Dan Hurley is giving a line here
- Thread starter NYShoreGuy
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Now who isn’t being honest lol
So this contradicts much of what he's said about the conference. This quote for example..
“Statements like that are just asinine. You’re going against beasts and monsters every night in the Big East, and the Big East prepared us for teams like Illinois.”
That is just an ego 'I am wonderful" statement.
I agree. That seems totally out of step with what he’s been saying the last few seasons. Very surprised to see this quote. Enough to the point where I actually question whether he really said it.
Yes - it is completely contradictory. The only thing i would add is Houston did very well in the AAC, so Danny could have turned around UCONN in that conference. With that said, would he be able to attract the same level of player to play in the AAC versus the Big East.
One thing is certain, Creighton definitely benefitted from joining the Big East.
One thing is certain, Creighton definitely benefitted from joining the Big East.
Eh. Not surprising. They don’t want to give credit away for what they’ve built. They’re in the verge of consecutive NC’s. What do you want the coach to say? Without the BE they’d be a. Also ran?
We don’t need to be insecure about the BE. We may have our 4th NC in 9 seasons, 2 different schools. A better stretch than the old conference had.
We don’t need to be insecure about the BE. We may have our 4th NC in 9 seasons, 2 different schools. A better stretch than the old conference had.
Right, like his asst coaches aren't involved in the portal and letting him know what's going on..I think all the pub is going to Danny's head.
Which would have made it 5 in 9.
I don’t think this is contradictory. He has consistently said the BE is a bear of a conference but he believes that he could have built UCONN even in the AAC. Not sure I buy that but it’s just Danny saying Danny things.
Hurley loves the big east. He has said so plenty of times. He also thinks that the big east was under represented in the NCAA tournament this year. But he also has confidence in himself and his staff, the program and its resources. So I don't think his statement should be read as a knock against the big east. It wasn't.
Two things can be true at the same time. UConn hired Dan Hurley to do exactly what he has done and they did so when they were still a member of the AAC. Being confident in his own ability to build a program shouldn't be a knock against him.
Would he have been able to do so had UConn not moved to the Big East? We'll never know. I'm sure being able to sell the Big East brand has made it easier.
It's not unheard of to build perennial championship contenders in non-major conferences. Kelvin Sampson did so with Houston in the AAC (four straight Sweet 16s or better), Mark Few built on a foundation at Gonzaga and John Calipari did it at Memphis when they were in Conference USA.
Would he have been able to do so had UConn not moved to the Big East? We'll never know. I'm sure being able to sell the Big East brand has made it easier.
It's not unheard of to build perennial championship contenders in non-major conferences. Kelvin Sampson did so with Houston in the AAC (four straight Sweet 16s or better), Mark Few built on a foundation at Gonzaga and John Calipari did it at Memphis when they were in Conference USA.
When I read it I was thinking that it was more the school telling him to tone it down as he has been so bullish on the big east.
It made me think of the school trying to position themself for negotiating another move if they won back to back.
What exactly was the question he was asked. If it was would UConn be a final four contender if it wasn't in the big east. is he supposed to answer no? Trying to make something out of nothing here.
I don't think so. Absent the ACC blowing up, I doubt we're going anywhere. And if the ACC blows up, it might not be a better choice than the big east depending on what's left.
Yeah, he has praised the BE often. Remember last year, when they asked why did Uconn start losing after the great OOC and he said cause we started playing BE teams? And he doesnt want to act like "where would I be without the BE" either.
God knows what I would say over such a high pressure 4 days with a mic in my mug all the time. We have to take it easy on parsing every syllable these guys say.
Danny would be crazy to go to Kentucky. guy is on his way to being the greatest coach of all time no joke. don't leave a good thing.
Kentucky will probably offer at least 10 million. He has to listen. He can help fund NIL at his alma mater with all that money too.
With bonus he’ll get close to 7 million this year. How much is enough when you’re in a gig where he can become a legend.
If I’m Hurley I throw out a guaranteed outlandish number. $15 million per, 6 years guaranteed. I doubt they go that high.
How much is enough? When it comes to getting what he needs Danny is probably the poorest person in the room other than the AD. He's schmoozing guys with hundreds of millions. When you're in that atmosphere and you're a competitor you you go for it. There's a competitive side that I'm sure he wants to be the best on the court and the best compensated.
Danny is close to home and at a school that can pay him a quality salary. That would show a lot of his character if he leaves. He seems very much like his father, who has great character, he definitely not in it for the money. I think in this situation it just so happened that salary and location both fit when he landed the UConn job.
That said I still like Sha as our coach. In SHA WE TRUST! GO HALL.
No I'm saying when it's all said and done if I was him, I'd want to be worth hundreds of millions. Remember even your 6 year 15 million offer has close to 40 million going to uncle Sam. He'll live just fine, but people are super competitive. Mark Cuban doesn't need to be going after more money, but he does.
Danny has to at minimum will get UConn to give him a big raise.
It's coming.
Hurley is smart enough to realize that money isn't everything in his situation. at Connecticut he has the facilities, the tradition, institutional support, and fans support to be able to build something truly special. That's less clear at Kentucky where he is away from his East Coast base. Plus, Andrea would be a hard sell to leave the East Coast.
That said, he deserves to be paid among the best in basketball. He will be.
By the time he’s extended at UConn he’ll be guaranteed upwards of 30+ million on the life of the contract. This discussion isn’t about money it’s about what fills Hurley’s ego the most… it’s not UK. It’s going to be the Knicks. Not now, but in the future
Hurley: UConn Would Be Powerhouse Even Without a Return to the Big East
BY AMANDA CHRISTOVICHIn many ways, the team's rebirth aligned its return to its conference of yore.
The Huskies would have come to dominate the men’s game whether they were duking it out in the Big East or still languishing in the AAC.
By the time UConn announced it would rejoin the Big East for the 2020–21 season, the program had fallen into a period of irrelevance. The Huskies, toiling in the American Athletic Conference, hadn’t won a national championship since 2014, and hadn’t even reached the NCAA tournament since 2016.
In many ways, the team’s rebirth aligns with the return to its conference of yore. (After all, programs move away from conferences for two reasons: to get rich and, by proxy, get better.) When the realignment announcement came in the summer of 2019, Dan Hurley (above, right) had just finished his first season as the head coach in Storrs. In 2021, their first year back in the Big East, the Huskies made their first NCAA tournament in half a decade. In 2023, they won the national title, and are going for the repeat in Phoenix on Monday night—a feat accomplished by only seven other men’s teams in history.
But when Front Office Sports asked whether his program would have reached this level of dominance if it hadn’t rejoined the Big East, he leaned forward into the microphone and said, “Absolutely.”
“We would be where we were regardless.”
Hurley acknowledged that the move “certainly helped,” and he’s made plenty of comments suggesting he’s much happier with UConn in its current conference than its former one. The Big East’s intense competition really kept the team sharp—Hurley likened the Huskies’ journey to that of Kelvin Sampson and Houston, who moved from the AAC to the Big 12 just this year and led the Cougars to a conference title and Sweet 16 berth. (Hurley has spent most of the postseason reiterating how he believed the conference deserved at least three more bids than it received.)
But the 2024 Naismith National Coach of the Year said that by the time ’20 rolled around, the program was already recruiting “at a very, very high level.” He also said they had the “best staff in the country” at the time.
From a financial standpoint, UConn isn’t getting rich in the Big East, either. In the AAC, the school could expect somewhere between $8 million and $10 million in annual revenue distributions, according to recent tax filings. In its new conference, the athletic department receives no more than $5 million. (The Big East is in the midst of negotiating a new, and potentially more lucrative, media-rights deal, and talks are going well, commissioner Val Ackerman told reporters during the conference’s tournament.) The school has, however, been able to cut down a multimillion-dollar budget deficit in its new home.
Ultimately, the conference should be thanking them, he said. “We’ve also had a big impact on the Big East.”
I have full confidence he would've built them into a top-10 type of program had they remained in the American. Houston managed it prior to this year and I think Hurley is good enough to, as well. But a team ready to dominate the postseason like they have? Absolutely not. Also -- and sure, it might just be a coincidence, or when it was going to happen anyway -- but his recruiting sure hit a new level once they rejoined the Big East.
There are players who've said that Connecticut being in the big east mattered to them in choosing Connecticut. Andre Jackson, Adama Sanogo, Booknight, etc. There's not a doubt in my mind that being in the Big East helps Connecticut recruit.
