Dan Hurley and UConn’s Quest to Be ‘King’ in College Basketball

STORRS, Conn. — It is 1 p.m. on a depressing January afternoon and, with the exception of a couple of managers, Gampel Pavilion is empty. The Connecticut gamers have completed reviewing movie however have not begun to shuffle in from the follow facility around the boulevard. Dan Hurley stands a couple of steps in the back of halfcourt. He’s dressed in grey sweats, a hoodie, a UConn beanie and 2 reflector shades. He would adore it famous that he wore the shades “way before Coach Prime.’’

Hurley starts launching halfcourt shots, cursing under his breath when the first few attempts clank off the backboard or, worse, airball short of the basket entirely. The Huskies stream in, clomping down the stairs to the court, and Hurley, still in his getup, keeps shooting.

Finally, the ball swishes through the net and Hurley shouts, to no one in particular and everyone on hand, “Who’s the king of two in a row?” Ever obedient, celebrity middle Donovan Clingan yells again, “You are, Coach.”

Hurley by no means swishes back-to-back pictures. That doesn’t imply he can’t be king.

It has been 17 years since a faculty basketball workforce has received consecutive nationwide championships, the pursuit of back-to-back coronations turning into more and more elusive as the game dynamics have shifted. Not best has no workforce matched Florida’s two-year run, no protecting champion has such a lot as carried the No. 1 score into February for the reason that Gators.

Until now. Until UConn. A yr after dusting NCAA Tournament combatants through a mean of 20 issues consistent with sport en path to the 2023 name, the Huskies are doubtlessly, and frighteningly, much more succesful.

That UConn workforce limped during the finish of December and into January, shedding 5 of six sooner than discovering its footing; this UConn workforce spent 5 video games with out Clingan, arguably its most important participant, and dropped no longer a sport. The Huskies are 23-2, have received 13 in a row and rank fourth within the NET ratings. They’ve held their closing 10 combatants to a mean 60 issues consistent with sport. All 5 starters reasonable double figures, and they are able to cross a competent 8 deep.

All this when such dynasty development is supposed to be unattainable, when the NBA Draft and the switch portal rob groups of roster continuity, and identify, symbol and likeness alternatives allegedly break locker room unity. The Huskies had been rarely proof against the game’s passing fancies. Three of UConn’s gamers became professional after closing season, and some other transferred out. The Huskies introduced Cam Spencer from Rutgers to the workforce and promptly made him their start line guard, and one participant (Clingan), who has a advertising and marketing take care of Dunkin, has profited off his NIL way over his teammates.

Yet listed below are the Huskies, in place to be the kings of 2 in a row.

Parked off to the aspect of the court docket, an easel holds a poster board with an image of the Big East regular-season trophy. The Huskies cart the easel all over the place they cross, converting the image relying on what trophy they’re pursuing. Earlier it depicted the Empire Classic trophy, adopted through the Seattle Tip-Off Classic trophy. At some level, the convention match trophy will make an look, adopted through the NCAA regional and so on.

The poster, then again, appears to be like adore it went via a foul day with airport luggage handlers. It’s dented within the heart. There’s even a small chew lacking on the backside.

Hurley will inform you that he’s extra Zen, if no longer much less superstitious. He walks into his place of job, sidestepping a blue-and-white fleece blouse nonetheless in its packaging. It has sat at the ground in the course of the hallway for weeks since the Huskies have no longer misplaced since any person dumped it there. Hurley admits the foolishness of this whilst wearing an Echo Go+, which looks as if a lava lamp cross-pollinated with a mini blender. Hurley presses a button at the gizmo that retails for $250 and blue lighting fixtures swirl, developing alleged hydrogen-heavy water this is mentioned to scale back oxidative pressure, make stronger intestine well being, sleep and effort, all whilst serving to to opposite the indicators of ageing. Later Hurley sends a textual content, extolling the virtues of the sensory deprivation tank he visits for 90 mins, and the way it’s helped along with his “mental reset.’’

He says this mostly tongue in cheek – “I’m f—— Benjamin Button,’’ he jokes as he chugs the water – but not entirely. He does believe he has found an inner peace and harmony that has helped cut down his on-court histrionics. Hurley has been hit with technicals this season, but has yet to be ejected from a game. Progress.

Except there’s the poster board. The dents, nicks and missing chunks came courtesy of Hurley whizzing a ball at the picture when his UConn players did not practice to the standards he deems necessary to win.

Asked if Hurley is more intense this year, pursuing a second championship, or last year aiming for his first, neither Clingan nor Alex Karaban allow the question to be completed before answering. “Oh, this is way worse,’’ Karaban says. “He’s way harder on us this year. The intensity in practice, it’s just through the roof every day.’’

It is hard to gauge the difference, since a Hurley-run practice is never a picnic. There have never been scheduled water breaks or even opportunities to sit down. The Huskies, in fact, are not permitted to bend over at the waist when they’re tired. Hurley offers up some physiological reasoning, about expanded chests improving breathing, but then he gets to the heart of it. “Weakness,’’ he says. “That’s just a sign of weakness.’’ When Clingan, returning after nearly a month off, begins to bend over, Gavin Roberts, the team’s director of sports performance, rushes to his side. “No, no, no,’’ he says. “Don’t do that.’’

Minor infractions merit banishment to stair runs, the punishment so indoctrinated in the Huskies that when Hurley lays into Youssouf Singare for bad defense, Singare just turns and runs the steps without even being told. And despite buzzwords plastered in the practice facility declaring one of UConn’s tenets as “mindful communication,” there’s little thoughts to how issues are communicated. Were the Huskies to place a swear jar within the development, they’d most probably no longer desire a collective to fund their NIL.

Elsewhere there could be wiggle room proficient to veteran gamers who helped you win a name a yr in the past. Here, there’s much less tolerance for even the smallest of transgressions. Hurley pounces on Clingan for failing to hide a shooter in transition. “I know you’re mad at me,’’ he yells. “Don’t be mad at me for being honest.’’ After a bad entry pass from Karaban, Hurley covers his eyes for an entire minute, too pained to watch as practice continues. Stephon Castle, the consensus ninth-best freshman, is chastised for a bad pass, lazy defense, poor decision-making and shot selection. After a bad defensive possession, associate head coach Kimani Young laments, “We never make plays on defense. Never. When are we going to?” The Huskies, it will have to be famous, are 18th in KenPom defensive ratings.

Finally, because the blue workforce (starters) will get smoked through the grey workforce – with chip off the block/walk-on Andrew Hurley goading the starters “Whipping that ass, blue,’’– the Hurley in charge shouts, “Champions don’t do that sh–.’’ In his office later, Hurley sits on a sofa and plays armchair psychiatrist. He thinks maybe he’s so demanding as a coach because he’s trying to make up for what he failed to achieve as a player. He also digs into the psychoanalysis of what winning a title does to a man. “When you haven’t done it, you can’t tell me you know you can do it,” Hurley says. “You can think you have a great team, but you can’t be 1,000 percent confident that you can coach a team through six teams in the hardest tournament in the country and win. Now for us, we know deep down as a program, we can. I go home, I look at pictures in my basement and you think about how great it was. But then you also think, ‘Man, I just want to do it again.’”

What’s notable is how the Huskies reply to him. Sit in sufficient faculty basketball practices and it turns into simple to learn frame language. Slumped shoulders, eyes forged to the ground and backs became are the common indicators that the trainer would possibly nonetheless be yelling, however the accused not hears what he’s pronouncing.

The Huskies take Hurley’s warmth with out such a lot as a grimace. They both beat him to the punch and personal the error sooner than he issues it out, or stare him lifeless within the eye as he delivers his withering analysis. They run up and down the steps and bounce again into paintings. Over and another time.

The Huskies don’t simply publish with Hurley’s depth; they crave it.

Karaban is down 3 TVs. Video video games, it will have to be famous, don’t at all times behave the best way you propose, which is particularly troubling if in case you have an analytical thoughts that prefers order and correct reaction. Karaban has this sort of thoughts. He is the son of a Ukrainian immigrant mom who has a doctorate from Northeastern, and a Belarussian immigrant father who works as a device engineer. Karaban likes math and is chasing what UConn calls an ‘individualized major,’’ through which he has blended 3 majors – laptop science, sports activities control and statistics – into one hellacious, numbers-focused pursuit.

So nerdy is Karaban – his mom made him revisit UConn as a result of she idea the primary excursion didn’t have sufficient data about teachers – that Hurley anxious “his socks would turn yellow’’ when placed in front of crowds of angry basketball fans. In the first game of his career, Karaban scored 13, yanked down four boards, and dished out three assists. His socks were just fine. “It’s like he’s a superhero, or something,’’ Hurley marvels. “Like he has an alter ego.’’ Said alter ego surfaced this summer, when the misbehaving video games failed to do what Karaban intended. He tried to throw the remote at the wall but his aim isn’t as good as his shooting stroke. The thing went through the TV, clocking the screen so badly that it became unwatchable. “Yeah, it happened three times,’’ Karaban says sheepishly.

After losing to UConn earlier this month, St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino went on a classic misdirection rant about the foibles of the NCAA enforcement process, its struggles to properly govern NIL and the impossible roster churn that the portal presents. “You can’t build programs and culture,’’ the Hall of Fame coach concluded, echoing a refrain heard a lot this season as teams struggle to find continuity.

The Huskies would like a word. “We all try to emulate Coach’s style,’’ says Tristen Newton. “No fat ruts, that’s what he tells us. You can’t eat and get comfortable. We’re all on that same page.’’

Did they only get to said page thanks to Hurley’s stiff-arm? The Huskies will tell you no, that they came to Storrs from varied directions but each in search of what he delivered. Newton is a one-time unheralded recruit who had but one college offer – East Carolina – and opted to leave after his coach was fired. He liked UConn for its singularity of focus – he laments that the nearest Chick Fil-A is 30 minutes away – and recognized that Hurley would push him out of his comfort zone. “I’m more laid-back,’’ he says. “I needed to be pushed.’’

Karaban’s parents used to shoo him outdoors in the Massachusetts’ winters to play basketball. Spencer is a Hurley mini-me, who cusses himself out over mistakes to the point that the coach tells him to calm down, and Clingan, a delightfully kind, ego-less star, lost his mom at 14 and was raised by a single dad who works as a utility worker. He understands the idea of hard work and sacrifice. “You have to be a kid who wants coaching, old-school coaching, like people who will squeeze every absolute ounce out of a player,” he says. “Not everybody wants that. They say they do, but they really don’t.”

Hurley is neither the primary nor the one trainer to key in on what works for him and recruit to that are compatible. Jay Wright memorably pivoted his complete recruiting philosophy after a 2009 Final Four run changed into a depressing 13-19 season 3 years later. Matt Painter regrouped so completely that he now asks recruits to take persona checks to make sure that they go well with him. But it’s, to Pitino’s level, getting more difficult to construct a base. The Huskies were rather lucky. Only 4 gamers within the closing two years have left, permitting the team of workers to make use of the portal to fill wishes and no longer restock wholesale. Of the 3 transfers at the present roster – Newton, Spencer and Hassan Diarra (Texas A&M), best Spencer will seek advice from campus for twelve months.

But it’s no longer like UConn’s highway has been with out factor. Castle overlooked six video games with a knee damage, slowing the freshman phenom’s get started. Then Clingan, who battled foot issues within the preseason, exited a sport towards Seton Hall with an damage to the similar foot. “What was I thinking?” Hurley says. “Oh, sh–.” Fair response. Clingan won’t garner the similar consideration as Zach Edey, however he’s as vital to the Huskies as Edey is to Purdue. The 7-footer attracts herbal consideration inside of, developing open pictures for the wings, and is a defensive vacuum.

Clingan went again to his room feeling a lot the similar as his trainer. His foot throbbed for a excellent 3 or 4 days, each step feeling like he used to be strolling on a mattress of needles. He used to be terrified his season used to be over. When docs mentioned as an alternative that he would best desire a handful of weeks to get better, the sophomore just about erupted with aid. Clingan is, through nature, a giver, and the eye he won because the returning key cog to a countrywide championship workforce in his house state (he’s from Bristol) didn’t at all times are compatible snugly. “He’s the most unselfish person I’ve ever met,” says Karaban, his roommate. “He’s always looking to help you, with rides, getting you food, buying you stuff. He hates receiving stuff.” That, indubitably, added to his rush to go back from the preseason damage. He admits now that he rushed his restoration, beginning again to paintings when he nonetheless had some lingering ache, which made him much less productive early within the season than he was hoping to be.

This time, he vowed to be a extra affected person affected person. He adopted the methodical plan, whilst additionally the use of the destroy to streamline his frame. He reduce out late-night snacks and exchanged sports activities beverages for water, leaning out his body. “I attempted to cheer at the bench, and no longer bounce,’’ he says with fun. “It used to be a protracted 4 weeks.’’

Around the rustic, top-ranked groups with fewer issues misplaced dangerous video games, highway video games, house video games and shut video games. The Huskies upped Samson Johnson’s mins or even turned around Karaban to the 5 to hide for Clingan’s absence.

They didn’t lose a sport.

Somewhere between chastising Clingan for his transition protection and insisting that all the group will fail as a result of one errant cross, Hurley is going to midcourt and begins heaving pictures once more. This isn’t completely out of persona. Lost within the translation of the way exhausting Hurley rides his workforce is how a lot amusing he has with them. He hops into drills, smack talks, and cuts the strain with one-line zingers that depart the gamers masking their mouths with their jerseys in order to not get in hassle for giggling.

To wit: He has determined sophomore Apostolos Roumoglou resembles a James Bond villain. When the extremely chatty Roumoglou protests a nasty name, Hurley barks at him. “Hey, GoldenEye, get over here.’”

Says Clingan, “I swear sometimes he says funny things so you laugh and then he can yell at you for laughing.’’ He’s asked if this is a form of entrapment. “Yeah, exactly,’’ he says. “Entrapment.’’

So when, mid-rant, Hurley stops to hurl halfcourt shots, no one seems surprised. They just wait. Hurley swishes a shot and yells, ‘Who’s the king of two in a row?’” At least 4 other folks yell again, “You are.”

The follow-up clanks off the entrance of the rim.

So shut, however no longer but relatively king.

(Illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / The Athletic; footage: Dylan Buell, Zach Bolinger, Rich Graessle / Getty Images)