51°
The UConn men's head basketball coach has led the Huskies to back-to-back Final Fours for the first time in program history.
UConn's dominant run to Glendale, AZ, was capped off with a second-half avalanche of points in the Huskies' 77-52 win over Illinois in the Elite Eight on Saturday, Mar. 30.
And the Hurley family is a basketball dynasty in the Garden State, started by Dan's father Bob Hurley Sr. at the now-closed St. Anthony High School. The elder Hurley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, winning 28 state championships and four USA TODAY national titles.
In his hall-of-fame biography, Bob Sr. said he presided over a "benevolent dictatorship" at St. Anthony, helping countless players learn important life lessons on and off the court. He was also a teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend to students at the shuttered Catholic school.
During a Tuesday, Apr. 2 appearance on The Dan Patrick Show on Peacock and Sirius XM, Dan Hurley said his father's "tough love" heavily influences his coaching style.
"There are aspects that you find out about yourself that now you see some things from your dad, some things from your brother, that rubbed off on you, positive and negative," Hurley said. "The intensity, the passion, the competitiveness, I think the endurance. There's also empathy."
That coaching style may appear to some as outdated in a college sports era with million-dollar NIL deals and players seemingly changing schools every season in the transfer portal.
Dan Hurley disagrees.
"The players will only allow that tough love and that radical, brutal honesty about where exactly everything sits with them in their career, their value, what they're bringing to a team, if they know that you do love them, you have a real relationship, they know that you pour everything you got into them," he said.
Hurley is an especially polarizing coach for fans because of his fiery sideline demeanor. Most recently, he received a technical foul, along with St. John's legendary coach Rick Pitino, after asking for referees to eject a fan in Madison Square Garden during the Big East Tournament semifinals on Friday, Mar. 15.
Bob Sr. was standing next to the UConn bench and the moment was a reminder of what he faced from opposing fans across the Hudson River at St. Anthony.
"He used to go up in there if people were yelling at him, flipping him off, or catcalling him," Dan Hurley said. "I've witnessed on more than one occasion at least two or three hard steps into the bleachers.
"I've never seen him yoke someone up," Hurley continued while chuckling. "My dad is one of the greatest coaches of his generation. He mastered as many things as possible but his intensity is absolutely legendary."
Dan did not have the same on-court success as his brother Bobby. While Dan stayed in New Jersey and starred at Seton Hall, Bobby won two national titles at Duke and had a six-year NBA career.
Dan got his start in head coaching at St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, turning the Gray Bees into a powerhouse like St. Anthony. In 2010, he got his first college gig at Wagner.
After two seasons on Staten Island, Dan took another step up in competition at Rhode Island in 2012. He led the Rams to two NCAA Tournaments before heading slightly closer to home when he became UConn's head coach in 2018.
Bobby spent a year on Dan's staff at Rhody before landing his own head coaching job at the University at Buffalo in 2013. After leading the Bulls to their first NCAA Tournament in 2015, he moved on to Arizona State where he currently coaches about 20 miles away from the site of the 2024 NCAA Men's Final Four.
Despite their different paths, Dan said his competitive fire that started from shooting around with his brother still burns decades later.
"I was the best shooter in high school," said Dan. "I was the best shooter in the Hurley house growing up [but] not [under] pressure. I had trouble taking it from the Country Village courts to the big stadiums.
"Bob was a master of the art of mental warfare and his incredible ability to get under your skin, to get you mad. There's no better competitor than that man."
The UConn men are looking to win their sixth national title. Dan and his son, senior walk-on guard Andrew Hurley, are among the Huskies trying to repeat as champions.
UConn will play Alabama in the Final Four at State Farm Stadium on Saturday, Apr. 6. Tipoff is scheduled for approximately 8:49 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on TBS.
The winner will take on Purdue or North Carolina State in the national title game at 9:20 p.m. on Monday, Apr. 8.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Northern Highlands and receive free news updates.
