For decades, former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski bore the responsibility of leading collegiate basketball. Whether you love him, loathe him, or have no opinion about him, Coach K was the most consistently successful and famous personality in the sport from the time he won his first National Championship at Duke until he left the program in 2022. There are definitely a few more coaches who could make a similar claim, including legends like as Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, John Calipari, and Jay Wright. However, with K, Williams, and Wright all retired and Izzo and Calipari lacking recent tournament success, UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley is definitely the best in collegiate basketball.
Although there is no official coronation, Coach K has passed the torch to Dan Hurley. During a recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Mike Krzyzewski discussed what it takes to fill that role and why he wasn’t shocked Hurley declined the opportunity to leave UConn to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I believe his dedication to the game was part of the reason he stayed. He is currently one of the leaders in college basketball, if not the top leader, then certainly one of the top two or three. You have a responsibility, and you understand that you cannot simply win trophies, though they are wonderful. You have to commit to the game. He is a lifer, as is his entire family, and they are deeply committed to basketball. I adore them. “I don’t like them; I love them.”
Of course, Coach K has a direct connection to the Hurley family, having coached Dan Hurley’s older brother Bobby at Duke for four seasons. Bob Hurley Sr. is one of only three high school basketball coaches admitted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, having won 26 state championships in 39 years of coaching. Given the recent success of the youngest of these three Hurleys, it’s feasible that UConn’s head coach will one day be able to travel the short distance from Storrs, Connecticut to Springfield, Massachusetts to get the same distinction.
Dan Hurley, the head coach of the Connecticut Huskies, prepares his team for the first half of the NCAA Big East Conference Tournament versus the Xavier Musketeers at Madison Square Garden in New York.
UConn’s Dan Hurley is collegiate basketball’s new torchbearer.
Dan Hurley may be the new guard, but much about him screams old school. His offensive philosophy and willingness to depend on analytics are as new-school as it gets. His fiery, confrontational demeanor is right out of 1980s Big East basketball. This paradox has not only transformed UConn into a modern-day behemoth, but has also propelled Dan Hurley to the pinnacle of an ever-changing sport.
Dan Hurley joins Henry Iba, Adolph Rupp, Phil Woolpert, Ed Jucker, John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, and Billy Donovan as coaches who have won back-to-back National Championships. Hurley hypothesized that this team might be his most talented yet, even before two-year junior starter Alex Karaban decided to return to Storrs for the chance to make college basketball history.
If the Huskies can chop down the nets in San Antonio next April, Dan Hurley might as well start preparing his induction speech into the Basketball Hall of Fame the moment he returns to Storrs, since he’ll join John Wooden as the only two head coaches to win at least three consecutive titles.
