College Basketball

UConn's Dan Hurley embraces chaos of roller-coaster season: 'This is a drug, man'

Updated Jan. 25, 2023 1:48 p.m. ET

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John Fanta

College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter

Dan Hurley woke up on Christmas morning to find an easel in his house.

"I mentioned to [my wife] Andrea that I wanted to get into painting," said the UConn head coach, who isn’t into golf nearly as much as other college coaches. "I haven’t been able to get to it yet."

While the thought of Hurley applying paint to canvas might evoke an image of calmness and serenity, the coach's on-court demeanor — as well as his team's performance this season — presents a far more chaotic picture.

His Huskies, who started the season 14-0 and were ranked as high as No. 2 in the AP Top 25, have since lost five of their last seven. Thought to be the Big East favorite entering conference play, the Huskies are 5-5 in league games and trying to regain the rhythm that saw them notch double-digit wins over Alabama and Iowa State en route to a Phil Knight Invitational title. 

Fittingly, opportunity knocks for Connecticut to reassert itself and earn some measure of revenge Wednesday night when the 19th-ranked Huskies host the team that handed them their first loss — No. 13 Xavier — at Gampel Pavilion (6:30 p.m. ET on FS1 and the FOX Sports app).

It’s been a roller-coaster ride for UConn in recent weeks, but the unbeaten nonconference season still has them in position to earn a No. 5 seed in Mike DeCourcy’s latest NCAA Tournament bracket forecast.

While Hurley obviously prefers the highs to the lows, the passion that builds in him on the daily 40-minute drive from his home in Glastonbury to Storrs never wavers. 

"This is a drug, man," Hurley said. "There’s nowhere else where you can get the adrenaline rush and the highs of doing this every day. Getting the win provides such a rush, but even the falling and being at the bottom when people crush you. That feeling of getting out of bed and needing to respond, and knowing you have the courage to live life like that."

Hurley’s realization that coaching would be his pathway came on Jan. 6, 1996, at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. He was a senior at Seton Hall at the time, and that afternoon Pirates head coach George Blaney assigned Hurley to guard Georgetown star Allen Iverson.

The future Hall of Famer matched his career-high with 40 points in a Hoyas victory. 

"I knew I would coach that day when Iverson went off on me," Hurley said with a chuckle. "When I was holding onto the thought of maybe playing in the NBA, that was the moment when I was like, ‘Yo, you’re probably not going to the draft." 

So, Dan did what anyone would have done to start his coaching career in his shoes: He went to his dad, Bob, and joined the coaching staff at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J. Bob Hurley Sr. was in the middle of a 39-year run that featured 26 state championships, four national titles and an eventual induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

"His intensity level, his passion and love for the game is what made me who I am both on the court and now as a coach," Hurley said. "There’s no better combination of coach and father to have than what I’ve been blessed with." 

Dan shares that bond with his older brother Bobby, 18 months his senior, who won two national championships at Duke as an All-American, Final Four Most Outstanding Player and NCAA all-time assists leader before getting drafted seventh overall by the Sacramento Kings in 1993. They both played for their dad at St. Anthony. 

Bobby is now in his eighth season as head coach at Arizona State, a critical campaign as he tries to get the Sun Devils to their first NCAA Tournament in four years.

"You’re each other’s Tony Robbins during the grind of the season," Dan said of how he and his brother share motivational messages. "We support the hell out of each other. Everything is your responsibility, and it’s a nonstop, five-month war of a season. We try to build each other up throughout and talk things out." 

Bobby Hurley's Arizona State Sun Devils are 15-5 and tied for third place in the Pac-12. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

For the younger Hurley, those conversations matter. He is true to himself and admits his pathway has featured ups and downs. Through the low points, he takes pride in how he has taken on those moments and moved past them.

"I am tough on myself because my experience in basketball hasn’t just been a joyride," Hurley says. "My playing career wasn’t what I thought it would be. I went to Rutgers for four years under Kevin Bannon, and we got fired in 2001. You know, I didn’t have some basketball experience at a Duke or a Kentucky."

Losing his job at Rutgers sent him from Piscataway to Newark and a nine-year stint in the high school ranks at St. Benedict’s before eventually re-entering the college level at Wagner in Staten Island. During his extended run at St. Benedict's, though, Hurley followed in his mom’s footsteps as a teacher and instructed history classes at the school. The power of family is what kept him at the high school level for close to a decade.

"I stayed in high school coaching longer than I needed to for Danny Jr. and Andrew," Hurley said when describing how he is as a father to his boys. "I wanted to be a parent that gave them love and time, to set an example for them. I did the Little League games, the Pop Warner, the CYO matchups. That all meant something to me. I don’t have a lot of friends, to be honest. Andrea and my boys are who I have, and they’re my world."

Andrew is currently a junior on the Huskies, while Danny is a Seton Hall graduate working in public policy.

"To go through basketball with him," Hurley said of his son Andrew, "it’s really powerful and makes me emotional. There’s been times where I think about the journey in this sport, and the fact I can share in that with my boy now, you just hug your son and cry tears of holy s--- in those moments." 

Hurley is now in his fifth season at UConn, and he understands the expectations of the job. 

After he led Rhode Island to back-to-back seasons with an NCAA Tournament win (2017 and 2018), Hurley has coached Connecticut to two straight trips to the big dance. The next step is winning meaningful games in March.

"There’s a ton of pressure here," Hurley said of the program that Jim Calhoun built into a four-time national champion. "You take this job knowing there’s way more pressure here than there is at so many other places. It’s here and Villanova in the Big East. Those are the two places where expectations are through the roof. It’s hard to be elite. That’s what I came here to be."

Speaking of Villanova, as Hurley has spent time over the last year evaluating how his program can achieve success, he has relied on the counsel of former Villanova coach and Hall of Famer Jay Wright. 

"Jay told me you have to stare so hard at your culture every day and look at every single crack of it," Hurley said. "Whether it’s a manager, a player or a video guy, you need to be attentive to detail and have everyone bought in to winning every single day. There are storms in the season. You’re going to lose. The Big East is brutal, man. But that said, you better protect your culture every single day."

The Big East is certainly brutal, fielding four teams — No. 13 Xavier, No. 16 Marquette, No. 23 Providence and Hurley's No. 19 Huskies — in the AP Top 25, the second-most ranked teams from any league.

Can Hurley get UConn back on track and playing its best basketball when it matters most? With Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan in the frontcourt, plus a high-level scorer (Jordan Hawkins) and a terrific leader (Andre Jackson) on the wing, the Huskies have to find guard play for it to click.

Here’s one thing you can expect: Hurley is not backing down from the passion that he coaches with day in and day out, which sometimes draws criticism. He doesn’t mind the hate, though. He can take it.

"I’ve won at a lot of places, and when you do that, you become a villain," Hurley said. "Rarely does hatred develop for people who aren’t winning. It only seems to go to people at or near the top of their conference.

"The other part of it is who I turn into on game night, with competitiveness and passion. I am not a cheater, and I’m not a liar. Kids come to UConn because they want to play for a coach who fights hard for them and that coaches as hard as they play all year long. 

"There are times on a ride home from a game where I know I should have kept my composure more, but by the same token, this is me." 

Dan Hurley throws a tantrum after being ejected

UConn coach Dan Hurley is known for a tempestuous nature on the sideline, which was on display in a game against Villanova last season.

Though Hurley listens to meditation podcasts on the drive to and from work, takes part in yoga sessions periodically and might try his hand at painting in the offseason, there’s no stopping the UConn coach from being who he is, and he believes there’s no better place for that than Storrs. 

"You need a coach like me at UConn," Hurley said. "Somebody that is a little edgy, that is overly passionate and tough. I can see this place being the last place I coach at, definitely. This job suits me. It fits."

John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.

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