LAHAINA, Hawaii — Dan Hurley knew what he was signing up for.
In June, UConn’s coach became one of the biggest stories in sports … just two months after being one of the biggest stories in sports. A second consecutive national championship run in April put Hurley in rare company; he was one of just three coaches to win two straight titles in men’s college basketball since John Wooden ruled this part of the sports world. That drew attention from Kentucky, but leaving for Lexington was never considered.
Then, two months later, the Los Angeles Lakers called. That was different.
But he still wasn’t leaving.
He’d built a modern dynasty at Connecticut and didn’t want to let go. With four starters leaving for the NBA, Hurley knew he’d have a roster that was different from the previous two that went a combined 68-11 and put on the most dominant NCAA Tournament run in consecutive seasons in the modern era.
Few could reasonably expect UConn to do the near-impossible and win a third straight title, but that goal — and widespread skepticism from outsiders attached to it such ambition — was an easy motivating factor for the 51-year-old, and motivating to a level most don’t realize.
After facing four cupcakes to start this season, UConn took a massive step up in competition here in Maui. On Monday, Hurley and his program experienced something they hadn’t in 288 days. A loss.
In one of the best Maui Invitational games in the 40-plus-year history of the event, UConn lost 99-97 in overtime to Memphis after the Huskies climbed back from trailing by 13 with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. The story was not UConn’s loss, however. It was Hurley’s temperament, which wound up costing his team a chance to win the game or send it to double overtime. Hurley was slapped with a technical foul after falling on his derriere following an iffy over-the-back call against freshman Liam McNeeley. In an instant, the ever-persecuted Hurley found all the motivation he needed.
“There was a zero respect factor for us,” Hurley told CBS Sports of the officiating crew, echoing his disdain from the postgame press conference. “The force of that call knocked me back on the ground.”
He’d been riding the refs for more than two hours, practically asking for a T.
At the worst time, he got it. As he got on the team bus, Hurley acknowledged that he knew his constant barrage of gyrations made him a target.
“What I gave the cameras today was Oppenheimer,” he said.
That type of response has led to harsh criticism of Hurley, but he’s never been one to hide his emotions. More often than not, this approach has given him an edge in coaching and program-building. He is a singular personality in college basketball, which is matched by his singular achievement. No other active coach in the game has won two straight national titles. You can hate how he handles himself, but he has found a through line to the apex of the sport.
We’ll see what happens over the next two days here at the Maui Invitational, but Monday obviously showed how different this season could be for a Huskies team with a high ceiling and a TBD floor. This program was understandably given the benefit of the doubt after a roster reloading. It had the ranking, reputation and the prestige, but didn’t have the early season résumé to indicate how good it would be after losing so much production.
The loss to Memphis recalibrates some things. Hurley’s team was 47-3 in its previous 50 games, but now the only number that matters is the one loss that occurred Monday.
“We know that this is going to be a different type of season,” Hurley said outside the team bus after Monday’s loss. “This is not last year’s team. That was just a ridiculously dominant basketball team. It’s a team that, it’s going to depend on the growth of the Solo Balls, the Jaylin Stewarts, the Liam McNeeleys, the Jayden Rosses, and there’s going to be games like this along the way.”
Because of the logistics of the Lahaina Civic Center, Hurley didn’t even talk to the team after the loss in the locker room. They had to rush out ASAP to allow Michigan State to load its gear. He opted against meeting with the team for hours after the loss on Monday.
It’s not an overreaction to ask: Can Hurley keep UConn at the top of the sport? That’s probably the biggest plot point in Maui. To get a closer look at trying to achieve this goal, Hurley and UConn granted CBS Sports exclusive access leading up to and through Monday’s game.
STORRS, Conn. — Donning a red UConn hat and opting to keep his sunglasses on, Dan Hurley struts into Gampel Pavilion with his AirPods in — playing the ’80s hit “Our House” by Madness — and starts hucking half-court heaves with casual confidence.
His second attempt swishes.
“I’m locked in,” he yells to UConn’s team managers. Hurley is a man of nearly a million rituals and superstitions. Sinking a half-court shot on each hoop prior to the start of practice is one such ceremony. It’s a week before UConn will lose to Memphis. On this day, the Huskies are preparing for East Texas A&M, a school that until just a few moments ago was called Texas A&M Commerce. This is the program’s third season in Division I. It rates as one of the worst programs in the country.
Hurley opts to hold a three-hour practice the day before the game.
UConn will go on to win 81-46, with the 35-point win insulting its coach. Hurley opens his press conference the next night by dubbing the 35-point victory “comically bad.”
Few, if any, coaches would publicly summarize an obvious drumming the way Hurley did. But it’s that mentality that has led Hurley to become the face of the sport. Seeing him now, it’s hard to even imagine Hurley taking an NBA job. He’d have had to drastically change his act at that level. College enables him — for better or worse — to play to his ego and be true to his impulses. It’s how he’s built a behemoth in Storrs.
The decision also lit a fuse in him that has turned him into his most focused and maniacal. For all of his meditation rituals and Bible-verse readings on game days, he’s still driven by an obsessive desire to overcome any slight, real or perceived. Hurley is always in search of an enemy. Winning two straight national championships has empowered him, but also brought him down a road where he’s again acting on emotion the way he did for most of the earlier parts of his career. On multiple occasions in the past couple of months, Hurley has had 911 prompts from his Apple Watch, due to the vigor of his heart rate.
“He’s more intense now than ever,” his wife, Andrea, told CBS Sports. “He wants this so badly.”
This = a third straight national title. It’s going to be absurdly hard. That’s the point. It should be hard. Hurley invites the risk and the chance of it going sideways. Andrea plays the foil. She’ll tease her husband that Duke has a better team. She knows he doesn’t enjoy winning as much as he should, and he’s still working on that.
To watch Hurley run a practice is to see a man in constant bemusement over multiple hours. At one point, he tosses his practice plan papers into the air, turns around and folds himself over the scorer’s table.
“F— me, man,” he says while watching a blue-vs.-gray 5-on-5 scrimmage. Mistakes lead to everyone running the stairs, even the coaches. The senior-most guy is prone to catch some of the ire.
“That’s low-level shit, Alex,” Hurley says after Alex Karaban’s blue team gets beat on a defensive lapse.
If you didn’t know better, you’d think Hurley’s doing this against his will.
But it’s just the opposite.
“I’m pretty amazed by his level of intensity,” associate head coach Luke Murray tells me. “I’ve been around him a lot for the last 15 years and I don’t know that I can remember a time where he was more intense, more competitive. He’s hungrier than ever. And I don’t think back-to-back titles has in any way kind of softened his approach. I think to the contrary, it’s sparked even more enthusiasm to try to keep the standard where it is, elevate the standard, potentially fight off the human nature element that can kind of creep in, in any sort of complacency.”
Traveling into Maui for this event is always stressful. The flights are long, there are sometimes delays and it’s common for teams to wind up getting into their hotels hours after they expected. Such was the case with UConn, which didn’t get in until 1 a.m. early Saturday morning. That makes for a quick body adjustment for Saturday’s 11 a.m. practice at Maui Prep. Saturday is the day to get acclimated. Hurley doesn’t want to keep his guys from at least some enjoyment in paradise, so the players get a little time on jet skis and take in Maui’s unparalleled beaches. By Saturday night, it’s a donor reception and then team film study after dinner.
9 a.m. Sunday: Practice at Lahaina Civic Center
Sunday is the big prep day, and it’s where we find Hurley’s staff at their best. UConn practices at 9 a.m. on Sunday at the Lahaina Civic Center. After stretching, the players wear weighted gloves and work on dribbling drills all down the sideline. Hurley’s a big believer in fundamentals all across the board. UConn will run the same type of drills all season long, no matter how familiar it is, and each time the gym will fill to the brim with noise.
“Hands up! Get your f—ing hands up! Use your legs!!” Hurley tells his team. They can practically hear him in Honolulu. For as intense as the practice before East Texas A&M was, this is another level entirely. Connecticut practices are a cacophony of caustic commands, critiques — and encouragement. Hurley and his assistants — Murray, Kimani Young and Tom Moore — seem to land in that Tom Izzo zone of riding a player’s ass without sounding like a total jerk about the process.
In the corner of the gym is a blown-up picture of the Maui Invitational trophy, a basic motivational tactic Hurley has implemented for UConn’s goals the past two seasons. The Huskies zip through a passing drill that is fast-paced. Support staff yell out the number of passes. Each cycle through is at least seven ball movements. They say UConn’s practices are harder than the games. Watching the Huskies on Sunday, it’s pretty close to the genuine article.
“WHY IS HE NOT IN THE DRILL?!” Hurley shrieks, and it’s almost impossible to decipher who he’s talking about.
They quickly move to box-outs, the coach tossing intentional bricks for his guys to bruise through as assistant coaches bump them with pads. Managers are constantly water-bugging onto the floor to wipe up the sweat.
Memphis awaits, and this practice can’t go more than two hours; every team in the Maui Invitational gets a 120-minute block in the days before Monday’s games. Before long it’s a quick pivot to press offense, where UConn simulates delayed full-court pressure.
“FIRE!! FIRE!! FIRE!!”
UConn is 70-11 the past two seasons under Hurley. These are the spaces and hours where winning more than 85% of your games is possible. He’s made playing, and coaching, at UConn a place where pressure is to be welcomed and mandatory.
“FIRE!! FIRE!!”
11:15 a.m. Sunday: Scout walkthrough at team hotel
No program can thrive at the highest levels on the strength of only its head coach. It takes a really strong staff. UConn has a claim to the best in the sport. On this day, Murray shines. The Memphis matchup is his scout. He’s prepared everything for UConn’s players to know about what Memphis does, who’s on its roster, where its strengths, weaknesses and patterns lie.
As Murray goes about the particulars, he holds court in a hyper-efficient manner. His methodical voice is clean and clear. He has the players’ undivided attention as he walks and talks through all of Memphis’ habits. On one particular play, Murray goes through five different options Memphis could play out of from one multi-level screen. As this is happening, Hurley’s crouched against the wall in the corner, against a faux baseline, letting his lieutenant lay out the ground rules.
“Hey, Luke,” Hurley says, “We cannot get spread out.”
“It’s a paint game,” Murray tells the team.
“It’s a paint game,” Hurley echoes.
(This winds up being ominous. Memphis will go on to shoot 12-of-22 from 3-point range on Monday.)
After 10 minutes, it’s time for a reminder of what awaits. This is no low-major opponent. A lot of players are about to have their toughest physical confrontation ever.
“Be ready,” Hurley tells his team in a soft-toned voice. “The time for the beach and jet skis is over. I might as well be in South Dakota right now. I don’t even know where I am right now. But it’s not on a f—ing vacation. This is going to be a real battle of a game and real war. Be ready to man the f— up.”
8 p.m. Sunday: Film session
We’re in the dark. Only the glow of the screen fills the room and flashes against the faces of the coaches and players. Murray is again at the controls as he cycles through the scouting report and video clips on every relevant Memphis player.
Illinois transfer Dain Dainja is a focal point. The staff reminds UConn’s two best big men, Samson Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr., just how good Dainja is.
Beyond that: “Taking care of the ball is the No. 1 key to the game,” Murray said. “It’s a fist fight tomorrow we have to be ready for. … It has to be clear right away what we’re all about.”
If you want to boil down the biggest reason why UConn has cemented its blue blood status under Hurley, it’s because he surrounded himself with like-minded, uber-competitors.
“I don’t think we’re ever satisfied,” Murray tells me of UConn’s aspirations. It’s a wild statement considering the past two seasons worth of accomplishments. Is it healthy, too? It all depends on your perspective.
“I don’t think any of us ever think that we’re doing the best job that we can, and I think a lot of that is kind of our own sort of makeup, but it’s also totally supplemented or reinforced by the way that coach leads the group,” Murray said. “He’s constantly applying pressure to all of us to do better and to do more, and so, yeah, if you did have some sort of inkling to take your foot off the gas that’s pretty quickly disavowed.”
Night-before film sessions can be hit or miss when it comes to next-day execution. Coaches will tell you sometimes their players retain the information, other times not nearly enough. But it’s a ritual in college basketball. Film does not lie. This is as much about the scout as it is to send the message that the coaches want to carry overnight. UConn’s more than 5,000 miles from home. You’re about to be tested. This group has proven nothing. You don’t get the glory of last year’s team or the one before that.
“When you have UConn across your chest, you have an obligation to the program to do everything when it comes to winning,” Murray said.
And then Young interjects. Young is 50 and carries a different inflection, one that is unmistakable in its frankness.
“These moments, these games, these tournaments, these are why we all came to UConn,” Young said. “This is where you mark your territory. This tournament has got the eyeballs of the entire country. We let everybody know we’re back-to-back national championships and we’re hunting for our third.”
Then it’s Hurley’s turn. He gets up from the chair in the back of the room and lets it rip — but in a controlled voice. The closing message is succinct: “Fight or flight’s gotta kick in tomorrow and it better be fight.”
They cue up a season from the 1994 basketball movie “Above the Rim,” starring Tupac Shakur, and have a good laugh. Not everything is always so serious.
Hurley’s off to his room by 8:14 p.m. and will be in bed by 9. Because tip-off is for 9:30 a.m., he’ll wake up more than five hours beforehand.
“When he commits to something, it’s every day,” Andrea said. “He’ll get up at 4:40 a.m. if he has to in order to do the things has to do every day.”
Monday: Memphis 99, UConn 97 (OT)
The UConn staff considers Maui the first checkpoint in a long season. Before the result of the game is known, it’s acknowledged that at least half of this Huskies roster doesn’t truly know what it means to play for this program and continually endure under Hurley’s watch.
“It’s going to be more than the next three games,” Murray said. “They don’t fully understand it yet. … For some of these guys that are new, whether they’re transfers or freshmen, they’ve just sort of seen it on television or heard stories about it, but they’ve never actually had to live it themselves, so until they can perform in those moments and rise to the occasion, I think that there’s a lot more that still needs to be understood.”
The irony about Hurley is that, at a surface level, his sideline behavior can seem like he’s playing a part. As if he wouldn’t be normal if he acted normal. That’s not it at all, though. Authenticity and unrelenting belief have driven him since he was a high school coach draped in doubt about what he would actually be good at in this world.
Now that he’s achieved it, there’s an appreciation for something being really hard again. I remember talking to Moore after UConn’s Elite Eight ruination of Illinois, wherein the Huskies peeled off a 30-0 run, which is something that should be impossible in a regional final no matter the opponent.
“I keep telling these guys, this isn’t normal,” Moore told me. “Don’t get too used to this.”
UConn made blowing teams out part of its identity. We don’t get those types of teams in college basketball much anymore. This year’s UConn squad is going to have to build its own identity. How long will that take?
“I think by the time we get into February, March, at that point of season, I think we’re going to have a formidable team that’s going to have a chance to make the big run,” Hurley told me. “And I do think that that Memphis team is very good. I think that’s an underrated team. They’ve got a lot of weapons and a lot of physicality … and I think I think this game will help us.”
This team isn’t good enough to overcome too many mistakes. Monday’s rally to get it to overtime showed there’s still that something with these Huskies that makes them a danger. Memphis was owning UConn for much of the game, and then something switched. You could feel it in the air in the gym.
Then Hurley got a technical foul and the game bent against them. Is it a one-off, or an omen of the season ahead? Will Hurley meltdowns be a reliable feature of this 2024-25 campaign?
Maybe Hurley’s decision to stay at UConn turns him into something of a villain. Maybe doing that helps him keep his edge. How he handles being the king of the sport is going to be compelling because Hurley defines the term relentless. There is no off button here. Success is not enough. He’s had that. He’s chasing something he still can’t define, and that search is at the center of why he had to stay at UConn.
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