Building a New Era: How Luke Murray is Embracing Connectivity On and Off the Hardwood at Boston College
The brand-new faces of the Boston College men’s basketball program announced themselves to the nation on Tuesday at 2026 ACC Tipoff, the annual conference event that officially kicks off the upcoming college basketball season.
More specifically first-year head coach Luke Murray, along with guards Money Williams and Jacob Furphy, who flew down to Charlotte, N.C., to speak to the media about the “new era” of BC basketball following an unsuccessful five-year stint under former head coach Earl Grant.
Changing perception of the program, which has the longest NCAA Tournament drought of any Power 4 team in the country, is what Murray and Co. have been driven by ever since they arrived in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
“The narrative shift is something that’s sort of been the primary focus for myself and for our staff and for our players since we all got together in late Mary,” Murray said at the podium. “Again, we’re just trying to do our part every single day — the way that we show up, the way that we compete and practice our preparation.”
“Ultimately, it’s going to be about showing proof of concept to our fans and to our alumni base and the supporters of our program. That when they watch us play, it more exemplifies what they’re looking for as a fan, and that we earn the respect of our opponents and the teams that we match up with. And when you see a Boston College team, that it really stands for something.”
According to Murray, rewiring the image of a program that has consistently produced mediocrity over the past decade or so starts with embracing the challenge, because monumental transformation doesn’t happen overnight.
With 13 new players to the program, 11 of which are transfers, the most difficult part of that challenge is quite obvious.
“I think for us, it’s really about trying to build the connectivity of the group,” Murray said. “When you have all these disparate backgrounds, guys that have played for different coaches and in different programs, coming from all over the world and all over the country, [you’re] just trying to get them together as much as you can.”
“And so we’ve spent a lot of time [together] this summer and fall. These guys eat every meal together every single day. They spend a ton of time off the court to really try to build that connection.”
One thing that majorly helps in regards to establishing deep bonds between players who haven’t even known each other for much more than six months is the play style that Murray has designed for the Eagles.
A heralded offensive genius from his time as an assistant at UConn under one of the best coaches in the sport, Dan Hurley, Murray takes connectivity to an extreme on the hardwood, something he expects the BC fanbase to buy into once play starts in less than a month.
“The way that we play sort of requires that you have an unselfishness about you,” Murray said. “And so we’re doing our best to try to build that off the court as well, so we can try to bring these guys together that have had such different backgrounds and are getting used to one another on the basketball floor for the first time.”
Murray also knows that BC’s connection with its fans is everything, and he wants that to be something that evolves during his tenure as well.
In fact, he has already taken measures to ensure there is contact between himself, the program in its entirety, and the fanbase by holding an open scrimmage to the students this past weekend, which he discussed during his one-on-one portion of Tuesday’s league event.
Building a community 🦅
— BC Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) October 3, 2026
Huge shoutout to the students who showed out for our open scrimmage! 🤝 pic.twitter.com/A1ipXxUOF5
“It was great. I mean, there were probably 125 or so that signed up that didn’t show up for the Saturday morning [scrimmage at] 8:30,” Murray said. “It sounded better [to them] on Thursday and Friday, and maybe they had longer nights on Friday and they weren’t able to respond for the 8:30 Saturday start.”
“I’m calling those guys out,” he joked.
Apart from just hosting the students to watch, the program handed out customized quarter-zips to every person in attendance, and that exact same quarter-zip was being sported by Murray in front of the cameras on Tuesday.
“I’m wearing this in their honor,” Murray said. “This is what we passed out to all the kids that showed up, and so it was great to see them. I think trying to build that support on campus, with that student body — they’re such big Boston College fans, and I think for us, it’s a new opportunity to sort of start fresh and get them excited about what we’re doing.”
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Graham Dietz is a 2025 graduate of Boston College and subsequently joined Boston College On SI. He previously served as an editor for The Heights, the independent student newspaper, from fall 2021, including as Sports Editor from 2022-23. Graham works for The Boston Globe as a sports correspondent, covering high school football, girls' basketball, and baseball. He was also a beat writer for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer of 2023.
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