STORRS, Conn. — Even for a state like Connecticut, where college basketball is a year-round passion, there was nothing particularly special about the morning of June 28, another nondescript Saturday amid a searing summer in this part of the country, with far too many weekends remaining before UConn returns to the court.

But things began to change shortly after 11 a.m. local time in response to what was happening across the ocean and several time zones away, as Australia battled the United States in the group phase at this year’s FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup, an event held in Lausanne, Switzerland. There in Vaudoise Arena, the American roster included bonafide stars like BYU signee AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting cycle; Louisville signee Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 8 overall prospect; and Arizona signee Koa Peat, the No. 9 overall prospect. All of them future first-round talents. 

And yet the player who outscored them all — the one whose highlights quickly began circulating the internet to enliven Huskies fans several thousand miles away — was a far less recognizable combo guard for the Australians named Jacob Furphy, a product of the NBA Global Academy. Though his team wound up losing by double digits, Furphy poured in a game-high 24 points on 9-for-18 shooting to set social media ablaze, at least within the college basketball sphere. His mixture of spot-up shooting, crafty pick-and-roll maneuvers and a unique ability to finish around the rim had UConn supporters salivating at a time when the program’s recruiting class also included five-star shooting guard Braylon Mullins (No. 15 overall) and blue-chip center Eric Reibe (No. 28 overall), who shined for runner-up Germany in the same event. 

“You’re looking out there on the floor and there’s lottery picks up and down the lineup for the Americans and [Furphy] is playing great. He’s hanging with all those guys,” UConn assistant coach Luke Murray told me last week. “It was just fun to see him play against the best guys. We already had an incredibly high expectation for him, and so we were excited to get to work.”

With two future Huskies competing in Switzerland, where the United States eventually prevailed, Murray and head coach Dan Hurley hopped across the pond in support of their signees. They watched giddily as the tournament developed into an international emergence for Furphy, who averaged 16.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists in seven games, and yet another confirmation for the long-admired big man Reibe, who put up 15.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game while playing a central role for the Germans. Reibe and Furphy even played against each other in the quarterfinals — “I liked talking a bit of s— to him,” Furphy told me — as online chatter about the legitimacy of UConn’s forthcoming push for a third national title in four seasons intensified.  

The identification and procurement of a player like Furphy, who committed to the Huskies last October, is in keeping with the philosophical revolution Hurley underwent following his team’s dispiriting loss to 12th-seeded New Mexico State in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Slowly but surely, and with more than a few nudges from Murray, who is regarded as one of the keenest offensive minds in college basketball, Hurley availed himself to the possibility that junkyard defense and unflinching toughness weren’t the only traits needed to win at the highest levels. He followed Murray down the rabbit hole of complex offensive actions, high-powered analytics and the pursuit of players with more holistic understandings of the game, the kind who can make complex reads in real time by enacting a set of well-drilled principles. 

“My mental health is much better embracing offense,” Hurley told me back in 2024, two months before winning his second consecutive national title with a team that finished No. 1 in the country for offensive efficiency.

Many of the specific player attributes and schematic ideas that UConn came to embrace are staples of the international game, where freedom of movement and off-ball screening begets beautiful team basketball over some of the one-on-one, isolation-heavy trends in the NBA. That meant it was only a matter of time before the Huskies, who are entering Year 8 under Hurley, began eyeing recruits familiar with those types of systems when identifying potential targets.

Reibe, who chose UConn over Kansas, Creighton, Indiana and Oregon, was born in Germany and spent a chunk of his childhood in Switzerland before eventually completing his high school career at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. He possesses exceptional ball skills for a 7-footer and can operate comfortably from either the low post, where his soft touch should be an asset for the Huskies, or the perimeter, where his jumper extends beyond the 3-point line and his sharp passing can feed cutters. With several years of national team experience under his belt, Reibe, who flitted back and forth between a four- and five-star ranking, now comes to Storrs as the primary backup for starting center Tarris Reed Jr., the former Michigan transfer. 

“Coach Murray watches a lot of EuroLeague and tries to implement some stuff from there and then combine it with the stuff from [the United States],” Reibe said. “They kind of mix it together, and I see a lot of similarities.”

Furphy, meanwhile, was born in Tasmania, an island off the southeast coast of Australia, and traveled back and forth to the mainland several times each year as his basketball career progressed. He eventually relocated to the capital city of Canberra, which is smack in the middle of Melbourne and Sydney, to join Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence and the NBA Global Academy, a program that has produced players like Andrew Bogut, Joe Ingles, Patty Mills and Josh Giddey. 

As with Reibe, the versatile Furphy has been part of his country’s international pipeline for several years and even made his debut with Australia’s senior team in the 2025 Asia Cup qualifiers. He, too, recognized the offensive overlap between the kind of basketball he’s been taught and the core tenets Murray described to him during recruiting conversations.  

“That was one thing I talked to my agent about as soon as I found out that UConn was interested,” Furphy said. “It’s a style that I like playing and I’ve played pretty much growing up my whole life. That was one of the main attractions for sure.”

This summer, Australia’s U19 national team ran much of their offense through Furphy at the FIBA tournament by asking him to come off screens or come through actions and then make the right decisions with the ball in his hands, even if he wasn’t technically the team’s point guard. Murray was impressed with Furphy’s comfort level in a high-usage role and lauded his understanding of how to change speeds as a cutter. Hurley came away from the trip to Switzerland pleased with how Furphy carried himself on the court: He was the first player in and out of every huddle; he was constantly communicating with teammates and coaches; he ran everywhere he went — always a point of emphasis with Hurley. 

Now, Furphy will be part of a deep guard rotation that includes returner Solo Ball and newcomers Silas Demary Jr. (Georgia transfer), Malachi Smith (Dayton) and Mullins. He projects as a shooting guard or undersized small forward who is capable of sliding over to point guard when necessary. And while his playing time as a true freshman will likely be less than what Furphy was used to with Australia, he’s skilled enough to contribute immediately in a reserve role. 

“We just love his versatility,” Murray told me. “He’s a screener, he’s a cutter, he’s an initiator of offense, he’s a really good pick-and-roll player. Historically, we haven’t been a team that plays a ton out of pick and roll, but he’s going to be a guy that we’re going to give more freedom to play that way. 

“He’s going to have to continue to get better defensively and get more accustomed to dealing with size and athleticism when he’s making his reads as a passer — just getting more accustomed to how that length presents itself on the court, presents itself at the rim when he goes to be a scorer — but yeah, we’re super excited about him.”

That Furphy spent his entire childhood on the other side of the world means the Huskies didn’t become aware of him until receiving a tip from a journalist who specializes in covering the NBA Draft. The recommendation sent Murray down another rabbit hole of studying Furphy on tape from his time with both the national team and the NBA Global Academy. 

Murray liked him enough to ask fellow assistant Tom Moore to visit Atlanta when one of Furphy’s teams was competing in the United States last summer. Moore loved what he saw, just as Murray hoped he would, and the Huskies’ recruitment of Furphy accelerated once the staff returned to campus and Hurley caught up on the latest film. They convinced Furphy to sign with UConn over Illinois, another program mining international talent at a high level, and have been thrilled with the decision ever since — even if he was ranked outside the top 130 players in the country in the final 247Sports rankings. 

But fast-forward to this summer and the FIBA tournament became Furphy’s formal introduction to the American basketball world. It marked the first time that Hurley watched his incoming freshman play in person, and what a string of performances he and Murray saw. 

“He doesn’t necessarily have the best body, he doesn’t have unbelievable length or tremendous athleticism or great speed,” Murray said of Furphy. “But that’s part of the reason people didn’t think [former UConn star] Cam Spencer was that good in high school, you know, or didn’t think he was that good at Loyola [before entering the transfer portal]. 

“So again, I think a lot of it is about fitting stylistically. He may not be a perfect fit for everybody, but he’s a perfect fit for us.”

Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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