It’s no secret that the UConn Huskies had, by comparison to their usual standards, a bad season in 2024-25. No one knows this better than Dan Hurley. However, a regular fan could argue that this take is too harsh on the Storrs program.
After all, this is Hurley’s third-best season during his stint at UConn. Better than any campaign of his between 2018-19 and 2021-22. But this isn’t good enough for Hurley; he would be the first to be harsh on himself, as he admitted in a conversation this week with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.
When asked by the journalist if he at least takes pride in that even if the team didn’t measure up to the standards of the previous two seasons, they managed to go the distance against Florida in the NCAA tournament second round, Hurley said:
“Brutal every time, well, not every time, but I’ll pick brutal like 80% of the time. Maybe 85%… It was frustrating.”
“It wasn’t my finest year coaching.”
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Overall, the Huskies’ coach stated that the entire season was frustrating, with the team being close to competing for a longer period in both the NCAA tournament and the Big East regular season. However, something was made abundantly clear: Hurley is not going easy on himself, and he thinks there are important lessons to be learned from the 2024-25 season.
Dan Hurley on UConn player set to have a breakthrough year in 2025-26
On Friday last week, Dan Hurley spoke with the press during the UConn Huskies Media Availability. At one point of the press conference, Hurley spoke about players he believes will be key for the Huskies in the upcoming season. He highlighted Tarris Reed and said:
“We’ve spent a lot of time with Tarris, and Tarris has worked his a– off. We [the coaches] believe, we’ve been heavy that he’s going to have a dominant year.” (17:18)
“At times, last year, if you asked him in December if he thought we believed in him, the coaches, he probably would have told [the media], the lie detector test, ‘No,'” he added.
2024-25 was Tarris Reed Jr.’s third season in college basketball, but his first with UConn after transferring from Michigan. Despite not being a regular starter, he made a name for himself and earned the Big East Sixth Man of the Year award as the conference’s best reserve player.
Read more:
‘At UConn, You’re Supposed to Win — Dan Hurley’s Take on March Madness Mindset
