Dan Hurley REVEALS challenges of UConn’s 3-peat quest + his ego EXPLOSION last year

Coach Dan Hurley opens up on writing his new book, his journey through coaching, and the challenges of growing up in Bobby Hurley’s shadow. He reflects on early career struggles, coaching breakthroughs at Wagner and Rhode Island, building an elite program in the portal era, and why he’s convinced he’ll stay in college basketball for the long haul.

0:00 Intro
0:30 Writing a book
2:30 Childhood
5:30 Playing the comparison game
6:45 His insecurities
8:45 Playing days at Seton Hall
10:45 Early career struggles
14:00 Wagner
16:00 Rhode Island
20:30 Going back-to-back
23:00 Dealing with losses
25:30 NBA flirtations
26:45 Program building
27:30 Challenges last year
35:30 Coaching future
40:00 Non-conference schedule this year
45:00 St. John’s

#CollegeBasketball #CBB #NCAA #BigTen #SEC #ACC #EyeOnCollegeBasketball #JonRothstein #UConn #DanHurley #podcast

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All right, welcome back to Inside College Basketball Now. I’m John Rothstein. Pleased to be joined by twotime national champion and future hall of famer Dan Hurley doing the tour right now around the country to promote your new book, Never Stop. Are you tired of interviews yet? Oh man, what do they call this? The the car wash or whatever when you put the car wash. Yeah. But if the book um you know it’s titled Never Stop because I never stopped. Yeah. And I won’t stop. You won’t stop. know I’m sure you felt during the process of this book with a great author Ian O’ Conor who is a revered and renowned author author you probably felt like you weren’t stopping what was it like writing a book yeah I mean there was some moments of hoping it would stop um just cuz it is it’s a it’s a tough process and if you care about the project and you want the project to be you know impactful you know books have been impactful in my life um I didn’t want this to be a thing where you just do something win a couple championships and then you just go do what people do is just go write a book and uh you know and you don’t put a lot of effort into it. But I wanted this book to have a chance to maybe be impactful, maybe inspire, maybe motivate um you know so hopefully uh it helps people. Now you’re as meticulous as any person I’ve ever met with your time. I know you need your quiet time in the morning. What is it? The sauna, the hot tub, all that stuff, you know, before practice to get everything out. So, what is it like for Dan Hurley, the perfectionist, the meticulous coach, to balance a book tour with the start of practice? Yeah, I mean, it’s uh obviously we’re able to, you know, get the practice done on a on a Sunday, our first back-to-back practice weekend really in training camp mentality. Yeah. I mean, the practices are hand-to-hand combat right now. We’re not even so much right uh focused on like executing quality basketball as much as we’re trying to create a mentality. a toughness, like a a will, a grittiness in terms of the practice plan. And then now today you flip and you’re in New York promoting a book after just being in a brutality weekend of training camp practice. So you just you flip your brain and uh you know and you spend a day doing a promotion and then uh but my mind keeps going in and out uh between who should be on the blue team tomorrow, who should be on the gray team. Uh do do I like those offensive sets and what is the practice plan tomorrow? Well, you said gritty, you said toughness. Those are some of the adjectives, too, that a lot of people would probably use to describe your childhood. And your childhood in sports started at a very, very early age. You were a runner very early in Jersey City. You know, you heard the term in the book, quiet your feet when you were doing those early races. What was it like at such an early age to be thrusted into sports? It’s almost uh you know second nature just you know being a 5-year-old and I’ve got the uh picture in my office of running you know three and a half mile road races as a 5-year-old. Yeah. Um you know running to Bayon Park and back um from where we lived in Jersey City. Um, so starting out at an early age and like being in being uh in distance running and having such high standards placed upon you by your father and and having an older brother that’s about excellence and pushing you. It’s uh, you know, it it creates uh, standards that are going to be uh, impactful throughout the rest of your life. It’s helped make me a better coach today, but I think I just struggled at a younger age maybe with uh that turning into a perfectionism uh that wasn’t always healthy. It’s also morphed into uh a fear of failure and an insecurity that that drives me uh uh when controlled properly is is beneficial. Uh when you can’t control it uh properly, it’s brutality. And you know, one of the things you could tell early in this book was that it was really important to your father that you and your brother did not have a lot of idle time, especially in Jersey City. When you look back on that structure that you had in your childhood, how much is that a foundation right now for the success that you’ve had? Yeah, listen, you know, my life, any success I’ve had, it’s um it’s been built on family, you know, just a strong family growing up. you know, the family that I have now with my wife and and my two sons, the that foundation of love and and uh and sacrifice, but then, you know, uh just being from a bluecollar place where um you know, you’re you’re you’re trying to I don’t want to say get out of Jersey City, but you know, the kids that you grow up with um in Jersey City aren’t as fortunate. They did not have a way out. They didn’t have uh have a purpose, did not have an activity uh that could drive uh you know them developing the work ethic, the discipline uh you know the accountability, the responsibility um you know to be able to uh you know get out of Jersey City, not end up in jail, not end up you know dead, not end up uh addicted to a substance. The name of the book is Never Stop. Dan Hurley with Ian O’ Conor. Available on Amazon as well as you can see right there. We want to drive up those New York Times bestseller lists right now for this book because we’re thinking mostly in our hearts for the Yukon staff and what’s ahead of them in the next 6 months. You know, one thing and you talked about Jersey City. I remember vividly when you won the title in 2023 on the floor. There was a lot of pride in your voice when you said that, but that’s really the genesis of the Dan Hurley comparison game. And Theodore Roosevelt once said that comparison is the thief of joy. You in a lot of ways live that. Why did you feel the need regardless if you were a player or a coach to always compare? Well, I would say as a as a young player, it’s uh it’s something that not not something I consciously wanted to do. It’s you know, when you become a junior or a senior in high school, you’re playing at Satan Hall and your brother’s Bobby Hurley. you know, like that people do it for you and they kind of implant that in your brain as you hear the whispers or yeah, you know, hey, you’re, you know, he’s not as good as his brother or Bobby’s better or, you know, those things just you end up ruminating on those things and it’s hard to control your mind. Um, and it’s a brutal practice. It leads to nothing but suffering and it’s not something it’s something that I’ve been able to kind of, you know, grow out of. I think um my only measuring stick is for myself is, you know, am I continuing to improve and evolve as a coach? Um I think it’s healthy to want to be the the best coach in the sport. Um but I think it’s unhealthy now where you’re comparing yourself directly to another human being. you know, in a lot of promotions that you’ve done for this book that I listen to in preparation for this chat today, you’ve used the term insecurity a lot with, you know, the way you go about things. And from my vantage point, for somebody who’s known you now 20 years, I’m thinking back to you at Wagner when you would go to pit and dominate a pit team back in Rhode Island when you had great wins against Cincinnati and Satan Hall and other teams that you beat. I think you’re the furthest thing from insecure because you have supreme confidence in yourself as a coach. How do you balance the confidence that you know you have in your own abilities with the fear of maybe not maintaining what you’ve built? Yeah, I think um you’re right. And I do have a lot of confidence. Tons of confidence. I show up to the arena with with a lot of swagger. Um and this was pre- championship. This was Wagner. This was Wagner. This was this was from We were eating at the trash can on Staten Island at the dive bar you took me to at the And then the pizza. Was that Joe and Pats? I believe so. Or the Deninos. And then at the bottom of the hill. It was at the uh the Roadhouse. The Roadhouse. Yeah. Yeah. Roadhouse. Shout out Roadhouse. Early recruiting and staff dinners. Uh yeah. I mean, I I I’ve worked on my craft for a long time. You know, I’ve been I’ve been a coach for almost 30 years. I’ve been a head coach for a really really long time at various levels. So, I’m uh I’m experienced. And um I think the insecurity piece is knowing that if you stay the same, if you don’t continue to get better every single day, if you don’t work with great urgency, if you become complacent like the um you know, that that’s what drives me. It drives my preparation. It drives my continu uh continuing mindset of trying to get better and learn new tactics and and learn different systems and and uh learn uh you know how to improve our culture. I think if you’re uh if you’re staying the same, you’re getting worse cuz people are people are coming for you. Well, people are definitely coming for you when you started your college career as a player. And one of the things you talk about in this book is you were a partyier when you got to Satan Hall and you probably didn’t take basketball so seriously. And I think in this book reading it, what would Dan Hurley the coach do if he was handling Dan Hurley the player? I I probably would have been thrown off the team. That’s what I was thinking. Yeah. I I I think I think nowadays um relationship between player and coach are a lot different. you know, there’s a there’s like an all hours of the day, every second of the day connection in in in in top level programs and organizations that that are that are truly connected. So, there’s no secrets. There’s no like um I’m not sure that anyone on staff or on my team just knew how bad my behavior was off the court, right? you know, like whereas now I think if if we’ve got a guy that’s making some bad decisions, I’m probably finding out um through how well I know my player or how well connected the moles in the program are. Well embedded moles are, you know, chirping in your ear, hey, I think there’s something going on, you know, with said player off the court and uh he needs an intervention. whereas I was just allowed to spiral and the behavior got worse to the point where you know I I my commitment to basketball was as low a level as possible. So I think nowadays you’re so dialed into the player. So many lessons that came out of your time at Satan Hall, but one was probably also the genesis of being a great recruiter because you were a fifth year senior. Your wife Andrea was a freshman. You started to date. you proposed after a couple months and she was leaving school. Yeah. To be married and you were thinking about a career overseas and you went into coaching, but I mean I know you were a good recruiter, but before you were selling Yukon, you were able to do that. Yeah. I saw the life raft on the way out. So something that maybe could save me. Um and what a turn of events for her, you know, and she did say yes. So she leave school early. No, she stayed in she she stayed in school when you got married. She stayed in school, but she was when you were engaged. She stayed in school. When we were married, you know, she was no longer in school. So, um, but when I did engaged to her, when we when I proposed to her, I actually was selling. I’m going to be playing more than likely first division Italy, first division Spain. We’re going to live, you know, maybe in Florence or, you know, somewhere Paris. This is going to be awesome. And then a couple months later, um, I lost the desire to to to play and I took the, uh, fizzed, driver’s ed, first aid, sexed, teaching and coaching assistant varsity at St. Anthony for eight grand a year. So, I just, and she did not break off the engagement at that point as she saw maybe that the star was was not was not shining brightly at that moment. And this is another thing that was very real about your story in this book. You guys had a lot of hurdles early in your marriage. Not just the financial aspect of starting a family, but you had a terrible fire where you lost your home with an infant child. And then on top of that, you did not get financially back from the insurance what you thought you were going to get. And this wasn’t 5 10 $20,000 in debt, but you guys had had over $100,000 debt. You were making no money. What was that like? Yeah, that was that was tough. And and you know, add into the equation my wife, you know, losing her dad at at a young age, uh, you know, to cancer, you know, which was incredibly stressful for for for her family and for all of us. But yeah, I mean, you know, you’re trying to build a career, you just get fired at Ruckers, you’ve got young kids, you’ve got no money. Um, you know, and and and for me, it was like uh I I was never home. I was I was now scrambling at St. Benedenix to to build the program and and uh you know it was a really really tough time. I think that a lot of couples can relate to. Um but but we didn’t stop you know we we stayed committed you know to each other and committed to our family and eventually things will turn and they turned and she feels a lot better about me you know today because uh um of that early struggle that we went through. It really strengthened our relationship and love for each other and that led to St. Benedicts where you became obviously a household name in high school coaching and it led to Wagner where you took over a program and completely flipped it. That was the genesis of the carpenter if we’re being if we’re being honest with ourselves. Builder. No one’s doing that. You don’t necessarily have to be a builder anymore. No. No. It’s kind of like you got it’s like you’re almost on you’re on Amazon.com for college basketball players and you’re like, “Well, this could work. That could work.” And that’s that’s where I think the pride in the championships that we you know the 23 and 24 you know just having to take over a program when we did and having to take over a Wagner program and a Rhode Island program and to have to organically build a program daytoday you know starting with the staff and and practice habits and those small victories along the way. That’s why I think I’m so proud of the places I’ve coached where really had to build things and I think uh um that’s not necessarily the case anymore. And as a coach at Wagner, you had to endure something that a lot of coaches at a lower level endure. And you said this in the book and I think it’s really interesting about an NEC tournament semi-final game against Robert Morris. I’ve never felt more tension as a coach and I’ve never felt as much tension since. That was a game you lost to Robert Morris. For a guy that’s coached in the Final Four and coached deep in the NCAA tournament. That to me is fascinating. What was it like being a favorite in a team expected to go far in a one bid league? Yeah. I mean, it’s uh there’s butter on the ball. I mean, there’s grease on the ball. I mean, um you it’s just they’re not the same human beings that you’ve played 35 games with throughout the year. you know, the pressure um you know, it’s it’s your opportunity at that level, right? To finally get attention, to finally get on the big stage, to make the career, to get recognition. And it’s like you feel it from the people at the college, you know, like for the college. It’s like not many chances for for Wagner College to get on a national scale or or a low division one program. So, for me, I’ve never been in a halftime locker room with that feeling of of panic and impending doom. Uh, as everyone is is completely their nerves are shot. Um, the probably the closest thing since maybe maybe the Iona game night before, you know, put up a shut up time coming off of the Maryland New Mexico State. The first half they had a two-point lead. two-point lead, but it just it felt like uh it was not the same. They were making every shot. They were making shots that were unsustainable and we were and we were getting all all the shots we wanted and we were playing at a high level. Um and that’s the thing about the Yukon first round of the tournament. It’s heavy, you know, and I think you saw that this year, you know, those first round games are are a little bit heavy. When we get out of the first round, I think we think we’re supposed to win the tournament. And you know, I think a lot of people that probably follow you from the periphery look at like, well, Dan Early was like a rocket ship in coaching. And I remember early in Rhode Island in that tenure, there were setbacks. And I remember I did a game at Butler your first year and you guys took Brad Stevens to the wire and there was a player there. I think this really stunted the start of Rhode Island. as a player. You had Jordan Hair who probably if he stuck with basketball would have been an NBA player. He leaves the program. You had a great uh recruit EC Matthews who endured a major major knee injury when you were ready to turn the program. So even though the finished product at Rhode Island was a force, there were a lot of bumps in the road which again build the resiliency. Yeah, I think uh you know my my I guess how I’ve gotten to Yukon was more probably traditional. Yeah. You know, it’s how coaches back in probably the 80s and 90s, you know, got big jobs, you know, you know, and that means a lot to you. I’m proud of it. I mean, I’m proud of it. I’m like I feel like old school coaches. Um it’s weird like that reaction and the reaction I get with fans, you know, in public, like fans really enjoy my act. Yeah. you know, when I meet him in public, not not trolls on social media, but people that I see on the street or I’ll see in an airport that they’ve seen me on TV and they’ve seen this guy who’s not a fake, who’s not a phony, who’s just himself, flaws and all. Uh I I I think they like that. And I think the old school coaches like me um because of the way I’ve gotten a Yukon job, nine years as a four years as a college assistant, one year as a high school assistant, nine years as a high school head coach, two years low major at Wagner, six years at the mid major before I even got a chance at the big time. So, you know, you could probably see that chip on my shoulder now as a coach that, you know, um I’ve had to really earn my way here. And my first, you know, big head coaching job was certainly not at Yukon. I wasn’t born on third base, even though I’m a Hurley in basketball. The name of the book is Never Stop, Dan Hurley with Ian O’ Conor. Available on Amazon right now. So, we want to spike those, you know, sales early for the New York Times bestseller list. Now, you had a team at Rhode Island twice that won games in the NCAA tournament. One time you beatraton, another time you beat Trey Young in Oklahoma, but back toback years. Back toback years. But you had a Final Four team in Oregon on the ropes like it was, you know, it was Ali against Foreman so on and so forth and they were doing like the rope this right now. What? Why are you doing this? Because we’re going we’re getting into the depths right now of the interview. Not a lot of people are going to do this, but that team, that Oregon team, when you look back, Pton Pritchard, Dylan Brooks, Jordan Bell, Tyler Dorsey, Dylan Andis was a great college player. Even though you’ve got the hardware, yeah, you’ve had the interest from the NBA. You know, you’re on your way to the Naymith Hall of Fame because you were at Rhode Island. Is that Oregon defeat something that, you know, will always tug at you because you were at Rhode Island? Haunting. Not tugging. Tugging and haunting, you know, tugging and haunting. Um, I mean that was a great team, you know, that was a team and Hassan Martin, you know, who doesn’t really play in that game. Who was who was our best player and you guys for 35 37 minutes had like you were in control of the I think you were 46 38 at the half up and then up four under four or up five under five. Um, our undoing was was uh was free throw blockouts. We gave up two free throw offensive rebounds that turned into points that were killer plays. Um and then we also, you know, there was a block charge, you know, tough call, you know, not an easy call. We’re on the wrong side of a block charge. Um but and credit that Oregon team. They were an awesome team. Dana’s an awesome coach, Final Four team, you know, but uh as great as it was having gotten back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since Lamar ODM back then and as uh as awesome as an experience as it was to get there, be Kraton uh and then get to that game, you know, it’s it’s a haunting loss because we had a we were a second, you know, we we were on uh on the doorstep of getting to a sweet 16, maybe an elite eight with that team. Uh but the son Martin injury was a killer. I was watching on one of these, you know, preseason tours that I’m on, you know, on the plane ride, remember the Titans and, you know, when the coach says, “Leave no doubt.” That’s kind of the best way to sum up what you guys did in 23 and 24 at Yukon. Because this wasn’t just back to back, like I was thinking about it like Coach K, who obviously is one of the three best, you know, college coaches of all time in the modern era, went back to back in ‘9192. They had the UNLV game in 91 and in 92 they had the late Kentucky game. So they went back to back, but obviously there were games that hung in the balance. Billy D, I remember in 2007 was in the Elite 8 against Oregon. They had Aaron Brooks and it was a two-point game and a half. You guys ripped through two NCAA tournaments like a chainsaw through butter. Like 12 wins by an average of 20 21.7 points per game. But historically speaking, like we could go the rest of our lives, people may never see another back-to-back champion, but let alone that dominant. So I go back to this. How can Dan Hurley be insecure if that your name is on that forever? Cuz it doesn’t mean anything today, you know, like it’s going to be great. I think, you know, when the when the career’s over and I go into civilian life and I could look back at those moments, but you know, really all that matters right now is like tomorrow and this season, you know, like nothing else matters. I mean, those record setting teams with NCAA tournament dominance. And if you really look at it, it was really a two-year dominance. if you took out that January from the year before and I know you can’t just like remove a month you know it’s kind of like hey if if my aunt was my right was my uncle I think we know how the rest of that goes right but I would say like if you really look at those two years the way that the 23 team dominated the non-conference and they were all double figure you know dominating victories you have the you have that tough January you lose that big east tournament semi-final game to Marquette that otherwise that was a total dominant two-year run. Um, you know, and it wasn’t like we inherited the same players. We lost some key players from 23 and then did it with uh, you know, with some with a really a totally different team with a different identity. You bring up the Marquette loss and you also in the book brought up the loss in 22 when you lost to Villanovva and Jay Wright who obviously multiple national championships, four final fours and you were really hard on yourself for how you handled your team after that loss in the Big East tournament. How much did that experience in having the carryover to the New Mexico State game in 2022 when you were upset kind of teach you a lesson that you’re going to separate the Big East tournament from the NCAA tournament moving forward as a coach? It just starts with like um I think leadership is like looking in the mirror first off. You know, it would have been easy for me um you know, after that that second first round failure to, you know, blame the blame the assistants, blame the guy who had the scout, you know, just look at the players and say, “Hey, you know, these guys didn’t play hard enough or we weren’t tough enough.” There were actual, you know, there there were roster construction things that needed to be addressed. There were decisions that I had made like I’m the architect of these t Well, I’m the carpenter of these teams, right? That’s breads. I am the carpenter. So, uh, you know, again, there were issues with, you know, how I was putting together the actual the personalities and the skill sets. You know, for me at my in my mind, it was enough to be culture, toughness, will, athleticism is going to get us to a national championship. No, you need guys that can process the game. You need guys that can shoot the ball. U, and you need guys that can pass and handle. you need like good offensive players in this era that we’re in right now and it’s hard to win a six game simil single elimination tournament unless you go on scoring runs right so looking at those two things changing some things with our offensive system but they were look in the mirror things they weren’t hey let me fire two of my staff members because it was my staff’s fault um you know so that self-awareness that looking in the mirror you know led to uh the corrections that needed to be made and and uh uh and now this here. You know, like we had a top 75 defense in the end. You can’t win a national championship or get deep in that tournament unless you’re playing a top 20, top 10, top 15 defense and also a top 10, top 20 offense. So, uh I promise you our defense won’t suck like that again this year. I have no doubt. But that’s also something I think that a lot of people don’t take into consideration. You morphed into a completely different coach in the last couple of years. like it was blood and guts for really probably the first decade of your college career and you transitioned. But also after that dominant run in 23 24, it opened the door to potentially going to the NBA. Yeah. Did that exercise you think closed the door on that for you? Yeah, I’m I’m uh I’m pretty convinced that I’ll be a college coach to the end. It’s not really um you know obviously it’s hard to predict the future but just in terms of you know where I’m most effective um you know the the kind of the age range you know the amount of control that you have over your fate as a college coach you know as crazy as the portal is as crazy as it’s gotten with NIL um as as chaotic as it is not knowing whether players are going to get a 50-year or not when it’s basically October and not know not knowing about potential rule changes. It’s chaotic, but I still think you’ve got greater control. Um, and I do think I I get a chance to live my purpose, which is, you know, you can change lives. You know, you go to Yukon and you hit it right as a coach or a player, it’s a life-changing place. So, hopefully I’m able to coach my last game and then walk off of Gample or uh it’s not XL Center anymore. Um, the place you play in Hartford, the People’s Bank Arena. People’s Bank Arena. Is it harder to build a program as you’ve done three times or maintain it at an elite level once you become elite? Harder to build it. Um but you harder to build it back then. You know, it’s uh it’s cheaper now. It’s a it’s an easier process. I think um you couldn’t be lazy. I think you could do it and lazy may be the wrong word, but you can build uh you could be very transactional. Um, you know, I think back when we were uh when we first got the job, I think pre pre-portal, pre-NIL, yeah, you had to grind out 11 11 and a half months a year, summer recruiting, it had to be player development, it had to be culture building, like it had to be all those things. And I think now obviously you you can you can shortcut things now and still put together a formidable team. Um, which was why I was kind of happy to get my championships, you know, when I got them. And I think it was organic. Uh, and I think it was old school how we built the program. Name of the book is Never Stop, Dan Hurley with Ian O’ Conor. Available on Amazon now if you want to order online. A great, great read about the highs and the lows of dealing with championship expectations, but also the resiliency needed to succeed in life. I could do a promo right now. Well, it’s not a it’s it’s not a merrygoround. It’s a roller coaster. It is a roller coaster. And that was probably a good transition to last season for you because you came in obviously talking three Pete, but I look at the season from my perspective with 30,000 ft out. Yeah. You know, nobody talks about the fact that you obviously didn’t have the same caliber of personnel or the fact that your best player, Liam McNeely, was out for a month. And with all that that happened, you still again had a chance to beat the eventual national champion in the second round of the tournament. So given all those things, given the lack of resources and talent, why still does that linger so much for you? Yeah, I think um you know because it could have been better. you know, the season as many challenges as the team dealt with, you know, um the the burden of of playing for a three repeat um sort of uniform, I think, was a little extra heavy for that team. They didn’t wasn’t necessarily a group. Um that that thrived with that kind of external, you know, all eyes on us. I think, you know, we we kind of wilted a little bit. Um, yeah. And then the things that that kind of set the group back, you know, the injury to Liam, I think, uh, you know, it it cost us games. Uh, it cost us it cost us a chance to kind of grow and and and develop. And then having to play Hassan Diara, you know, just having to kind of um, play him the amount of minutes that we did, you know, his physical deterioration as the season went on, um, you know, really hurt the team. With that said though, um you know, we were still a couple of losses that were very preventable, games we gave away. Yeah. And games that were bad losses really took our seating. Which which ones stand out to you? Well, I you know, the Colorado at the at the horn, which again? Yeah. I mean, I played a huge role in that with um my volcanic ego explosion out there in Maui where I did a horrible job coaching the team. Um, you know, obviously the one at Satan Hall. Um, I mean, you drop Yeah. seed lines when you have those games on your resume at the end of the year. If you don’t lose those games, you we’ve may have been a five seed. Yes. You know, you literally probably drop three seed lines, you know, then you get the Villanova game on the road and and uh, you know, so there are games like maybe there’s a three game difference where you could be a four seed like we were in 23 when we won it. Yeah. And that’s where I think people that look at my intensity during a game and wonder why um I’ve got so much intensity, passion, life or death, struggle, mentality, battle, fighting for your life. Because in college basketball, John, you know this, every game, every game matters. Matters. every game is absolutely critical because you’re either playing for a conference championship in the regular season or every game you’re seating for the tournament is on the line. But you talk about your temper. You talk about obviously the demand you have. Yeah. It’s no different from Wagner. I was there on Staten Island, so I understand why the showcase right now and the platform is more, but it’s the same person that was, you know, getting on Kenny Ortiz for turning the ball over. Yeah. Yeah. I think um that was Wagner’s point guard by the way for those who aren’t you know Yeah. Kenny Kenny uh Santa Clara uh in the Cable Car Classic. Cable Car Classic. That’s right. Uh let’s go KO. Um what’ you ask me? But you were driven you know to a dark dark place last season and you know we’re doing this interview right now in a television studio. Was there ever really a thought and I know you talk about it a little bit to just saying like I don’t want to coach anymore and I’m just gonna you know Yeah. be in the media. I mean I listen it was the it was all these things just the perfect storm of you know the the the obviously the the backtoback years with the Lakers thing. So like you know ego from an ego standpoint you go into the season last year and you know you’re you’ve got the magic dust right this year. no matter how you feel about the team in the summer when you see the flaws. Yeah. In your mind when you take the court, the magic’s going to happen. So, um, you know, so the championship fatigue, let’s say, you know, with the Lakers thing, then the total just disappointment and ego explosion, you know, and the coaching mad and coaching frustrated throughout the year. Um, then now when that ends, you really the whole year you’re you’re critiqued. You know, your your style is critiqued. It’s you’re walking by the TV in the morning in the coach’s locker room. And can you get to a point where you tune all that out though, where you don’t look at the TV, where you don’t look at social? I mean, if you’re going from your locker to another door and first takes on and Stephen A. Smith is defending you or his co-host is on there crushing you, you you do hear it. So I guess it’s Kamani’s got to turn the TV off. That that would be helpful. So I think but you even if you’re not listening to it, you’re getting text messages while while you’re being scrutinized and and a little bit, you know, you know, beat up from a media standpoint, you’ve got family members and old friends texting you, hang in there, it’s okay. So even if so, even if you don’t hear it, you know that there’s some type of external reaction to, you know, uh combustible Dan. So, I would just say all those things, NIL portal madness, you know, like all those things combined, you know, Alex is going to be in the draft process now for, you know, for six weeks, you know, I was uh I don’t know how serious was I about it in the end, you know, like listen, I went and I went and saw the Lakers, you know, because it was something that I thought I needed to consider. Yeah. You know, and that’s similar with the TV thing. It was like, you know, do, you know, do I have a couple conversations while I’m kind of recovering, you know, but in the end, you know, it took two days to kind of snap out of it um and and get locked in on on uh on on trying to put together somebody a group of people that would have a legitimate chance to go do it. But you’re somebody that was born to be a coach. Yeah. And I think that’s reflected with, you know, the pride you take in your job. Could you imagine a life without coaching? What would you do? Well, I I’m I can’t imagine a wife for my wife. I mean, I What would she do? I don’t Oh, no. A life. Could you imagine a life without No, I know. I added wife. Oh, okay. You added wife. Yeah. Cuz you know, obviously in the book, it talks about her not being too pleased with me early on in marriage. And uh you know, I do want to have a part of my life. You know, it’s tough being a coach’s wife. Yeah. you know, it’s tough being a a a coach’s son or or the family of a coach. I mean, you you don’t see him a lot. And when you do see him, you know, he’s he’s pretty on edge or uh the highest of highs, the lowest of lows. Um so, I do want to have a part of my life that is not this where cuz I I love my wife. I would like to experience more of a civilian life, you know, with my family. Um so, how much longer could you see yourself coaching? Is this something you could do like Kay like 75? Do you think you could go to 75 like coach Kay did or be like coach Patino and be in their 70s and coaching and still obviously having that, you know, desire? I don’t I I think I think those coaches, they all have the desire. I just think when I can’t do it exactly the way that I’m doing it right now, like when like when I can’t do it 11 months a year, you know, 11 and a half months a year, full tilt, foot on gas, you know, like on the road recruiting, you know, practicing at 6:00 a.m. with the team in the summer so I can get the Peach Jam for a 1:00 game. You know, land on Sunday at midday, practice Sunday night with a like when I can’t work at that intensity level, when I can’t drive an organization that way every single day at a championship level, I don’t want to pace myself. I feel like the I feel like the University of Connecticut, I feel like the fans. I feel like the people of Connecticut. I feel like the players that I coach, especially when you’re coaching players for only a year, maybe two, you know, or you you’ve got such a crazy fan base and a state that’s so impacted by how the winter goes, like they don’t deserve a coach that is pacing himself so he can get to 72. I’d rather go to the max and maybe I get to 62, but I did it all out uh as and I took it as far as I could get it and take it, you know, and then I give it to a younger guy that can give it that type of energy. Well, and that energy, I’m sure, will be put to work this winter because I know you’ve probably, given how last season ended, probably haven’t been as excited for a season maybe as the one you’re about to coach. Give us your thoughts on the roster you were about to take into 25 26. Yeah, fun team. I think uh I think deep team I think deep team like 23. Um, you know, I I I think um, you know, I think I think I love uh, you know, I love all aspects of the team potentially. We’ve got an uh, questions we got to answer uh, at the defensive end, but I think that we’ve got a chance to get um, you know, championship level play at point guard and I think we got some real depth there. Um, I think we’ve got enough at center just like we did last year. Yeah, I think you know coming off of having guys like Klingan and and uh and Adam Sonogo, two incredible players, um we were able to get the center production last year. Um but you know, perimeter defense, point guard play. We got all types of firepower on the wing with solo ball, uh Brilen Mullen, Cariban, Jaylen Stewart, Jaden Ross, Jacob Fury. I mean, this is a deep and talented roster that is uh I think the defense will be fixed by the peer pressure that if you don’t guard your asses can be on the bench. Which newcomer makes the biggest impact for Yukon? I mean, there’s uh I mean, there’s a couple I mean, you got the you got the two point guards to fortify that position with with Malachi and Silas. Um, you know, you’ve got we got Brillin Mullins who’s a who’s a who’s a flamethrower. Um, I think Rya is going to be awesome. I think this guy is like um, you know, the things reputationally about him, big skilled sevenfooter offensive game, advanced, you know, but this is a guy that wants to uh, show, you know, his critics or the people in the basketball world that he’s also going to rebound the ball at a high level and and protect the rim like a center. So, um, yeah, I mean, we’ve got a big three and Cariban and Terrace Reed and Solo Ball, but we also got depth. Who’s been the biggest surprise? Biggest surprise I say is I don’t want to get into this again in the preseason, but and jinx the guy, but uh, but Jaden Ross, man, if this guy can take Yeah. what he looks like in these practices. This 67 3 and D wing that’s way above the rim and and a guy that can, you know, play off a closeout and drive. I mean, this is a guy that has like NBA traits, uh, that when teams come in in the preseason and they’re like, “This guy, man, this is like he’s going to have a big year, right?” Well, you know, I think, uh, you know, Jay Ross is that guy and and you know, Jay Ross has just got to get out there and do it. I know we talk about him a lot this time of year. This guy’s got to get out there and do it. And I think one of the exciting things for the Yukon fan this year and for the college basketball fan is you’ve put together the best non-conference schedule in the history of Yukon basketball. You’re in the Garden twice. Illinois on Black Friday, Florida the last two national champions in the Jimmy V Classic. You’re going to play at Kansas. You’re playing against BYU in Boston, Arizona, and Texas at home. What is it like as a coach to have these type of billboard games to get ready for? Yeah. I mean, I I think it’s um you know, when I when I announced I guess or complained that I was not going back to mtees, Yeah. you know, the sore loser Dan after Maui, that’s not really the that’s not really the the point. The point was um you know the ability that you now have to cherrypick the absolute best games that you can put together in a non-conference. You know during the heart of college football season while the NFL you know is is full speed ahead. We’ve got to do things we got to play the type of games that are going to get you know basketball fans and casual sports fans not the hardcores like you who never stop. The name of the book is never stop. Never stop. and Hurley with Ian Oconor available on Amazon. You can see right there it’s in hard cover. Go ahead. So, who’s not I mean, who’s not dying to see Yukon at Kansas or that early season game in Boston, you know, with with with BYU with with AJ coming back to where he grew up and, you know, like two top five potential teams there or, you know, St. John’s playing Kentucky and like these are like and I think for us we got a chance uh as great as this year is I think next year’s we got a chance to even even be better you know old rivals you try to get back on the schedule as well as trying to get more of you know the blue bloodoods together. Well I want to ask you that is there anybody else any other I mean you’re playing so many great programs. Is there any other programs that you look at and say we’d love to do a series with them or we’d love to play them that aren’t on the schedule? Yeah, I think we got I think you know we’ve got great communication. I think a lot of the top programs right now are are talking to each other and uh you know my GM Tom Moore is hard at work um you know putting things together. So I think that there um you know that there’s a there’s a taste for this. I think there’s an understanding as we’re in revenue sharing right now um you know as programs that we’ve got to play games in venues that are going to generate the most money. And I think that’s been one of the most positive things for college basketball with NIL is now like programs are getting forced to play these types of games to generate big gates um in November and December. You were very hard on me a couple years ago when I talked about the Seapport District in Boston. I think I stayed there when I went to like one of your practices in the summer. But you guys are going back to the place where obviously you had the 2024 regionals and that place was, you know, Yukon North really when you guys played Illinois and played San Diego State. Yukon has made really a habit of playing in the Garden every year in New York. We know that. But could we see an annual game in Boston? Yeah, we’d like that. I think it’s uh you know, we’re we’re we’re obviously very comfortable in New York. Um, you know, there’s there’s going to be opportunities even, you know, not just MSG, but maybe into Barclays. You know, we we enjoyed our time in Barclays there a couple years ago, but yeah, I bought into your whole Yeah. I was convinced we were going to lose this the 16 seed. Yeah. Yeah. No, I could see the the ticker and I I Yeah, I could feel that. I think uh I complained privately about the selection committee, you know, because I I they were they were a tough 15 in my mind. 16. Oh, tough 15. They were a tough 15 and we were the number one overall seed playing them as a 16, right? So, the final score reflected though that Yeah. So, uh but moving back to your your point about Boston, I think, uh I bought in. I’m bought in now after that Seapport district is is nice. I’m bought in. And then yeah, I mean the the the performance the last time we were in Boston has definitely made me um a fan of going back to Boston that that that weekend in TD Bank uh you know to go to the Final Four to give us a chance to go and get that second one in a row you know and then uh yeah the the Husky fans I think they enjoyed Boston. How often do you think about going back to the Final Four? Uh you’re you’re you know what you’re you’re you’re so process driven. I mean, you are so dialed into, you know, who’s what player um is is not where you need him to be or or who are you happy with or what do we got to tweak with the way that we’re playing offense, defense? What should tomorrow’s practice plan look like? How long should we go? How much film should we watch? What type of brainwashing should we do with some type of part of a podcast or some type of v? you know, you’re so dialed into driving your team to get better that it doesn’t like thinking about those things doesn’t hit, you know, until you get later in the year. For me, even the 24 team, I didn’t start really thinking about the final four. You’re talking about seating. You you’re talking about, hey, you know, like guys, we got to finish this regular seat. Like, we can’t piss away the Providence game on the road at the end of 24 cuz we could lose the overall top seed to Purdue, you know? Right. So guys like, you know, we’re going overall top seed, first time in program history. That’s really the only time it comes up. You don’t start really saying to yourself, man, I got a final four team until you probably finished the regular season. Know that your team has the capability and then you start saying to yourself internally, man, I better get there with this team because this is a this is a legit team. So the pressure built for me after we played that dominant game at Providence to end the 24 regular season that a lesser team cuz Providence was on the bubble. Yeah. If Providence wins that game with Carter, they got a chance to get in the tournament by beating the overall number one seed. So only a special team would have got in there and got down I think 15 I got down 17-2 and then we’re up 15 at halftime. Yeah. So that’s when you know have you gotten over though living a life of every season is national title or bust? Have you gotten over that? No, it’s awesome. So you’re still going to go through the season where if we don’t win a national championship that you know we failed like if you get to the final four and it’s an overtime game against Houston, a great program, and they win 8480, is it still going to be like the gates of hell brutality? Yeah. I mean I I think that there’s a level of sat. So, how do you enjoy the season? You don’t I I’ve said this, it just the season is it it’s it’s it it’s suffering and it and it’s uh it’s relief. It’s suffering. It’s relief. It’s relief. Relief. Relief. Extreme suffering, right? Like that’s what goes on now. Like listen, if you’re the coach at Rhode Island and and you you know, you win the Atlantic 10 tournament, you go to the NCAA tournament and you beat Kraton and then you do lose that heartbreaker classic game against that Oregon team. Yeah. I mean, part of you feels like you did a good job, right? But you also too, part of you knows that it it it could have been better. It could have ended even better. So, yeah, I think maybe at the end of your career, you look back and you say like, “Hey, here are my total career accomplishments. Hopefully, you’ve got multiple final fours and national championships and all those things, but if the season doesn’t end in in a victory ultimately and you’re the coach of the six-time national champion Yukon Huskies just in the last 30 years, you know, we double or triple, quadruple some of the best programs in the country in terms of championships. How do you with a straight face say that anything but that is what you’re in it for? Yeah. And you know, a lot of college basketball people are in it too for big games. And let’s wrap on this. What do you think those games are going to be like this year with St. John’s? Oh, those will be fun. I mean, those are the best best games because I think the worst times as a coach is when you’re playing a game that does not have the spice, that does not have the buildup, that doesn’t have any of that, cuz now you’ve got to generate things with your team to try to, you know, really maximize their their interest and and and their preparation and and and the the understanding that every possession is going to be life or death in this one. Um, so those those are the games that are the the most fun, the ones that have the fans excited, the ones that you know are going to pull in a big rating, the ones that are going to, you know, get the eyeballs and the attention. And, you know, you obviously you you have respect for, you know, certain programs that are able to do it at at a certain level, at a high level. Um, you know, so there’s a, you know, for me there’s a obviously there’s a dislike for people that are trying to get what you want. I don’t it’s it’s a pretty much a zero sum game here where one of us is going to win the championship in the Big East, you know, regular season. One of us is going to win the Big East tournament. You know, I don’t think that you have much of a chance to be friendly when you’re both are in this zero fight fight to the death for the championship top of the mountain. So, but you have a reverence and you always have had a reverence for great coaches. So, I know there’s a mutual respect on both sides there. I’ve been able to achieve what I’ve been able to achieve in my career because I’ve studied the great coaches. I’ve studied, you know, I’ve studied the Rick Patinos. I’ve studied the Tom Isos, the Coach K’s, you know, the Billy Donovan, Coach Calhoun, you know, my dad, you know, my dad didn’t study. I lived it. The great football coaches, the Bill Parcels, the Bill Walshes. I mean, I’ve got, you know, great respect, you know, but, you know, Rick Patino is still an active coach. Yeah. You know, and we’re both fighting for the same thing. So, there’s always going to be, you know, a little bit of edgginess to the relationship. And we know you’re guaranteed to play twice this year. There could be a third meeting maybe on a Saturday night in March at Madison Square Garden. And who knows, maybe there’ll be a fourth meeting in Indianapolis. Cuz if that ever happened, if it was 8:47 and Iron Eagle was calling Yukon St. John’s in the final four, it would be like a Hulk Hogan Ultimate Warrior Wrestlemania 6 or an Ali Frasier or a Tyson Holyfield. It would be that that epic. And you know as well as I do, this is only September. The name of the book is Never Stop. Dan Hurley with Ian O’Connor. Get it right now. It’s a great great tool for people who want to go through obviously all that life throws at them and how to be resilient, how to be self-confident. Dan Hurley, who has said multiple times that if his life became a movie, Billy Bob Thornton would probably get the lead role. That’s to be determined. Yeah. Uh I mean, the book reads like a movie. You do that. When you read it, you say, “This is a this is a freaking movie.” Uh, could Billy Bob could he sell basketball coach, you know, could he sell it? But I think the edge sometimes the language, the edge. Yeah. His his demeanor though, you know, in movies a little bit different than yours. Well, I I mean, Land Man, he’s a monster. He’s a monster. I mean, Land Man, he’s a monster. Uh, if I didn’t tell you when I uh first saw you today, it’s great to finally meet you in person. That’s Dan Hurley, the Yukon coach, two-time national champion, future Naymith Hall of Famer. The Huskies looking for their third national championship in four seasons. That’s Dan Hurley. I’m John Rothstein and this is Inside College Basketball Now.