What to know about UConn head coach Dan Hurley, from playing to coaching
Dan Hurley has joined rare company.
With UConn's victory over the Purdue Boilermakers, the 2023-24 Huskies men's basketball team became the first squad to repeat as national champions since Florida did so in 2006 and 2007. It also meant that Hurley, the head coach for UConn, joined a list of just 15 other coaches in NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament history to win multiple championships.
Hurley joins Bill Self as the only current active head coach with two or more titles, since Rick Pitino's championship in 2013 with Louisville was vacated.
Hurley, 51, is not a newcomer to coaching, though his string of success has been pronounced in recent seasons; the UConn men's team has now made four consecutive Tournament appearances in Hurley's six seasons there.
Here's everything you need to know about UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley:
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When did Dan Hurley start at UConn?
The Huskies hired Hurley to be their 19th head coach in program history in March 2018, replacing former coach Kevin Ollie. At the time, UConn was just four seasons removed from a national title, won under Ollie, but the program had started to struggle to find consistency.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions also ruled that Ollie failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance, vacating all games from the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. The NCAA also sanctioned Ollie individually and put UConn on probation for two seasons.
Hurley came into the program against that chaos, Hurley has relied on a strong culture and blue-chip recruiting classes to oversee teams that have improved in winning percentage with each successive season. His first season at UConn, the 2018-19 campaign, the Huskies went 16-17. This most recent season, UConn finished 37-3.
Hurley's first national title came during a season when the Huskies won their first 14 games of the year, the third-best start in UConn men's basketball history. The Huskies won 15 of their last 17 games and won all six NCAA Tournament games by double digits.
Hurley's record at UConn now sits at 141-58 (.709).
Dan Hurley's coaching history
Throughout his career, Hurley has earned the reputation of taking over struggling programs and building them into winners. Before arriving at UConn, Hurley coached six seasons (from 2012-13 through 2017-18) at the University of Rhode Island. Similarly to his time with the Huskies, the Rams saw their winning percentage improve in successive seasons in all but one of Hurley's seasons there.
The year before Hurley took over, Rhode Island finished 7-21. By his final season, the Rams were 26-8 and making consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, snapping an 17-season drought.
During his time at Rhode Island, Hurley finished with a 113-82 (.579) record, though he posted a 91-43 (.679) mark in his final four seasons there.
Prior to Rhode Island, Hurley coached two seasons (2010-11 and 2011-12) at Wagner College in the Northeast Conference. The year before Wagner hired Hurley, it won just five games. Hurley led Wagner to 13 victories his first season and 25 the following year.
Before Wagner, Hurley – interestingly – was the head coach (and history teacher) at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J. for nine seasons. That means that when Hurley won his first national championship last season with UConn, he was just 13 years removed from coaching high school.
Hurley built St. Benedict's into a powerhouse, compiling a remarkable 223-21 (.914) record. Hurley spent four seasons (1997-2001) at Rutgers as an assistant coach before he went to St. Benedict's and also served as an assistant on his father's staff at St. Anthony (1996-97).
Dan Hurley's family connections to basketball
Hurley comes from a hoops family.
His father, Bob Hurley Sr., is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) and was an iconic high school coach at the now-closed St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. Bob Sr. actually coached Hurley at St. Anthony, where he became a national recruit.
Bob Sr. also coached Hurley's brother, Bobby, who went on to Duke and became a three-time All-ACC player, a consensus All-American and two-time national champion. Bobby played five seasons in the NBA and is also a college basketball coach, spending the last nine seasons at Arizona State.
Dan Hurley's playing career, college stats
Hurley played high school basketball at the powerhouse St. Anthony, where he was coached by his father. Hurley helped lead St. Anthony to a 31-1 record his senior season and would go on to play for Seton Hall, for iconic coaches P.J. Carlesimo and George Blaney. He was the starting point guard his final two seasons there.
During his time at Seton Hall, the Pirates made three NCAA Tournament appearances and one trip to the National Invitation Tournament. Hurley finished his Seton Hall career with 1,070 points and 437 assists. He graduated in 1996.
Did Dan Hurley play in the NBA?
Despite playing five college seasons as a point guard at Seton Hall (including two seasons as a starter), Hurley never played in the NBA. Rather than pursuing a basketball career in the United States or overseas, Hurley turned to coaching in 1996, joining his high school's coaching staff as an assistant.
