Murray about recruiting
UConn assistant coach has always loved the activity
Luke Murray remembers his first stint at UConn, as a student with vast high school basketball recruiting knowledge, poking about the basketball offices with his buddy, Mark Daigneault, and kicking names around with assistant coaches Tom Moore and Andre LaFleur.
Daigneault went on to become the team manager; he’s now the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Murray transferred to Fairfield after a semester, but that love of scouting players has served him well over the years, and ultimately has him back at UConn, this time in an official capacity — as one of Dan Hurley’s assistant coaches.
He replaces Kevin Freeman, who has moved to a different job in the athletics department after one year on the job.
“I’m really excited about being here at UConn,” Murray, whose hiring was announced earlier in the week , said on a Zoom call on Friday afternoon. “My relationship with Coach Hurley means a ton to me. He’s a real mentor of mine and somebody I hold in incredibly high regard. And Tom and Kimani (Young, UConn’s associate head coach), the same way. I’ve known each of those guys for close to two decades. So, really exciting to be a part of this staff and to be around those guys on a daily basis.”
Murray has served as one of Hurley’s assistants at both Wagner and Rhode Island. He’s spent the past six seasons under Chris Mack — three at Xavier, the last three at Louisville — but was “blind-sided” when he and fellow assistant Dino Gaudio were not brought back to Mack’s staff after this season.
“Obviously, when I saw the news that Coach Freeman was moving on, I expressed my interest to Coach Hurley, and it kind of went from there,” Murray said.
Murray has long been known for his prowess as a scout of basketball talent, dating back even before he was a student at UConn. Growing up in New Jersey, he recalled attending the famous ABCD Camp in nearby Teaneck as a sixth/ seventh grader to see some of the top high school prospects in the country.
“I was always intrigued
by the idea of college coaches coming to recruit the best players in the country,” Murray said. “That was kind of my first introduction to college basketball, aside from watching the games on TV. I think that was probably the first time it really became clear to me that I’d love to do that as a profession, whenever my playing days were over.”
Murray recalls playing in AAU tournaments while in high school and staying after his games to watch the older kids play. He remembers hopping on a train or a bus — before he was old enough to drive — to take in Catholic League or PSL or grassroots games in Manhattan and other parts of New York City.
“It’s been a love of mine,” he said. “I’m blessed to be able to do it as a profession.”
Murray, 36, graduated from Fairfield in 2007 and remembers calling Moore soon afterwards to congratulate him on landing the head coaching job at Quinnipiac. Moore asked if he could bounce a few recruits’ names off Murray.
“What started as me calling him to congratulate him, ended in me coming up the next day to interview for the (basketball operations) job,” Murray said.
That would be the first of many stops for Murray, who even served as an assistant at Post University before becoming a grad assistant at Arizona, landing his first full-time assistant’s gig with Hurley at Wagner, moving on to Towson for two seasons, reuniting with Hurley at URI, then splitting the last six years between Xavier and Louisville.
Murray said the key to being a good recruiter is “diligence, really being dialed in to the player you’re recruiting, his background, the people in his circle — whether that be high school coaches, family members, grassroots coaches, teammates — as many different ways as you can familiarize yourself with the prospect and his recruiting process and what’s important to him. I try to be as thorough as possible in the recruiting process, the evaluation process.”
And that’s something he’s noticed Hurley prides himself on, as well. Murray said he’s watched many URI and UConn games over the past six years.
“I have a real appreciation for how (Hurley’s) been building the program: the players he’s brought in, the intensity with which he coaches, the effort level and the commitment level that his teams play with,” Murray said. “It’s been awesome to watch, from Year 1 to now, the growth of the team, the real identity and culture you can see being established. I’m excited about the future, to build on that even more.”
“I think he still brings some of that high school mentality, in terms of really being invested in the players wholeheartedly, 24/7,” he added. “That’s something hard to come by in college basketball. Sometimes you have coaches that are a little more inclined to have relationships with players from 3-5 p.m., when practice is going on. But that’s not Coach Hurley’s way, and that’s not this coaching staff’s way.”
Murray largely worked with the guards during his stints at Xavier and Louisville, but noted that Young has done a great job of that the past three seasons at UConn. He said his in-practice role is still to be determined, but imagines that “there will be some blending of positional groups.”
Murray’s hire has been applauded by other college coaches.
“It’s a terrific hire for UConn,” said Sacred Heart’s Anthony Latina, who’s known Murray since his Fairfield days. “He’s recruited at the highest level, which is where UConn is. He’s won at the highest level, certainly he’s worked with Danny before. He’s a terrific coach, terrific basketball mind, and extremely good evaluator of talent. He’s a hard-worker, and I think he’ll be a tremendous asset at UConn.”
Then, of course, there’s this: Murray’s dad is legendary actor/comedian Bill Murray.
“I’m definitely proud of my dad and his accomplishments,” he said, “but at the same time, that really doesn’t have a whole lot to do with me, or what I’m about on a daily basis. So, I’d be lying to you if I said those questions aren’t somewhat tiresome. I’m sure everybody, for the most part, knows the story. I’m just focused on being the best basketball coach I can be here in Connecticut, and hope I can hope Coach Hurley and the program continue to ascend.”
That said, Bill Murray is known to attend his son’s game as a fan wherever he’s been. Will he pop up at Gampel Pavilion or XL Center in the coming years?
“I’m sure he will,” said Luke. “He’s a huge fan of Coach Hurley’s and Coach Moore’s. He goes back a long way with Coach Moore, as well. I’m sure he’ll be excited about coming out, seeing home games, being around campus a little bit. The Louisville fans gave him a hard time, because he had a losing streak for a couple of games. I tried to explain, he was going to hard games — the Kentucky game, at Florida State. It wasn’t like it was buy games where he was showing up and we were losing. Hopefully, he can get off to a great start here and kind of reverse the trend a little bit.”