University of Connecticut Athletics
Coach Of Year Hurley Remains Man On A Mission
3/13/2024 9:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By PHIL CHARDIS
Special to uconnhuskies.com
NEW YORK – Whenever Dan Hurley receives any kind of accolade, he is quick to credit the support of his family, especially wife Andrea.
So, when Hurley reached the ultimate of coaching tributes in the BIG EAST Conference Wednesday, named as the BIG EAST Coach of the Year, Andrea Hurley was asked how much of the credit for her husband's award does she deserve.
"All of it," she deadpanned. "I keep him alive … and sane."
And no doubt she and sons Danny and Andrew, as well as Dan's parents, Bob Sr. and Chris, and his brother Bob, sister Melissa and their families, should all get a tip of the hat for giving Dan the foundation and the background he's needed and the support he has leaned on to accomplish what he has done at UConn.
Six years ago, Dan Hurley came to UConn as a man on a mission.
Hurley was not unhappy at the University of Rhode Island, where he had coached for the previous six seasons. He was making a decent salary, he and his family thoroughly enjoyed living near the Rhode Island coast, and he had built a winning program, guiding the Rams to more success than they had in years, including two NCAA Tournament berths, winning a first-round game each time.
But there are few men as astute as Hurley when it comes to the college basketball world and he was well-aware that he had likely taken Rhode Island as far up the sport's success ladder as he could. If he wanted to compete on a level with the best programs in the sport, it was not going to happen in Kingston.
Enter the match made in college basketball heaven.
UConn needed a coach to bring it back into national prominence and Hurley needed a place that was ready to do what it takes to get there. The coach is obviously a man who loves the challenge of building a program, having already resurrected Wagner and Rhode Island, not to mention St. Benedict's at the high school level. UConn, however, might well have presented his greatest challenge, considering the expectations surrounding the Huskies.
Hurley continually used the same bywords through his early years at UConn as he threw himself into the task – "culture" and "identity." Building a winning culture meant a whole lot more than simply winning games on the court. It meant examining every detail involved with the program and bringing all those details, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, up to a certain standard. It is an arduous task and cannot be accomplished overnight, over weeks, or even over months.
Hurley's definition of identity was making sure his team played a certain way in every game – a tough, hard-nosed, hard-working brand of basketball that outrebounds and out-defends the opponent. More often than not, a win was attributed to "playing to our identity," while a loss meant the Huskies were not.
While culture and identity were the necessary intangibles toward rebuilding UConn, clearly so was recruiting players not only talented enough to be successful at a top Division I level, but also were able to fit into the culture and identity – willing to work hard, willing to accept hard coaching, willing to sacrifice for the team. Not the easiest of players to find in this day and age, let alone then convincing them to commit to UConn.
That was the winning formula that Hurley stood behind – accomplish it all, he insisted, and great results would follow.
Fast forward six seasons, 132 victories, three (soon to be four) NCAA Tournament berths, a BIG EAST regular-season championship, and one NCAA National Championship later, and damn if just about everything Hurley believed could happen actually did.
Wednesday, Hurley was rewarded for UConn's outstanding 2023-24 season – and really for his body of work as UConn. It is his first Coach of the Year Award in the conference and the second of his career (2017-18 Atlantic 10 COY). It is the first such award for a UConn coach since Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun won the last of his four Coach of the Year Awards in 1997-98.
"The league is just straight iron sharpens iron," he said. "You're talking about the best players in the country, some of the hardest places to play in the country, and the best roster of coaches in the country. You can't come in this league if you're a soft-ass coach or player."
Despite his team's gaudy records this year – BIG EAST record for wins in a season (18), most regular-season wins in UConn history (28), a 14-game BIG EAST win streak (ties record), a 13.9 scoring margin (ties record), won conference by four full games (ties record), to name a few – Hurley still runs each practice as if the team is trying to build a resume. And that's how practice will always be run.
For despite all of UConn's and validation as the BIG EAST Coach of the Year, Hurley still remains a man on a mission.
