Dan Hurley’s UConn faced a second-round exit against the Florida Gators in the 2025 NCAA tournament. They will be adamant about turning things around this time and going back to being a top team again.
As per expert Michael Cohen, UConn has what it takes to put forth a great competition. But the most underrated weapon in their arsenal is their assistant coach, Luke Murray. On The Hoops Cap, Cohen said:
“His influence on Dan is pretty significant; it’s a collaboration built on trust. It’s not necessarily him going to Hurley and saying, ‘We need to do this.’ It’s more like him introducing things to Hurley, and Hurley being open-minded enough to embrace them, discuss them, and learn about them.” (8:21)
Murray is a basketball nerd, to say the least. According to Cohen, he has his eyes on leagues from all over the world – Spain, Italy, France, Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand. This helps him understand the game better than most people.
“He’ll grab things and ideas from anywhere and bring them into UConn’s offense,” Cohen added.
Cohen said that since UConn is so in tune with everything that’s going on in basketball globally, they’ll soon be seen running sets that are alien to the American teams. This will also potentially lead to a change in their recruiting process.
Murray’s unique strategy brought one of the best combo guards to UConn. They managed to sign Jacob Furphy from Australia. Furphy is a product of the NBA Global Academy, and he recently torched Team USA in a friendly game.
Furphy dropped 24 points with four rebounds, one assist, and two steals. Even though his team lost the game, Furphy made people notice his offensive prowess.
Luke Murray Praised Jacob Furphy
Scouting talent is a difficult job, but Murray seems to have figured it all out. With his focus not being limited to the talent in the country, he is able to find players who would’ve flown under most people’s radar. Furphy is one such special talent.
During a conversation with Cohen a week ago, Murray told him that there’s a lot of expectation on Furphy’s shoulders. All the people in the program have seen him play, and they’d expect him to do the same thing for the Huskies.
“You’re looking out there on the floor and there’s lottery picks up and down the lineup for the Americans and [Furphy] is playing great. He’s hanging with all those guys. It was just fun to see him play against the best guys. We already had an incredibly high expectation for him, and so we were excited to get to work,” he said.
The world truly is Dan Hurley’s playground. There’s no limitation on where his talent could come from. And it has been a result of being surrounded by the right people and being open-minded to new ideas and strategies.
