COLUMBUS, Ohio
Buffalo is in the NCAA tournament for the first time.
The hiring of Bobby Hurley looks like a good move.
The point guard for three Duke Final Four teams -- two national champions -- and the NCAA's all-time assists leader, Hurley has been officially back in basketball for only five years. In his second year as Buffalo's head coach, the Bulls have won eight straight and are the No. 12 seed in the Midwest region after winning the Mid-American Conference tournament last weekend.
Buffalo, with Hurley as the face of a young, athletic, ascending team, plays No. 5 West Virginia on Friday afternoon in Columbus.
"I'm excited for my players," Hurley said. "I know what they sacrificed, what they go through and how hard they've worked to get here. We have had some peaks and valleys this year and had some difficult times that we've overcome, and I know what it feels like to get here, the excitement, the memories that you take from playing in this tournament.
"I'm glad that my players get to enjoy that and experience it."
It's been more than 20 years since the auto accident that changed his life and 15 since he officially announced his retirement from the NBA. But after Hurley worked as a scout for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2003, he decided that he needed to get away from basketball.
Hurley had business interests, including ownership of race horses in Florida. He had a young family, too, but he had so much lingering disappointment that he needed to be away from basketball before he went back.
"I was burnt out," Hurley said. "I grew up with the game. I worked as hard as I could work to get where I had gotten playing and it just didn't work out for me professionally. I didn't achieve anything close to what I intended on and was very frustrated. I had a lot of injuries and things. So I wanted to do something different. I did that."
He went back as a middle school coach, a job someone at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale knew he couldn't turn down.
And maybe Hurley knew that was the beginning.
After two years as an assistant to his brother at Wagner and one at Rhode Island, he has Buffalo in the NCAA tournament, coaching Friday against Bob Huggins, who's in his 21st NCAA tournament and coached against Hurley the player when Huggins was at Cincinnati.
"I always had the itch to coach and I understood the commitment and what it takes to coach and the time you need to invest," Hurley said. "And I was enjoying watching my children grow up and that was a part of it. But then I knew I got to a point where I was either going to do it or not do it. And it all fell into place with how my brother was in a transition and I trusted him going into a great situation. I knew we would do a great job together. So it all worked out. And I wish I had done it sooner because I love doing it. The time you spend in the gym with the guys, the same competitiveness I brought to the floor as a player, I think I bring as a coach. So it replaces it. And also you feel like you're helping kids.
"Tournaments like this, days like this, it's worth it, because my players are experiencing what they're experiencing."
Hurley called making the NCAA tournament "euphoria" for himself and the Buffalo athletic department. In just two seasons, Buffalo senior Xavier Ford said Hurley has established a standard for "an edge" to a program that's never had a stage like it has this week.
"We understand that being a winner comes with a lot of stuff, accolades and media and (things) like that," Ford said. "But at the same time we expected the success because Coach Hurley holds us to a high standard. We're happy to be here and to be able to keep putting mid-major schools on the map, play for our community in Buffalo and try to make a good run and make special things happen.
"Coach Hurley is very intense. He comes from winning. His father (Dan Sr., the longtime coach at St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City) is a winner. Coach K at Duke is a winner. He holds us accountable for winning. It's a standard that's been set. We always emphasize the value of the little things, the fundamentals, taking care of the ball, being unselfish. He's just brought a winning attitude and unselfishness that we've all bought into."
Buffalo's players weren't born when Hurley was one of college basketball's best players. But they know the name, and by now they know the style and the expectations.
"His first year he was kind of feeling his way into the job," Ford said. "It was his first head coaching job and he was learning how to push our buttons. We had some success and we have a real talented group this year. He picked up the intensity a lot this year. He got more comfortable with us, learning how to push our buttons. He knows what makes us tick and we know what makes him tick.
"I would say this year he stepped up and has been more aggressive and confident in himself. We as players all notice and when we have a confident coach. That helps us be confident when we're out there performing."
Buffalo already has gone where it's never been. Friday could provide another launching pad for where it may be able to go, and quickly.
