We know that Bill Murray is a basketball fan, the actor having also played in “Space Jam”, alongside Michael Jordan. A family tradition since his youngest son, Luke, is a renowned NCAA assistant.
A sociology graduate from Fairfield University in 2007, he started as director of basketball operations at the small Quinnipiac University before becoming a full-time assistant to Dan Hurley at Wagner. He then found him in Rhode Island, before following Chris Mack to Louisville.
The conviction of playing Purdue in the final
Ultimately, he reunited with Dan Hurley in Connecticut in 2021, with the Cardinals not retaining him.
And it’s an understatement to say that Luke Murray’s three seasons with the Huskies were good. Because after an exit in the first round of “March Madness” in 2022, UConn has just won two consecutive NCAA titles, and with his qualities as a recruiter and his tactical sense, the son of Bill Murray was invaluable in this very rare doubled.
As The Athletic explainsit was he who was in charge of “scouting” for Purdue, with the conviction acquired in the middle of the season that Connecticut would meet Zach Edey and his teammates in the final.
Donovan Clingan then asked to defend against the Canadian giant in a one-on-one situation, to force his teammates to make the difference. A strategy validated by Luke Murray, the 39-year-old assistant realizing that Purdue's success did not depend so much on the production of Zach Edey, who always found a way to score anyway, but rather on that of the outsiders ( Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith and Mason Gillis), and in particular their ability to take advantage of assists on the pivot to punish behind the 3-point line.
By playing Zach Edey one-on-one, while limiting assists and catches to two, the Huskies certainly allowed their opponent to score 37 points, but above all they limited Purdue to 1/7 from afar!
“Maths won”
“We watched the videos. They get their 3-pointers when the defenders come down to help on Edey”summarized Tristen Newton, the MOP of the Final Four, while Luke Murray explains that the strategy is based on the defensive qualities of Donovan Clingan. “The whole idea of the pick-and-roll is to get two players on the ball to create a disadvantage and put pressure on the defense. It helps avoid that as much as possible. »
The latter could also simplify Connecticut's strategy by explaining that it is “very difficult, statistically, to win a basketball game by only scoring 2-points.”
“Maths won” Luke Murray could thus conclude, while Matt Painter, the Purdue coach, for his part, especially highlighted the general quality of the Connecticut defenders. “We played against athletes, against very good defenders this year and in the tournament, but not against a group of defenders at the level of UConn. We played against teams who could have a very high level defender. But this team has players who are capable of shutting down opponents coming off the bench…”
