The UConn men's basketball program reigns supreme over college basketball once again. In one of the most dominant March Madness runs ever, the Huskies won their fifth championship and won each game by double digits. It's the first for Dan Hurley, who helped bring UConn back to the mountaintop in his fifth year at the helm following two straight losses in the first round.
The brother of former Duke/NBA point guard and Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley and son of Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley, Dan coached at Wagner for two seasons and Rhode Island for six before becoming the Huskies' head coach. After the first championship since 2015 for the UConn men's basketball program, he was asked what it means to add to the Hurley legacy. He snapped back with a lenghty answer.
“Obviously for me, I've had my own path, my own journey,” Hurley said. “I've probably done it to myself by being such an intense, fiery coach that people have always focused on the sideline antics than they have my total body of work over the course of my career. There's not many coaches that were as successful as my teams were at St. Benedict's, at Wagner and Rhode Island…
“Obviously, there's a certain level of validation that's going to come from this,” Hurley continued. “But I just feel like my career in coaching, even prior to this, I think most coaches — maybe I don't do a great job kissing the media's a** and presenting and this image that's incredibly likable, but I am who I am. I'm from Jersey City, and this is how people from Jersey City act.”
Dan Hurley has been a college basketball coach since 2010, working his way up the ranks and showing his immense passion every step of the way. Now, he has solidified his name with a national championship.