Bio Blast: Dan Hurley

For the first time since 2009, Kentucky is looking for a new head men’s basketball coach. The Eddie Sutton coach to be named later trade was completed on Sunday night when John Calipari decided to leave Lexington for Arkansas after 15 seasons in the Bluegrass. After a 410-122 (198-65) run with four Final Four appearances and six SEC regular-season titles, Calipari has found a new home.

Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart is now tasked with finding the program’s next head basketball coach. For the third time during his tenure, Barnhart will be conducting a search. The Calipari hire was an absolute home run, but the Billy Gillispie hire was the worst in program history. Every possibility in this search appears to be on the table.

As soon as Calipari made his move to Northwest Arkansas, some candidates have started to emerge. We are not 100 percent sure who is on Barnhart’s list, but the two-time defending national champion will likely get a call from Kentucky. Dan Hurley just led UConn to the top of the mountain again and is getting a big payday after this season ends one way or the other.

Bio Blast: Scott Drew

Championship Results

Dan Hurley joined a special group on Monday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. The 51-year-old head coach won back-to-back national titles to give UConn 6 championships in the last 26 years. Only a select few have ever repeated.

• Billy Donovan (Florida): 2006-2007
• Mike Krzyzewski (Duke): 1991-1992
• John Wooden (UCLA): 1964-1965 and 1967-1973
• Ed Jucker (Cincinnati): 1961-1962
• Phil Woolpert (San Francisco): 1955-1956
• Adolph Rupp (Kentucky): 1948-1949
• Henry Iba (Oklahoma A&M/Oklahoma State): 1945-1946

From 1939-1950, only eight teams were invited to the NCAA Tournament. That number expanded to 16 teams in 1951. The field ballooned to 32 teams in 1975 before growing to 64 teams in 1985. We then saw a bump to 68 teams in 2011. Hurley became the third coach since the expansion to 60-plus teams to go back-to-back.

That makes him the top coach in college basketball at the moment. Hurley’s salary pays him $5 million per year and bonuses got him up to $6.7 million after claiming another championship, but a big pay bump is coming. UConn is in the Big East and does not have high-dollar football media rights money. That could make things tricky.

Would Hurley be willing to leave Storrs if UConn could not match the money? We could find out soon because this should now be the highest-paid coach in college basketball.

Family Pedigree

Dan Hurley was born into basketball royalty in New Jersey. Hurley’s father, Dan Sr., was a long-time head coach at Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony where he won over 1,000 games and claimed 26 state titles with five undefeated teams.

Both of his sons have followed in his footsteps.

Dan’s older brother, Bobby Hurley, was a star point guard at Duke where the former McDonald’s All-American became a two-time All-American and helped Mike Krzyzewski win his first two national titles before becoming the No. 7 overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. Hurley got into coaching after his playing career ended and is set to enter year 10 at Arizona State as that program makes the transition to the Big 12 in 2024-25.

Bobby got his coaching start under Dan Hurley at Wagner. After being a high school coach for nine seasons building Saint Benedict’s Prep into a national powerhouse, Hurley started his head coaching career at Wagner. He led the Seahawks to 38 wins in two seasons before bolting to Rhode Island. A long rebuild in Kingston eventually turned into consecutive Round of 32 appearances to end his tenure in the A-10 before bolting for UConn. During his start, Dan Hurley had his brother on staff to help him get things rolling.

The younger Hurley has been around big-time basketball for a long time both at the high school and college level.

Elite Roster Building

Not only did UConn win back-to-back titles, but the Huskies were also the top team in KenPom each of the last two seasons. Dan Hurley built a special roster in Storrs that was a top-10 operation on both offense and defense. The roster-building was special.

Stephon Castle was a top-10 recruit who started 30 games for UConn this year. It’s very likely that he becomes a one-and-done. Donovan Clingan, Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson, and Alex Karaban were each sub-40 recruits who turned into stars at UConn. Hawkins was a lottery pick after two years at UConn. The same will become true for Clingan in the 2024 NBA Draft. Jackson went three-and-done before coming off the board early in the second round. Karaban will be a three-and-done that will also likely go off the board in the first round with a high-second round floor. The high-end results do not stop there.

East Carolina transfer Tristen Newton was a two-year starter at UConn who became a consensus All-American. Former Loyola (Maryland) and Rutgers guard Cam Spencer was one of the best twos in college basketball this season and a perfect fit for UConn. The 24-year-old was a first-team All-Big East selection. Texas A&M transfer Hassan Diarra was a key role player for UConn in year two.

Hurley has proven he can land top-10 players, develop top-50 players into draft picks, and land big-time contributors out of the transfer portal while maintaining continuity. Castle and Spencer will go down as the only one-and-done players at UConn in this group. One was a true freshman, and the other a super senior.

UConn built the perfect blend of experience, talent, and player development. That led to two consecutive national titles. Hurley is the top roster builder in college basketball right now.