For decades, former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski carried on his shoulders the responsibility to lead college basketball. Whether you love him, hate him, or are completely indifferent to him, Coach K was the most consistently successful and recognizable figure in the sport from the time he won his first National Championship at Duke until he departed the program in 2022. Now surely, there are a handful of other coaches — legends like Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, John Calipari, and Jay Wright, just to name a few — who could make a similar claim. But with K, Williams and Wright all retired, and Izzo and Calipari lacking recent tournament success, the guy in college basketball is unquestionably UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley.
Although there is no official coronation, the torch that Coach K once carried has now been handed off to Dan Hurley. And during a recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Mike Krzyzewski spoke about what it takes to occupy that role, and why he ultimately wasn't surprised that Hurley turned down the opportunity to leave UConn in order to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I think his commitment to the game was part of the reason he stayed. He’s one of the leaders right now for college basketball, maybe the top leader, at least one of the top two or three. You have a responsibility, you know you can’t just win trophies, although those are nice to win. You have to make a commitment to the game. He’s a lifer, his family are lifers, they have a huge commitment to basketball. I love them. I don’t like them, I love them.”
Of course, Coach K has a direct tie to the Hurley family, having coached Dan Hurley's older brother Bobby for four seasons at Duke. Bob Hurley Sr. is one of only three high school basketball coaches inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after winning 26 state championships in 39 years coaching. Given the recent success that the youngest of these three Hurley's has had, it's possible that UConn's head coach someday will someday get the opportunity to make the short trip from Storrs, Connecticut to Springfield, Massachusetts to be receive that very same honor.
UConn's Dan Hurley is college basketball's new torchbearer
Dan Hurley may represent the new guard, but so much about him screams old school. His offensive philosophies and willingness to rely on analytics is as new school as you could get. His intense, in your-face nature is straight out of 1980's Big East Basketball. It's this dichotomy that has not only turned UConn into a modern-day juggernaut, but also helped Dan Hurley to become the biggest star in a constantly evolving sport.
With two consecutive National Championships to his name, Dan Hurley is already a part of a prestigious and exclusive group of coaches — Henry Iba, Adolph Rupp, Phil Woolpert, Ed Jucker, John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, and Billy Donovan — who have won back-to-back National Titles. Hurley has speculated that this squad may be his most talented yet, and that was before two-year junior starter Alex Karaban opted to return to Storrs for the chance to make college hoops history.
If the Huskies can cut down the nets in San Antonio next April, Dan Hurley might as well start writing his induction speech into the Basketball Hall of Fame the second he gets back to Storrs, because he'd join John Wooden as the only two head coaches to win at least three consecutive championships.
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