By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks have hired Jack Murphy as their new head coach. He comes to Arizona after serving as an assistant coach with the Memphis Tigers.
Murphy was an assistant coach for Josh Pastner for three seasons.
“A lot of people thought that despite the record last year, there are winners on this team and we can really move this basketball program forward,” Lisa Campos, hired as Northern Arizona’s athletic director on March 30, said Thursday to ESPN. “We felt that Jack was the right person to do that.”
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Murphy is taking over a program that ended its season on a 16-game losing streak. The team finished with a 5-24 record. They were just 1-15 within the Big Sky Conference.
Mike Adras began the season as their head coach. However, he abruptly resigned on December 9th.
Then, the school decided to hire Dave Brown, who previously served as the Lumberjacks women’s basketball head coach, as its interim head coach.
Campos reportedly interviewed seven candidates for the job. However, she decided to go with Murphy, who has not served as a head coach before.
Before working at Memphis, he also spent three seasons with the Denver Nuggets from 2006 through 2009 as an advanced scout. He also spent some time in 2006 as the Arizona Wildcats Director of Operations.
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“It’s not going to be without challenges,” Murphy said. “There will be times we will have to dig deep and think positively in certain situations, but I feel I’m prepared to lead the program athletically, academically, as well as socially to help us bring a new day — not a better day, but a new day — in NAU men’s basketball.”
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