Eagles building their identity around new coach Luke Murray’s complex offense, and other BC men’s basketball story lines

When Slovenian sharpshooter Žak Smrekar met Boston College men’s basketball coach Luke Murray during the recruiting process, Smrekar quickly gravitated toward Murray’s creativity and the detail-oriented manner in which he approaches the game.

Smrekar, a 6-foot-6-inch guard/forward who appears poised for a key role as a freshman, described Murray’s foundation as the “most European” style of play college basketball has to offer. That includes backdoor cuts, off-ball movement, and unpredictability offensively to keep defenses scrambling.

“The main reason I came here is because I understand his philosophy of basketball,” Smrekar said. “The way he described things, that really stood out to me if I compared it to other coaches from other schools.”

Smrekar steered Slovenia to a third-place finish in the 2025 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup, earning first-team honors alongside four future first-round picks, including AJ Dybantsa. Smrekar is no stranger to what a dynamic offense looks like and has a chance to emerge as a cornerstone in Murray’s first season and beyond.

BC finished last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in points per game (67.4), field goal percentage (40.8), and 3-point percentage (29.4) a season ago. The Eagles, who have nearly an entirely new roster, are building their identity around Murray’s complex and layered offense.

“When I got here, he actually taught me so much basketball,” said forward Brandon Benjamin. “It got to the point where it was like, ‘I didn’t know I could learn this much from basketball.’ He was like a mind reader.”

The Eagles host Wagner on Tuesday at 7 p.m., then face UMass at TD Garden on Friday at 4 p.m. Here are three story lines to follow as a new era in Chestnut Hill begins.

⋅ Money player. While there is no true focal point of the offense, much of the action will likely run through 6-4 guard Money Williams, a Montana transfer who led the Big Sky Conference in scoring last season at 20.6 points per game.

Williams said he arrived at BC at 228 pounds and is now down to 204, with the goal of hitting 200. He used to be a “big snacker” but has stopped eating late with the goal of improving his shiftiness and versatility.

He knows it is a major jump to the ACC but is eager to prove he belongs and that his skill set will translate.

“I have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Williams said. “Being in the ACC is a challenge. I want to be held accountable.”

⋅ Front and center. Murray and his staff prioritized building a well-rounded roster, but he acknowledged a lack of “real size” is a potential “weak spot.”

He loves what Luke Hunger (6-10), Benjamin (6-8), and Aly Tounkara (7 feet) bring to the team, yet he knows the lack of depth in that group is something they must overcome.

“It will be an adjustment,” Murray said. “We’ll have to try to counter it. We’ll have to try to play to our advantages.”

Hunger, a former player of the year at Northfield Mount Hermon, is a graduate student with NCAA Tournament experience at Northwestern —coincidentally against Murray when he was at UConn.

Benjamin, a Fairfield transfer with a high motor, was the eighth-leading rebounder in the country (10.4) last season.

“It’s my central nervous system,” Benjamin said. “Any time I see the ball go up, or anything comes in my direction, my hand-eye coordination gets ecstatic. I’ve got to go grab it.”

⋅ March begins. When Murray took the BC job, some people told him that people from Boston are strictly into professional sports. Murray countered that Boston will support a winner at any level.

“We’re hoping to be that for them, to be a program that they can get behind,” he said.

Murray and his players are adamant that earning the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2009 is a realistic goal.

“It’s not something we talk about a whole lot,” Murray said, “but that’s certainly our North Star.”

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The Eagles will be without UConn transfer Jacob Furphy for at least a few weeks after he sprained his MCL during the exhibition win over MIT on Sunday.