Luke Murray Genius?

[husky429]

He may never be a great head coach... it's a unique skill. But it's clear he's an offensive mastermind.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

 

[cwh20]

The coaching has been great. Everything implemented has worked. The offensive concepts that few if any are using in college basketball mixed with the very good talent, BB IQ, determination and hard work are key to the B2B.

The IQ and awareness these past two teams have possessed has been fantastic to see. They get good looks at the hoop constantly. Another impressive thing is that they know how to use clock which for this team is pretty much maximizing the seconds being run off late in a game while ahead. That’s taking their time to inbound the ball, checking the ball to the ref, not shooting too quickly, etc and precious seconds just tick away.

A team could have plenty of talent but if you’re not using your smarts (the idiot CB of the Bears comes to mind) you’re giving the opponent the opening to win.

 

[huskeynut]

I took a leaderfship course many years ago. Later I taught that course along with other presenters. The first unit of the course was Knowing and Using the Resources of the Group.

In refernce to Luke, I think that is exactly what he did. He saw what the players could do and adapted his system to the players. The past two seasons proved Luke knew exactly what he was doing. His offense is very difficult to defend. The movement, the screens are beyond what many have seen.

Hurley now recruits players that have the skills, including defense, to make the offense go.

Is Luke a genius? I'm not sure I'm qualified to say yes or no. What I do know is his offense is way ahead of other teams.

 

[DogMania]

This is a very interesting thread. Now the question had to do with Murry being a genius. It was nothing to do with him being a successful head coach.

I don't know much about him other than he's been a big factor in designing, implementing and help teaching the offensive along with the rest of the staff.

If he is behind UConn's offense scheme, which is unique to CBB and has been unstoppable the past two post seasons, then at a minimum, he's a very smart, effective and hardworking coach. I'm glad he's ours.

 

[Lambeau]

It's easy to forget Castle and Newton combined for 31% 3 pt shooting.
Having now recruited five 40% shooters, Luke's screening system may show to even better advantage.

 

[nomar]

He sounds like a guy obsessed with putting in the work. Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

This and general curiosity/passion for offensive basketball. The guy watches Turkish games.

 

[nomar]

Basically anybody can draw up fancy plays, the trick is getting the kids to execute them and to make the right reads consistently. And a lot of that is recruiting.

Recruiting and coaching. But I don’t agree anybody can draw up an excellent offense. Anybody can copy one. And they will. But we will introduce new sets and keep getting guys who can execute.

 

[ddent68]

It’s impressive how the staff works together. Hurley said they got together as a group after the New Mexico State disaster and changed everything. Changed the emphasis to offense. Designed a one of a kind offense then decided what kind of players were needed to execute it. Identified those players and recruited them. He has talked about being the best organization in sports not just college basketball. Luke has had a lot to do with the offense and he may be a genius but our success is as much of a team effort off the court as on. I think Tom Moore might not be getting as much credit as he deserves as our GM as Hurley called him.

 

[Dogfish]

The advantage that Luke has given us with his Euro influence is not permanent. We are just early to the party in how we've incorporated it and why we are successful executing it. I'm sure there have been programs looking at how we do things, why we've basically cruised to 2 straight titles and how we run our offense and the copycats will start to pop up.

I'm sure that Luke and company have had this conversation numerous times, and like chess are probably 3-5-7 moves ahead of the imposters.

 

[Lambeau]

If they adopt Luke's complex movement schemes, they then may not catch up unless they prioritize high BBIQ recruits like Alex, Aidan, Furphy, maybe Ahmad to execute them. Illinois was the only one in on Furphy, presumably due to his lack of athleticism. Those of us in
that demographic can enjoy the triumph of cleverness.

 

[Deepster]

Basically anybody can draw up fancy plays, the trick is getting the kids to execute them and to make the right reads consistently. And a lot of that is recruiting.

I think your description of "drawing up fancy plays" is an insult to the complexity of our offense. Pros comment at how impressed they are at what we run.

 

[knicksin7]

I ask this question, not because I think he replaces Hurley, or that Kimani or Tom is not valuable, but the reality is this guy brought something to the offense that changed from Day 1. He's also a great recruiter, so not just mad scientist in the lab. And of course people will copy him, but the fact we have someone who is thinking so differently than others has yield benefits at least recently. And of course if you just ran complex Euro sets with a bunch of scrubs it wouldn't work, but this staff has found players that execute these sets to perfection. I love it.

 

[AllHusky]

Lets enjoy our time, no talk about replacing Hurley until the next Lakers situation

 

[boog204]

Interesting thread... Going off only what I have read/seen, I do believe that we became "this" largely because of Luke. DH was/is very JC like in that he can get players to run through walls. He creates a culture of toughness, winning, defense, accountability etc. But he (like JC) were never known as innovative offensive coaches. They both relied on having players make plays. That had run its course here by year 3-4 with DH. Our players, while good, were not guys like Ray, Rip, Caron, Donyell who could just take the ball and make plays. DH, and I think largely through Luke, finally realized this and figured out we need a system that allows the players we do have to flourish. The Euro style doesn't simply rely on great individual talent. So it allows Hawkins to be a shooter, creates spacing to get Adama get easy deep looks, Jackson to be a connector, Spencer, Newton, and Karaban (and more) to flourish without great athleticism. It has prioritized IQ, shooting, and individual skill.

I think you take Luke's mind, couple it with DH's drive and intensity, Kimani's recruiting ability, and Moore's experience and fundamental development to have a perfect coaching staff. I personally do not believe that we become "this" monster of a squad without that mix. And, to take it a step further, I do not think we win Nattys with DH alone or if Luke was here alone. Just my opinion and based on what I see, read, and hypothesize.

 

[Samoo]

He looks to the European game and gets his ideas from there. There's a reason the NBA keeps drafting Euro kids and the seem to be so offensively skilled. It's the way they approach the game. I don't think he's a genius or smarter than most other coaches, I think he's just out on the cutting edge of a trend that will continue to evolve in the U.S. game.

Soccer went through something like this when a Dutchman Johan Cruyff brought his approach to Barcelona.

Total basketball

 

[uconngb]

simple: training

 

[uconnblueinky]

Is there any chance that Murray is sticking around because he's being groomed as the next UConn men's basketball coach when/if Hurley leaves in a few years ?
How would everybody feel about Murray being the head coach 3 or 4 years from now?