Mike Boynton Jr. is rounding out his coaching staff with Osceola Magic head coach Dylan Murphy, his second outside-the-box hire since he was named Dusty May’s replacement earlier this month.
Murphy joins former Brown head coach Mike Martin, Akeem Miskdeen, Kyle Church and KT Harrell as Michigan’s five-man assistant coaching staff.
Here are five thoughts on his background, coaching style and his fit at Michigan.
1. Unique background makes for an intriguing fit
Dylan Murphy has one of the more interesting coaching backgrounds you’ll find. He didn’t play in college, he’s not a former manager or the son of a coach, he’s just a guy who went to Columbia and loved basketball.
“A lot of luck,” Murphy said of his coaching career. “I never thought coaching basketball was something that people like me could do. Parents were teachers, everything was get your education, all of that. But I always loved hoop and like played in high school and whatever, but wasn’t really good enough to play real college ball. But also the way I grew up, that wasn’t a thing you did. You went to college, you got your degree, maybe you got a master’s degree, whatever, and then you work some corporate job for 40 years, and that was that.”
Murphy has had seemingly every job — blogger, G-League scout, analytics associate, NBA assistant, G-League head coach — and has worked his way up through the NBA.
He was 23 years old when he first worked for a basketball team, hired by a former Grantland writer for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Between stops, he’s published his own Basketball Dictionary, contributed to Cleaning the Glass for Ben Falk, and even coached in The Basketball Tournament (TBT).
When it came time to interview for the head coaching role of the Osceola Magic, his unique path prepared him well:
“Dylan came into the interview overly prepared,” Osceola general manager Kevin Tiller told the Sentinel. “Knocked it out of the park. Every question we asked, he had a perfect answer.
“Not that we’re looking for a ‘perfect’ response but just the way he articulated everything, it showed us how much he’s been preparing for this. Longer than just, ‘Hey, you’re going to interview for this next Tuesday.’ This has been years in the making.”
Murphy comes to Michigan with three years of experience as a G-League head coach under his belt and should bring a wealth of schematic knowledge, professional experience and fresh perspectives to the table in Ann Arbor.
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