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Why Jacob Furphy, Money Williams Are Buying Into Luke Murray's Vision for BC Basketball
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- Why Jacob Furphy, Money Williams Are Buying Into Luke Murray's Vision for BC Basketball
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Boston College men's basketball guards Money Williams and Jacob Furphy are clearly pretty massive fans of their new head coach, Luke Murray, and they spoke about that relationship at ACC Tipoff on Tuesday.
"Kind of seeing him transition into that new role as a head coach has been really cool," said Furphy, who transferred to BC from UConn, where Murray previously coached. "He's been able to be on [the] court and voice his opinion a lot more than he could as an assistant coach. ... Overall, it's just been very cool. He's been a lot more vocal."
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Drawing up the offensive gameplan, which Murray did for the Huskies, from the back of the stage is certainly different from doing so and actually showing the players how it works, which has been one of the biggest adjustments for Murray since becoming head coach of the Eagles.
"I guess as an assistant coach, he was kind of the offensive genius that everyone calls him, and you can see that from behind the scenes," Furphy said. "But then now, as [head] coach, he can now voice his opinion a lot more in terms of putting in the sets, the way he likes to run stuff."
Furphy attested to the fact that inserting one's opinion with UConn head coach Dan Hurley managing the operation is not the easiest, so it has been new for both Furphy and Murray to hear a different voice powering the room each day.
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"It's obviously hard to get a word in with coach Hurley," Furphy said. "He's obviously the main driver of all that."
But Murray is honestly looking to take what he learned from Hurley and manage his own team with a similar style - maybe except for head-butting referees on the sidelines.
He wouldn't have made it this far in the basketball coaching world without being somewhat alike to the two-time national champion.
"I would say [I'll be] a lot like Danny in practice every single day in terms of the seriousness of the approach, and sort of the way that we show up to work," Murray said. "I don't know that I can replicate his sideline demeanor yet, so I got to be true to myself."
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"But yeah, we're definitely competitors, and I saw him talking about it the other day, you know, being obsessed with basketball. That's the way that I feel about it, and so I think more than anything else, that's how I'm going to show up every day."
For Williams, who was a 20-point-per-game scorer at his previous school, Montana, that special quality of Murray's to see the floor and naturally design unique ways to create open space for his playmakers is what excites him most about playing for Murray.
"Yeah, I mean, just being an offensive threat, you know, Luke Murray is a genius," Williams said. "Just having him as a head coach, you want to be a part of that."
The work won't get done on its own, however, and that is something Murray has preached every day since his arrival, according to both Furphy and Williams.
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If the program wants to experience a revival under Murray, the players will have to buy into that message, as work ethic is everything to Murray.
"Obviously, Boston College hasn't had the best track record over the last 20 years or so, and I guess just kind of being a part of, as Money said, the new era," Furphy said. "That's kind of what we've been living by over the sumer and leading up until the season - kind of just bringing that, as he said again, blue-collar mentality, and actually working into building towards something special."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/bostoncollege as Why Jacob Furphy, Money Williams Are Buying Into Luke Murray's Vision for BC Basketball .
