He tried to unblur the memories as much as possible to remember the first time he and BC athletic director Blake James flirted with the idea of Murray becoming the Eagles’ coach.
“I think we were getting ready to play one of our last regular-season games” he said. “Maybe it was the Big East tournament.”
From that point on, Murray said, it was a whirlwind.
Over the following weeks, his focus flipped from the NCAA Tournament to his new role and back. He was in Washington preparing for UConn to play Michigan State in the Sweet 16, looking at the contract on an iPad. He was sitting at a lunch table when his longtime mentor, UConn coach Dan Hurley, finally asked him.
“All right Lukey, what is it?” Murray remembered. “I said, ‘All right, I’m going.’ ”
Murray got up the next morning and started work on scouting Duke, while still staying in touch with his new colleagues at BC and reaching out to coaches that might potentially join his staff.
UConn’s win over Duke was its own blur. By the time the Huskies got back to Connecticut, it was 2 a.m. Murray’s kids didn’t get to sleep until 3:30. He drove to Boston Monday morning to get the lay of the land at The Heights.
“It’s been chaotic, for sure,” he said.
As the Eagles’ fourth head coach since 2010, Murray will try to reverse a decline that’s lasted 17-years. The Eagles haven’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2009.
“I think, fairly or unfairly, we have to change the narrative a little bit in the way that BC basketball’s viewed across the country,” Murray said.
As an assistant on the Huskies’ national championship teams in 2022-23 and 2023-24, Murray has grown used to success. Along with the national titles, he recruited and developed eight players who went on to the NBA, including lottery picks Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle.
The Eagles are in a completely different position, but that’s what piqued Murray’s interest.
“I like the challenge,” he said. “I think 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.”
The Eagles have had just three winning seasons since 2010, and the last time they finished with a winning record in the ACC was 2010-11. They finished second to last in each of the past two seasons.
“The first challenge is that right now we’re not winning enough games,” he said. “That sort of leads into a perception that people have of the program and where it stands in the ACC, where it stands nationally.”
From conversations with incoming university president Fr. Jack Butler and outgoing president Fr. William P. Leahy, Murray said he was assured that he would be set up to succeed.
“We have plans in place to continue to become more competitive in that regard — as it pertains to NIL, rev[enue] share, and all the inner workings of the current landscape of college basketball,“ Murray said. “Fr. Leahy and Fr. Jack gave a pretty clear message about the direction of Boston College athletics and our place in the current climate we operate in, and I’m excited about the direction we’re headed in.”
In his fourth year at the helm of BC athletics, James said that throughout their conversations, he was confident Murray would help the program take the necessary steps to climb from the bottom of the conference.
“There’s a lot of things we have to continue to work on,” James said. “This is by no means set up, right today, the way it’s going to continue to be. And those are the things I’ll work with Luke on, from revenue share and NIL to where we need to be competitive. But we’re committed to being competitive. And that message came from Fr. Leahy and Fr. Jack to me and also to Luke in his conversations with them. So we’re going to continue to build this, and I’m excited about the future.”
For now, Murray will flip the switch one last time. He planned to leave Boston Wednesday to rejoin the Huskies in Indianapolis. By next Monday, he hopes he’ll be celebrating a national championship.
Next Tuesday?
The transfer portal opens.
“It’s been wild, but I’m so appreciative,” Murray said. “I mean, honestly, could you ask for a better set of circumstances? I’m very excited to be here, I’m super pumped for the team in Connecticut and what we’ve been able to accomplish, but this has been probably the week of a lifetime, I’d say.”
Luke Murray introduced as Boston College basketball coach
Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com.
