#1 – UNC || #2 – NC State || #3 – Wake Forest || #4 – Virginia || #5 – Clemson||#6 – Miami || #7 – Louisville || #8 – Pitt || #9 – Georgia Tech || #10 – Syracuse
For the last few years, we’ve asked the same question about two coaches: why is no one going after Northwest Missouri State’s Ben McCollum and UConn assistant Luke Murray?
Drake finally took a gamble on D-II coach McCollum, and it paid off quickly with a 31-4 record. His hometown school, Iowa, came calling after his one season with the Bulldogs, and he took the Big Ten job. Last year, he had a 24-13 record, and made the Elite Eight, which Iowa hadn’t done since 1987.
And now, Boston College has hired Murray.
This is Murray’s first head-coaching position, but he’s already done something kind of amazing: he’s no longer known just as Bill Murray’s kid.
That was his tag for quite a while, and he was seen as something of a novelty.
That faded as his reputation grew.
Give this to Murray: he hasn’t taken shortcuts.
He took a position at D-II Post, then was a grad assistant at Arizona. From there, it was assistant positions at Wagner, Towson, and Rhode Island.
He started getting better jobs, beginning with Xavier, then Louisville, and, finally, UConn.
He had worked for Dan Hurley at Wagner and Rhode Island before rejoining him in Storrs, and his stint at UConn really made him a desirable hire.
Murray was responsible for UConn’s offense, and while the Huskies obviously had plenty of talent, the offense was consistently brilliant.
UConn won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024, and was national runner-up this past spring.
So why did he choose Boston College, which has been a train wreck since Al Skinner was fired back in 2010? Here’s what Murray told the Boston Globe:
“I like the challenge. That was the thing that stood out the most. To me, it has the greatest potential when you look at the history of the program, the history of the university, the conference that it competes in. It’s a little bit of an overused term, but it’s kind of a sleeping giant in men’s basketball. And I think the challenge of coming in here and getting this program to its rightful position in the league was probably the thing that won out.”
So what is Murray working with? What kind of a team has he assembled? Let’s take a look.
Returnee
- Jack Bailey
Portal
- Money Williams – 6-4 SR – Montana
- Andrija Bukumirovic – 6-7 – SR UT Martin
- Jacob Furphy – 6-6 SO – UConn
- JB Frankel – 6-3 GR – Northeastern backup point
- Ernest Shelton – 6-5 SR – Merrimack
- Luke Hunger – 6-10 GR – George Washington
- Brandon Benjamin – 6-8 SO – Fairfield
- Colby Duggan – 6-7 SR – Charleston
- Armoni Zeigler – 6-4 SR – Ball State
- Jameson O’Toole – 6-3 GR – Fordham
- Aly Tounkara – 7-0 JR – Arkansas State
Freshmen
- Zak Smrekar 6-6 (Slovenia)
- Jordan Ghee – 6-4 – NR
Given what ACC fans have gotten used to at Boston College, this team might be a nice surprise.
Bailey, a 6-10 redshirt freshman, is the only holdover. He came to B.C. as a bit of a project, so who knows how much he grew during his redshirt year? He’s a bit of a mystery for most of us.
Williams is a 6-4 Montana transfer. He’s a high-volume scorer and playmaker. At Montana, he averaged 20.6 ppg, with several 30 point outings, and had one game where he scored 40. He gets to the line a lot too, and hits 85% there.
However, against Louisville last season, he was held to 0-6 and scored just four points.
Bukumirovic brings a versatile, efficient forward who can stretch the floor. He also rebounds well, with 7.8 per game last season, and he dropped 22 on Florida State in November.
Furphy is an interesting case. An Aussie, he spent a year at UConn, but barely played. He’s said to have a really high IQ, and he can shoot. He could be a major surprise, and he’s ahead of most of his teammates, because he already knows Murray’s system. He’s likely to start.
He’s not the only one who knows Murray’s system, though. Shelton played at Merrimack, and Merrimack coach Joe Gallo is close friends with Murray, and runs a very similar offense.
Shelton, a gifted scorer, will understand Murray’s sets immediately. He didn’t shoot well overall (38.6%), but hit 34.6% on threes, which is a big part of why he’s now an Eagle.
Hunger is there because he’s big and physical. At GW, he averaged 8.4 ppg, and 5.1 rebounds.
If it turns out that all he can do is set bone-crushing picks and defend, well, you remember UVA’s Jack Salt, right? That’s a good role model for Hunger.
Benjamin was one of the nation’s best rebounders at Fairfield, where he pulled down 4.25 offensive boards per game, which led the nation. He averaged 10.4 overall.
He also has a 7-2 wingspan. He’s going to play.
Duggan missed most of last year at Charleston with a shoulder injury, but he was really good at Campbell, where, among other things, he racked up a 32-point game against UNC. He’s intriguing. Hopefully, he’s over his shoulder injury.
Zeigler averaged 12.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists, and 1.4 steals at Ball State last season. He’s also former Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler’s half-brother.
Frankel is likely to be a backup point guard. He really improved over his time at Northeastern, and, at a minimum, should be a competent reserve.
Tounkara didn’t post dazzling stats, but he’s an excellent rim protector, and an elite rebounder. And if you start in February, his stats jump from 4.3 ppg and 5.5 rebounds to 8.1 ppg and 9.2 rebounds.
O’Toole is the son of former Pitt assistant Tim O’Toole. He’s not likely to be a huge factor, but you never know.
As for the freshmen, Smrekar was a real coup for Murray. A native of Slovenia, at 6-6, he has an elite feel for the game and is said to be a tremendous playmaker.
B.C. beat out schools like Illinois and UConn for Smrekar, and when was the last time you could say that about a B.C. recruit?
Ghee is a guy who is probably on a development path as a freshman. He’s apparently quite mature on and off the court, and looks like a good cultural fit for what Murray is trying to build. He’s a guy to keep an eye on in coming years, but he may not be a major factor this season.
You don’t have to be a genius to see what Murray is trying to do. He designed UConn’s offense, and this should look somewhat similar, although with less talent.
If we had to guess, which we are, actually, we’d expect B.C. to start Williams and Shelton in the backcourt, Smrekar and Benjamin at the forward spots, and most likely Hunger at center.
But how much will the Eagles drop off if the second team started? That’d be Frankel, Zeigler, Furphy, Duggan, and Tounkara.
There’s been a thing this summer where someone suggested that Duke’s second five would be ranked. We’re not suggesting anything like that for Boston College, but compared to the talent we’ve seen lately for B.C., this team has a lot more than it’s had in years.
There’s still a lot to prove. Of the top ten players, only Furphy has played at a major basketball school, and he barely got off the bench.
Still, this is a serious talent upgrade. Boston College has shooting, it has rebounding, it has at least one excellent passer, and it has rim protection.
Toss in Murray’s well-established offensive chops, and this team has some potential.
However, it is important to note this. As promising as Murray appears to be, this is his first time running his own program, and there is always an element of risk there. No one knows what kind of leader he’ll be. You don’t have to look too far for an example – Hubert Davis will do fine.
An immensely appealing man when he was on ESPN, he spent nine years as a Roy Williams assistant, and was Ol’ Roy’s choice to take over the UNC program after Williams retired. Unfortunately, he seemed to have trouble connecting with his players, not to mention the media for that matter, and his teams were wildly inconsistent. He was let go this past spring.
Obviously, we won’t know what to make of Murray as a head coach until we get a bit further into his career.
One note of concern: the way the B.C. TV team was handled.
According to Kevin Collins and Josh Maurer, they put a lot of time and effort into trying to arrange a meeting with Murray once he was hired, only to be consistently put off.
Eventually, they were let go, and they maintain that Murray wanted no connection to the Grant era, and wished to rebuild from the ground up.
B.C.’s A.D., Blake James, denies that Murray had any role in that, maintaining that the university and its multimedia rights partner made the decision.
We’ll take him at his word, but for his part, Murray could have reached out at some point just to say thanks, sorry, really busy, let’s talk later, and he’s been conspicuously silent since the firings.
The rest of us should probably view this as a learning experience for Murray, and hope that he’ll apply the lessons learned.
As for on-the-court Murray, at worst, we would expect the Eagles to break even. Realistically, they have a shot at the NIT, and if things go very well, they could make what we used to call the First Four, but with a 76-team tournament, might call something like the Dirty Dozen.
Bottom line: Boston College is on the upswing and will likely become an ACC factor again sooner rather than later.
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