‘He’s hungrier than ever’: How Dan Hurley is leading UConn
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Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff WriterNov 4, 2024, 08:30 AM ET
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- Basketball recruiting insider.
- Joined ESPN in 2014.
- Graduate of University of Delaware.
STORRS, Conn. — Midway through an early October practice, UConn coach Dan Hurley’s watch buzzed.
“Do you want to call for an emergency?”
It’s hard to blame Apple for its read of the situation: that one emotional reaction to a mistake on the court might be something necessitating a 911 call. Hurley’s ability to switch himself into practice mode is jarring for the uninitiated.
A couple of days later, while players lift weights, Hurley calmly launches half-court shots in every direction, wearing AirPods while rock music blares through the gym’s speakers. He seems unbothered by any internal expectations or external pressure.
Within minutes, though, practice begins and the Werth Family Basketball Champions Center is filled with the familiar sights and sounds of UConn men’s basketball.
“That’s not a f—ing closeout!”
“That’s embarrassing. Low-level s—.”
A desperate, disheartened “come onnn,” as Hurley drops to the floor dramatically when a drill isn’t going right.
“He’s way more intense this year,” veteran forward Alex Karaban said. “He’s leveled up. He’s hungrier than ever.”
“He’s probably the funniest person I’ve ever met,” freshman Liam McNeeley said of Hurley. “On the court, it’s just like a mode flips. And he’s just kill, kill, kill everybody, even in practice.”
If one was looking for a sign of Hurley mellowing this season after winning back-to-back national championships, they won’t find it. He’s as passionate as ever, driven to do something that hasn’t been done in more than 50 years: Win three straight national titles.
And he’s doing it with the same no-BS, us-against-them mentality that has helped the Huskies hoist trophies each of the past two seasons.
“We would be a lot bigger right now if I was allowing my players to act like jackassess on TikTok or to run around and act like celebrities,” Hurley said.
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Dan Hurley eyeing a dynasty at UConn
Dan Hurley tells Pat McAfee he already is thinking of next season and wants a UConn dynasty.
ON THE FLIGHT home from Phoenix, Hurley watched the previous night’s “One Shining Moment” montage — a final reminder of the national championship — then almost immediately began examining his next roster and the available players in the transfer portal.
He also started envisioning what could potentially happen one year later — and it didn’t take long before his mind went to John Wooden and the UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s, when the Bruins won 10 titles in a 12-year span, including seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.
“It dawns on you like, this is the greatest college coach of all time. Maybe the most well-known coach in basketball of all time,” Hurley said. “You have a chance to potentially match him. It’s f—ing crazy.”
While some coaches might shy away from talk of expectations — particularly a three-peat and making college basketball history — Hurley is leaning into it. He bought a newly released book about Wooden this offseason, “Kingdom on Fire: Karrem, Wooden, Walton and the Turbulent Days of the UCLA Basketball Dynasty” which he held off from reading until the week before this season began. Everyone on this year’s Huskies wears a bracelet with the word DYNASTY on it. Before the first practice of the offseason, Hurley played the team a hype video that included highlights of the Chicago Bulls’ three-peat.
“That’s really all he’s been talking about the entire summer,” Karaban said. “We got to get to the level that is expected of us, to put another one up there.”
“He wants us to know what’s on the line for this upcoming season,” senior guard Hassan Diarra added. “We want to make history and it starts with him and his energy and his intensity each and every day. He wants to make sure everybody’s aware of it.”
McNeeley is the team’s prized newcomer, a former Indiana commit who reopened his recruitment in March and signed with the Huskies about seven weeks later. The class of 2025 top-10 recruit is coming off a year at Montverde Academy (Florida), where he played alongside the likes of Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Maryland’s Derik Queen, and the team went 33-0 and won the Chipotle Nationals.
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He knows what sacrificing to win a title looks like, and that was among his primary reasons for picking UConn.
“We-UConn has won back-to-back national championships and if it’s anything short of a national championship, it’s a failure,” McNeeley said. “That’s just the culture I want to be around. … The theme he implemented was dynasty. He’s talked about that a couple of times and he had the definition for us up on the board. That’s just the culture. Championship or nothing.”
Asked why he changed his quote from “We” to “UConn,” McNeeley explained the past two years weren’t his titles. “I really haven’t done anything,” he said. “My slate is clean. I can’t take credit for those two national championships, but I do want to take credit for one.”
It’s a very Hurley-esque mindset, one that allows his players to keep chips on their shoulders despite the historic success of the past two seasons.
That obsession with winning, with sustained success, with dynasty and a place in history, it’s not necessarily new for Hurley. As the son of one of the most successful high school coaches of all time and the brother of a two-time national champion, he had seen it up close. And now it’s his — and he wants more of it.
Hurley, an avid reader of coaching books in the offseason and mentality books during the season, has become highly interested in European soccer managers. Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti. And it’s a recent book on Guardiola, the current Manchester City boss and one of the greatest managers in the history of the sport, that really made an impact on Hurley’s outlook entering the season.
“The way he was described in the book, it f—ing landed on me. A pathological pursuit of excellence,” Hurley said. “He’s addicted to winning, winning and then continuing to win and then winning more. A serial winner. A serial winner. An obsession with every detail being right, relentless competitiveness.”
He wants that mindset to reach every player on the roster, and he’s constantly finding the right buttons to push in order to do so. Toward the end of an early October practice, UConn’s players pair off to shoot free throws. They’re supposed to be shooting 1-and-1 to mimic a more game-like setting. One of the groups, however, was shooting two free throws at a time, not 1-and-1.
Whose fault is it? In Hurley’s eyes, it’s not the players shooting the free throws, but the team’s leader: Karaban. Hurley goes over to Karaban and tells him that two of the players aren’t doing the proper drill. All offseason, he’s been pushing the redshirt junior to become more vocal and take ownership of the team after the NBA departures of his four fellow starters from last season.
“It drives us, how bad the coaching staff wants it. They push us out of our comfort zone so much; he’s never satisfied with what I’m doing. He’s always pushing my boundaries,” Karaban said. “He does that with every single player. No matter what role you have, no matter who you are, he’s finding that reason to push you and finding what’s making you uncomfortable.”
Jaylin Stewart, Solo Ball, Jayden Ross were role players for UConn last season. This year, they should see heavier minutes in key roles for the Huskies. Tyler Schank/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
IN THE DAYS following UConn’s second national championship, Hurley and his staff faced a big decision with the Huskies’ roster. Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle, Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton were all off to the NBA, leaving Karaban as the lone returning starter. (McNeeley wasn’t in the fold yet.)
UConn could opt to go ultra-aggressive in the portal, looking to land three or four ready-made starters to go alongside Karaban or it could choose to lean more heavily on a talented class of rising sophomores that showed flashes last season but hadn’t played much the second half of the season.
The offseason plan was at a crossroads.
“There was a lot of consternation,” Hurley said.
They ended up leaning toward the latter. Diarra, who was last year’s Big East Sixth Man of the Year, could move into the starting point guard spot. Samson Johnson, who played behind Clingan, is now taking his place in the lineup. Sophomores Solo Ball, Jayden Ross and Jaylin Stewart are going from seldom-used players down the stretch to key roles. If UConn wins a third straight title, this group will be the reason.
“A lot of us want to prove to ourselves that, you know, we can do it too,” Diarra said.
Liam McNeeley, left, played at Montverde alongside Maryland’s Derik Queen and Duke’s Cooper Flagg, and is ready to continue winning at UConn. Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire
McNeeley was the big recruiting prize for UConn, which didn’t really recruit him when he initially committed to Indiana but showed heavy interest as soon as he reopened his commitment. At Montverde Academy, McNeeley played for Kevin Boyle, an intense, hard-nosed New Jersey native with a track record of winning. Going to Storrs and playing for another one was an easy decision.
“They just started recruiting me really hard after I decommitted,” he said. “And then when I took, like, a really close look at it, it just made perfect sense to come here. It was like two worlds meeting perfectly.”
McNeeley committed on a Friday afternoon in late April. That same week, UConn was set to host multiple transfer targets — including Saint Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney and Dayton transfer Koby Brea. Could the Huskies take both and completely transform their potential starting lineup with college-proven players? Mahaney committed to UConn a couple of days later; Brea ended up at Kentucky.
Over the past few years, Hurley has made a point of focusing on UConn’s elite developmental program. The Huskies have had six players selected in the past two NBA drafts; of that group, only Castle was a five-star recruit and a projected draft pick upon arriving on campus.
So this season, they’re essentially doubling down on what they’ve been telling recruits and parents and the world: This is the best school in the country to grow as a basketball player. Come here and you’ll get better.
While McNeeley and Mahaney will have a say in the Huskies’ success, their ceiling could ultimately be determined by the growth of Ball, Stewart and Ross, and whether Diarra and Johnson can take the step from impact player off the bench to every-game starter.
“We’re gambling on improvement in a time where a lot of schools and programs are just going for ready-made,” Hurley said. “In a year where we have so much on the line, to put yourself up there with UCLA and John Wooden, what this moment means for us as a program and all of our careers, it’s a big gamble.
“But in the end, we did what UConn would do. We did what our culture dictated us to do. This is how we do things. We’re not transactional. We’re transformational. And we’re gambling heavy on it and we know it.”
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Going for 3: Inside Dan Hurley’s decision to stay at UConn
Revisit everything that led Dan Hurley to stay at UConn over joining the Lakers.
IF THE 72-HOUR stretch that featured commitments from McNeeley and Mahaney was the first season-shaping week of the Huskies’ spring, Karaban’s decision to withdraw from the NBA draft in late May began the second.
“Let’s run it back,” he said in a post on X.
And with that, the quest for a three-peat was officially on.
“To have my name within that legacy of possibly winning three, it’s hard to imagine,” Karaban said. “I could really be up there as one of the winningest college players of all time.”
“I feel the pressure of being the next great UConn player,” he continued. “It’s something I think about every day. It’s something that’s pushing me every day. I’ve seen guys like Adama [Sanogo] step up and take us to the natty. I’ve seen guys like Andre [Jackson] develop, Jordan [Hawkins], all these guys developed. I just know it’s my turn and I have to step up.”
Then, eight days after Karaban’s announcement, stunning news broke in the basketball world: The Los Angeles Lakers were targeting Hurley to be their next head coach.
Hurley had ignored Kentucky’s overtures to replace John Calipari just after the title win; it was hard to imagine him leaving the two-time reigning champs for another college job. But the Lakers were different. This was a chance to go to one of the most famous franchises in all of sports. A chance to coach LeBron James.
Dan Hurley expects Alex Karaban to step up and be the Huskies’ leader this season. AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Hurley flew out to Los Angeles to meet with Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka, then flew back on that Saturday night. He went to a Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden while he mulled the decision.
On Sunday night, Karaban’s phone rang. It was Hurley, seeking his star player’s thoughts on the situation. Nobody could blame Hurley if he left for the NBA, including his players. But Karaban attempted a little bit of a guilt trip anyway.
“I told him, ‘You deserve to explore. No one on the team is mad at you or sad or grumpy. Like, we’re all happy for you. You deserve it. Do whatever’s best for yourself, your family. But like, you know, obviously I came back for you,'” Karaban said.
Hurley wouldn’t give anything away. During Karaban’s NBA draft process, Hurley would ask him which way he was leaning; was he going to come back to Storrs or head to the NBA? The day before Karaban announced, he responded that he was 65% coming back, 35% going pro. Hurley hated that, Karaban said.
This time around, Hurley turned the tables on him.
“When he called me, he ended the call with, ’65-35.’ But he wouldn’t tell me which was the 65 and which was the 35,” Karaban said.
A team meeting was called for the next afternoon. Players had to turn in their phones before entering the film room. No one knew exactly what Hurley was going to tell them.
Then he came out with it: Hurley had turned down a six-year, $70 million offer and was going back to UConn.
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“Man, he turned down the Lakers. He turned down coaching LeBron James,” Diarra said. “It was an eye-opening moment. Like, whoa, we have something really good here … It just shows how much he believes in us and how he thinks we could be special this year.”
In the span of two months, Hurley had rejected opportunities to coach at arguably the biggest program in college basketball and one of the most storied professional sports franchises in the entire world.
When asked what that says about him, Hurley pauses for several seconds before answering.
“I’ve got a code. I’ve got principles. I’ve got some self-awareness. A deep understanding of who I am and where I belong, what I value,” he said. “I fit best here. I fit best in college. And where I’m able to be the coach that I want to be, that I’m able to be the leader and to set the tone and to drive the culture and to get people to play winning basketball, to play championship basketball, to give great effort for the organization. I’m able to demand that.
“And being demanding is not a negative thing. It’s teaching people to work hard, teaching people to have discipline, teaching people to do things that lead to success. It’s what UConn deserves. It’s what an organization deserves for everything that they invest in their players. I feel like you owe it to the place that you work for to give absolutely everything that you’ve got in pursuit of winning. Every single day on the job.”
HURLEY SITS SLUMPED against the wall inside UConn’s practice facility. Practice has just ended, he has flipped his mental switch to off-court mode and he needs a break before running off to handle another media obligation.
But he’s also thinking about a question.
With the recent retirements of Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and Jay Wright, and fellow national title-winners like Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo inching toward the end of their careers, college basketball needs a new face of the sport. Is Hurley — an uncommon candidate given his sideline demeanor and unfiltered way of communicating — the answer?
First, a classic Hurley quip: “Airbrush my face.”
“I think my story is a great story for people,” he continued. “Being a fired assistant and climbing the ladder from high school to low-major to mid-major and struggling through a lot of my career in basketball to get to this moment, I just think it’s a great story. I think the story can help a lot of people.”
After an offseason that featured a second White House visit, a roster rebuild, a stay-or-go job decision and hundreds of workouts and practices in between, Hurley and UConn are ready for the next chapter in that story.
There’s a reason Hurley, 51, is so motivated to make history. There’s always more winning to be done, more banners to raise and more trophies to hoist. That they’ve won it all the past two years means nothing anymore.
“You don’t get anything in sports for what happened last April.”