GLENDALE, Ariz. — We’ve all been there earlier than: furiously scrolling by means of an iPhone photograph library, desperately trying to find that one elusive image.
Now it’s Preston Murphy’s flip, the Alabama assistant coach swiping and swiping contained in the Crimson Tide’s locker room at State Farm Stadium. He’s smiling — it needs to be there someplace — and donning a crimson “West Area Champs” shirt. Lastly, he stops. Discovered it. Murphy rotates his telephone, flashing the display to a ready reporter:
It’s a customized edit he made, of two photographs 11 years aside. On prime? There’s Murphy in 2013 — when he was nonetheless an assistant coach at his alma mater, Rhode Island — enjoying with Oats’ daughter, Jocie, within the stands of a highschool health club; that was the day Oats led Romulus (Mich,) Senior Excessive to a state championship victory. The opposite photograph?
Murphy and Jocie once more … on the courtroom of Crypto.com Area final weekend, after Alabama beat Clemson to make the primary Remaining 4 in class historical past.
![](https://theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/04/murph.jpeg)
(Picture courtesy of Preston Murphy)
“For it to truly come to fruition,” Murphy says, “it’s simply an unbelievable feeling.”
For all of the star-crossed connections on this Remaining 4, all of the (literal) massive names and storylines, maybe no coach has been by means of extra to get up to now than Murphy.
As a participant, he and Cuttino Mobley had the Rams on the point of the Remaining 4 in 1998. He then coached underneath Dan Hurley — whose Connecticut workforce Alabama faces Saturday — at Rhode Island, and helped get Oats his first Division I faculty gig at Buffalo. Later, at Creighton, Murphy helped Greg McDermott construct a Huge East title workforce … solely to get caught up within the FBI’s investigation into faculty basketball. Murphy was by no means charged, however for assembly with agent Christian Dawkins — one in all Murphy’s longtime buddies from rising up in Saginaw, Mich. — the NCAA hit him with a two-year show-cause penalty.
“I’m unsure anybody in that complete course of,” McDermott says, “acquired handled extra unfairly than he did.”
Provides Oats: “Everyone deserves a second probability, nevertheless it’s not even like he deserved it. He wanted it to get made proper, in my view.”
Which is why final summer season, when all three of Alabama’s assistant coaches left for brand spanking new jobs, Murphy — who coached grassroots ball the final two years — was one of many first names who got here to Oats’ thoughts. “You’d like to rent your employees immediately within the spring; his present trigger didn’t expire till the center of the summer season,” Oats says. “However he was nicely definitely worth the wait.” Now, Murphy is lastly the place he’s at all times needed to be: standing in a university basketball locker room in April, 80 minutes from a championship.
“It’s very gratifying,” he says. “For me, life’s a curler coaster. I attempt to keep even-keeled by means of the ups and the downs, persevere, and then you definately come again a bit higher, a bit stronger.”
With 59.3 seconds left within the 1998 Elite Eight, Murphy’s Rhode Island workforce led Stanford by six.
Then the whole lot unraveled. Stanford scored 12 factors within the closing minute to finish an unbelievable comeback and deny the Rams — and Murphy — this system’s first berth within the Remaining 4. Murphy figured he’d get again the subsequent season; as an alternative, Rhode Island misplaced within the first spherical.
“And that was it,” Murphy says. “It got here to a crashing finish. So I noticed I’d by no means make it there as a participant.”
After a short skilled profession in Holland and Belgium, Murphy pivoted to teaching, nonetheless single-mindedly set on making it to varsity basketball’s crowning weekend. Three seasons teaching highschool in northern Rhode Island was sufficient for Murphy to get his foot within the door at Boston School as a director of operations. By 2010, he was again at Rhode Island, attempting to revive the Rams to the heights he knew as a participant.
One participant he focused as a part of that course of? E.C. Matthews … who performed for Oats at Romulus.
“However even earlier than that, I used to be recruiting his gamers,” Murphy says. “I didn’t get a number of the different ones, however I used to be at all times in there. We developed an amazing relationship.”
At some point, Oats rented a minivan and drove Matthews (and one other participant, Wes Clarke) from Michigan to the Northeast. They took unofficial visits to UConn and Rhode Island, and Matthews was so satisfied by Murphy’s recruiting efforts that he dedicated to the Rams. Murphy additionally made a lifelong good friend in Oats. They’d hang around at Remaining 4 occasions collectively, each hoping to someday coach on that stage. “He stated he’d at all times needed to get into faculty, and if there’s a means you may assist me sooner or later,” Murphy says. “I stated, after all.” When Bobby Hurley acquired the Buffalo job in 2013 after one season as Dan’s assistant at Rhode Island, Murphy informed him: Rent Nate; you received’t remorse it.
“I had an element in it,” Murphy says. “It was like a no brainer.”
In 2014, McDermott reached out to Oats. He was seeking to rent an assistant and trusted Oats from his days recruiting at Romulus. McDermott requested him: Who’s one of the best recruiter that got here by means of your health club?
“I stated Preston Murphy,” Oats recollects.
It took one other yr, however the Creighton coach ultimately employed Murphy on his employees. “I used to be actually impressed together with his enthusiasm and his ardour and knew that with a bit expertise, he was going to be terrific,” McDermott says, “and clearly once I employed him, he didn’t disappoint.”
Murphy immediately turned one in all McDermott’s greatest assistants, each from an Xs and Os perspective but in addition as a recruiter. He was pivotal within the Bluejays touchdown Ty-Shon Alexander and Marcus Zegarowski — a pair of eventual All-Huge East guards — and, in McDermott’s phrases, “had his fingerprints throughout our Huge East championship workforce” in 2020. In Murphy’s 4 seasons in Omaha, Creighton received 82 video games and made two NCAA Tournaments.
However in March 2019 — a yr and a half after the FBI first introduced 10 arrests as a part of its investigation into faculty basketball — a federal indictment accused Murphy of accepting $6,000 from an undercover FBI agent throughout a gathering between Murphy and Dawkins. A day later, Creighton positioned Murphy on administrative go away; he in the end resigned the next November. In line with Murphy’s lawyer, Murphy handed a polygraph check that stated he didn’t hold the cash, take motion with it, or keep any relationship with Dawkins after that assembly. “The previous ‘harmless till confirmed responsible’ didn’t actually apply in these situations,” McDermott says, “and at Creighton, we did the whole lot we might to maintain him employed and assist him throughout that course of.”
In June 2021, the NCAA hit Murphy with a two-year present trigger. McDermott reckons Murphy known as him or Creighton director of operations Jeff Vanderloo virtually each day throughout that point — and he nonetheless does now. Throughout the time away from faculty hoops, Murphy coached on the grassroots degree and attended a number of NBA and faculty practices, attempting to remain linked with the sport whereas concurrently sharpening his craft. He frolicked with the Pacers and Celtics, in addition to UConn, Rhode Island, and Boston School.
“I simply needed to remain across the sport, “Murphy says. “It was one thing that I needed to benefit from the time not teaching, and get higher at my craft … Keep in tune with the newest tendencies.”
He additionally maintained his longstanding relationship with Oats, who by then had taken the Alabama job. “He acquired screwed by means of that complete factor, however each time I known as him, he had probably the most constructive outlook on life,” Oats says. “He’s only a man you need round your program.” ”
Oats needed to wait till June for Murphy’s present trigger to run out, however he was prepared to take action.
“He’s probably the greatest recruiters, greatest individuals on this enterprise,” Oats says. “I had a gap, I wanted an amazing recruiter — so it was an amazing mesh.”
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/FDx37Dt75v
— Preston Murphy (@coach_pmurph) March 31, 2024
Murphy’s first activity at Alabama?
Taking up because the lead recruiter for five-star 2024 ahead Jarin Stevenson, and convincing him to reclassify to 2023. “Preston got here proper in and began recruiting me,” Stevenson says. “He was the principle one.”
Murphy and Stevenson knew one another from their respective time in grassroots ball — though their groups by no means confronted off final spring — and Murphy shortly bought Stevenson on all that Alabama needed to supply. A contemporary, spacing-centric offense. A direct position, given the workforce’s roster turnover. And a transparent mannequin to observe, in former stretch-forward Noah Clowney — the twenty first choose in final summer season’s NBA Draft — if Stevenson hoped to someday make the league.
Murphy was one of many individuals Stevenson leaned on when he first acquired to campus; they’d play putt-putt or darts or NBA2K collectively, constructing on the short relationship they’d established in the summertime. And it didn’t matter if Stevenson needed to work out at 11 p.m. or 6 a.m.; Murphy would at all times be there.
“I’m an enormous improvement man, with the ability to be within the health club with you, persevering with that can assist you develop your sport,” Murphy says. “(Jarin’s) a child that wishes to be superb.”
And within the Elite Eight vs. Clemson? The fruits of each their labor. The 6-foot-11 Stevenson scored a team-high (and career-best) 19 factors, together with 5 made 3-pointers, to down the Tigers.
“He gave me confidence to return in right here,” Stevenson stated in Alabama’s postgame locker room, “and he knew that I’d develop.”
With out Murphy, possibly Stevenson isn’t right here. And with out Stevenson, possibly Alabama isn’t.
And but …
“I beloved him, he wanted again in, I wanted an unbelievable assistant, and all of it got here collectively on the identical time,” Oats says, “and right here we’re within the Remaining 4.”
(High photograph of Preston Murphy addressing the Crimson Tide throughout their Elite Eight win over Clemson: C. Morgan Engel / Getty Pictures)