Mentioned this a few weeks ago – it’s now official…

Head coach Dan Hurley announced the addition of Luke Murray as an assistant coach with the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball program.

Murray joins the Rhody staff – and reunites with Hurley – after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Towson under former URI assistant Pat Skerry. This past season, he helped orchestrate of one of college basketball’s greatest turnarounds. The Tigers set a new NCAA record for the greatest one-season improvement, going from a one-win campaign in 2011-12 to an 18-13 mark and a second-place finish in the CAA in 2012-13.

While at Towson, Murray was an integral part in bringing in the top-rated recruiting class in the CAA for 2012-13 – including 2013 CAA Player of the Year Jerrelle Benimon. CBSSports.com ranked the class No. 6 in the country among non-BCS schools. Murray was also selected as one of the top mid-major assistant coaches in the country by CBSSports.com, due to his strong recruiting talents.

Prior to joining the staff at Towson, he spent the 2010-11 season with Hurley at Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y., helping to pave the way for the Seahawks’ turnaround on the hardwood.

A 2007 graduate of Fairfield with a degree in sociology, Murray began his coaching career in the AAU ranks during his freshman year. Additionally. during the 2004-05 season, he returned to his H.S. alma mater – St. Luke’s H.S. in New Canaan, Conn. – as an assistant coach.

The extensive contacts and coaching experience he earned as an undergrad led him to becoming the director of basketball operations at Quinnipiac in 2007-08, before moving on to Post University in Waterbury, Conn. as an assistant coach, helping the Eagles to a 17-10 record.

In 2009-10, Murray served as a graduate assistant at the University of Arizona staff, while working on his master’s degree in educational psychology.

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