The phrase which says our past shapes our present can be held very true to an extent, especially for UConn Huskies coach Dan Hurley. A two-time national champion and credited for the Huskies’ resurgence to a basketball powerhouse, Hurley’s career as a point guard for Seton Hall still haunts him to this day.
So much so, it made him even despise the sport where he is such a sought-after coach today. As per the Providence Journal, $20M worth Dan Hurley (as per Celebrity Net Worth) proclaimed in 2015 that he “hated” basketball.
“I was done. I was defeated. I hated basketball…I had come to hate the game.”
Despite being a star player for St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, Hurley’s stint at college was rather lackluster. Though he scored over 1,000 points for Seton Hall, his experience as a player was marked with struggles, at one point even facing significant pressure to step away from the team due to mental health challenges. In a 2024 appearance on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz,” Hurley recalled how his basketball career still haunted him.
“I’m still haunted by my playing career in a lot of ways, just how disappointed I am to this day in terms of how that went for me at Seton Hall. So I do feel this enormous pressure in coaching to kind of make up for that in a way and to achieve more greatly because the disappointment will eat away at me whenever my playing days are brought up.”
Dan Hurley made these statements right after his decision to reject a six-year, $70 million coaching offer from the Los Angeles Lakers. But all of that is quite understandable given the basketball legacy that he carries in his veins.
Dan’s father, Bob Hurley Sr. is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and led St. Anthony High School to 26 state titles and four national championships. Hurley’s brother, Bobby Hurley also won two national championships with Duke and played for the Sacramento Kings and the Vancouver Grizzlies during his five-year NBA stint.
Hence, the pressure on Dan Hurley to carry forward the legacy was always impounding. But since discovering coaching after the 1993-94 college season, Hurley had found a new solace where he could excel beyond his college playing accomplishments.
Dan Hurley has proven his mettle as a coach beyond measures
Starting out as an assistant for his alma mater, St. Anthony High School, Dan Hurley rose up the ranks to eventually take up head coaching roles at St. Benedict’s Prep, Wagner, and Rhode Island before coming to UConn. And his coaching prowess at the college hoops level was well proven when he took Rhode Island to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 2017 since 1999.
Since joining UConn as the head coach in 2018, Hurley has won consecutive national championships and Division I regional championships in 2023 and 2024. Furthermore, he was also selected as the Naismith Coach of the Year and Big East Coach of the Year in 2024. Perhaps, the once disgruntled point guard from Seton Hall has now well proven his mettle as a coach to be recognized at collegiate levels and even beyond.
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