactful recruits that ever played at Notre Dame, both in terms of timing and performance.

The 1990's were a low point for basketball at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish were among the last of the independent schools, a status which was once a strategic advantage but now a program killer. ND got diminishing television opportunities, less interest from national recruits, and fewer wins followed. From 1991-99, Notre Dame was a combined 118-144, with no NCAA bids. After back to back losing seasons for the first time in 32 years, Notre Dame officials ended a century of independent basketball and accepted a bid to join the Big East conference in 1995.

Things didn't any get better in the Big East. The Irish won just nine games in its opening season in the Big East with a 4-14 conference mark. In its next two seasons, ND was a combined 29-28. In 1997, the Irish attracted interest from a top 50 recruit in New Jersey named Troy Murphy. His choice of ND over Vanderbilt began a new era for Irish basketball in the Big East.

"He's 10 times quicker than you think," said former Rutgers coach Kevin Bannon, who told the New York Times he tried to recruit Murphy when he coached at Rider. "He's way more athletic than he looks. He's just got an incredible feel for the game. It's effortless. It looks like he's going through the motions, and then at the end of the game he's got 35 points and 15 rebounds.

"He looks like a guy who should be playing in a men's league. He looks like he's not a sculpted athlete, but he is."

At 6-11 and 245, Murphy seemed to play smaller than his size would have suggested. He could shoot from inside or outside, and rebound with the best of them. Joined on the court by freshmen David Graves and Harold Swanagan in 1998-99, the trip immediately raised the talent level on an ND team that had been down for years: the freshmen combined for 49 percent of the team's points that season. Murphy led all scorers averaging, 53 percent from the field with a 19.2 point, 9.9 rebound average, landing him as Big East Rookie of the Year.

While ND improved under Murphy, it was still under .500, and after eight seasons with a combined mark of 106-124, coach John McLeod resigned in April, 1999. The Irish went to Kansas assistant Matt Doherty in 1999-00, who made Murphy the centerpiece of his offense. And if fans around the country weren't familiar with Murphy before, they soon would be.

Murphy scored 21 points and 12 rebounds as the Irish opened the season with a 59-57 upset win at Ohio State. He followed it up with 31 versus Siena and 35 vs. St. Francis. After 10 games, Murphy averaged 25.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. On Jan. 5, 2000, Murphy scored 33 points and 16 rebounds as the Irish upset #2 Connecticut, 75-70. He scored in double figures in every game that season, including a 30 point, 18 rebound game versus St. John's, 32 versus Michigan, and 35 versus Seton Hall. Murphy finished the season second nationally in scoring with 839 points and 10th in rebounds. He was named the Big East Player of the Year in a season where ND advanced to the NIT finals and earned its first 20-win season in a decade.

Matt Doherty suddenly became a hot commodity in the coaching market. When Bill Guthridge opted not to return to North Carolina for the 2000-01 season, Doherty's former college teammate, Michael Jordan, lobbied for him to get the UNC job. When Kansas head coach Roy Williams passed on the job, Doherty left South Band for Chapel Hill Murphy was suddenly facing his third head coach in three years, Delaware coach Mike Brey. The playing style of Brey was less rigid than that of either McLeod or Doherty, and Murphy continued to thrive.

Murphy opened his junior season with 31 points and 14 rebounds versus Sacred Heart and never looked back. Despite being double teamed for much of the season, he averaged 21.8 points per game and scored in double figures all season until being held to eight points in a Big East tournament quarterfinal loss to Pitt. But at 19-9 for the season, Notre Dame was rewarded with its first NCAA bid since 1990, falling to Mississippi in the second round. A consensus first team All-America selection, Murphy was named Big East Player of the Year for a second consecutive season, only the fourth player to do so behind Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, and Richard Hamilton.

With a third consensus All-America award in range and the likelihood of destroying nearly every ND career record in his senior season, Murphy surprised many by entering the 2001 NBA Draft. His reasoning was more practical than personal--with the influx of high school talent entering the draft, the 2001 draft was the best opportunity to maximize his career potential.

"It was difficult to leave Notre Dame," Murphy said to UND.com in 2015. "My year we must have had four or five guys who were going right from high school to the NBA. If those four or five guys dropped you four or five spots, it's a big deal. My leaving was definitely a product of the NBA [draft]."

"I had the opportunity to work with three different coaches and that gave me the opportunity to play three different styles. That actually got me ready for playing in the NBA for different coaches."

The 14th selection in the 2001 draft, Murphy played 12 years in the NBA, averaging 10.8 points per game and earning $66 million over his career. When he retired, he took an interest in wealth management, freely admitting that, at 20, he wasn't prepared for the windfall. And without a college degree at 32, he still wasn't prepared. Murphy took the unusual step of going back to school, this time at Columbia, earning his bachelor's degree in 2016. After a year working for the NBA and completing his Series 65 exam, he opened an investment advisory firm to work with individuals unprepared for sudden wealth, from athletes to lottery winners, from the windfall of a inheritance to a sudden divorce. The firm charges on fee, not on the value of the assets.

"By going to a fee-based model for wealth management and then donating his fees to financial literacy programs, Troy is, unintentionally, threatening a lot of wealth managers who have made millions, or I guess billions, from their newly wealthy clients," a colleague told the Indianapolis Star. "In all that time, the only thing he has talked about is the best way to help clients keep and grow their wealth. He has never mentioned any motivation for him other than to be of service, which is pretty amazing."

"Being of service and altruistic is a spectacular thing."