Izzo, Scheyer, and Boeheim were all assistants at the school they took over. That's a completely different situation. They still have the players, they still have the assistant coaches, they still have the recruiting class.

For an analogy, someone built a car, and they got to ride in the passenger seat and see how the guy that built the car drives the car, and then they just move over to driver's seat and start driving the car.

Hiring Luke Murray here is asking someone to build a whole new car.

How do you know how much of the UCONN success goes to Murray vs. Hurley?
Is the offense Hurley's offense? How many recruits wanted to play for Hurley?
Personally not a Dan Hurley fan. Maybe Murray does a good job of making Hurley more palatable?
Of course Hurley wins...wins a lot.

I had another post in the "up and comer" thread that noted the fact that Murray has not JUST been on one successful team with one successful head coach - but on several teams - albeit with only two successful head coaches - Hurley and Chris Mack (the latter has his own thread on this forum).

Bottom line is that he is apparently good enough to contribute to TWO teams with deep runs in the tournament and lots of wins over multiple seasons.

I contend that there is not a name being discussed on these multiple threads that is a GUARANTEED slam dunk winning hire. We take a chance on anyone we hire.

However, I still look at Golden and his success at Florida (while realizing he did serve as HC at San Francsico) and think that taking a chance on Murray might be the best shot the Aggies have at getting lightning in a bottle and really starting something special here.

Getting an experienced Texas-based coach, like Rodney Terry, to serve as his assistant (if he is willing) might help as well.

BasketballCoach2015 said:

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I completely understand the trepidation due to the Earley situation but I still believe the whole "you can't take an assistant with no head coaching experience in this league" mindset is way overblown. I can think of 3 instances where an assistant with no HC experience took over programs and those fanbases would do it again. Those 3 I speak of? Izzo, Scheyer, and Boeheim. Yes for every one that works there's probably 2 that don't, but you can say that about any hire. Here's how it's different from Earley a) Murray has been the architect of back to back national championship offenses, b) there isn't 2 days until the portal closes nor the fear of losing an almost championship winning roster. Murray has been the lead recruiter at 3 premier jobs.

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He'd be better than this Bucky guy...

Fair point! Just was saying that he has more experience with the day to day running of stuff is all.

I think the Luke Murray talk is a combo of recruiting brain and people liking his dad. By "recruiting brain" I mean that we don't know what he sucks at because he's never been a head coach. It's the same mindset as why people on the internet start complaining when a 5* player isn't playing over a current starter who may not be that good. We don't know the limitations of the other guy, so we can just project whatever we want onto him.

Maybe he really is the offensive and recruiting mastermind behind two straight national champions. Tech fans tried to convince this board that Mark Adams was actually the defensive genius behind Chris Beard too (granted Adams is much older, but my point is that fans love projecting things onto the unknown.)

But maybe there's also a reason Luke Murray doesn't have a head job yet if he's been an assistant for 15 years?

Day to Day running is important, and being part of a top progam is great!
Some assistants with no head coach experience do not understand or are able to deal
with all the other duties and functions that the head coach has to deal with, and the time required.
Some can, particularly if they can hire good assistants themselves and delegate well!

Billy confirmed Bucky is one of the 2-3 names Trev is vetting today. Curious as to who the other 2 are and why we haven't heard their names. Sometimes those turn out to be the guy.

Billy confirmed Bucky is one of the 2-3 names Trev is vetting today. Curious as to who the other 2 are and why we haven't heard their names. Sometimes those turn out to be the guy.

I'm on the Murray train because of his reputation as a great offensive mind and decent recruiter, though if I were AD, the interview would be significantly more important for an assistant than sitting HC. Need to understand if he has the organization and demeanor to lead a program. With sitting HCs, it is certainly important, but they have a firm track record.

Every hire is a roll of the dice, and hiring an assistant with no HC experience is an even more significant gamble. While our school has the resources to be a top flight athletic program in all the big sports, our men's basketball history and program prestige a below average for a P5 school. Might as well swing for the fences.

His wiki for Louisville says: 'His contract was not renewed at the end of the 20202021 season.' Seems like a red flag but anyone know the story there?

Mack cut him loose, but no clue if that was just a panic move by Mack or if he actually didn't think he was doing a good enough job.

Yeah. There was some strange juju at Louisville happening around that time.

Kind of glad we did not get Mack...

Mack had him on his staff for 6 years so he clearly saw something in him.

Louisville fans consider him a poor recruiter. He is thought of differently by UConn. If we did speak to Mack, I wonder if part of the conversation was to do our due diligence on Murray.

Yeah that's what's great about assistants, you just can project whatever you like or don't like about the program on them.

Sounds like it'll be a shocker now if we don't get a sitting head coach - so we are probably done with the Murray talk.

That being said, the young up and comer HC talk is heating up. The bio on Bucky showing his high school coaching (and thus, likely ability to relate to Alabama high school basketball.players) success and honors was encouraging.

While a proven winner would've been good - i think that ship has sailed.

I'm still hoping for a "copy" of Todd Golden success story at Florida.

I agree that Lutz or Huss appear to be closer to replicating the Golden hire due to their having been assistants at successful programs prior to becoming HC.

Bucky is definitely a riskier choice.

You left Roy Williams off your list. Another VERY successful assistant to head coach.

I'd much rather take risk with a hc with demonstrable success as a hc than an assistant with zero demonstrable success as a hc. The overreaching skill sets could be very different . That's not to say an assistant can't turn into a very successful hc. Also , an assistant being hand picked by a legendary hc at a blue blood program is different than this …. Thinking about Duke .