Remember last offseason when UConn Huskies coach Dan Hurley — fresh off back-to-back national championships — was viewed as a top candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers‘ head-coaching vacancy?
Hurley obviously chose to stay in Storrs, opting to go for a three-peat with the Huskies rather than take his talents to Hollywood. But now, yet another high-profile NBA job has surfaced.
The New York Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau following their Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Indiana Pacers, and not surprisingly, Hurley has been named a candidate for the opening.
However, Hurley made his thoughts on the situation clear as day, essentially shutting down the notion that he could potentially accept a coaching job with the Knicks.
“Not another summer of that,” Hurley said, via Don Amore of The Hartford Courant.
While Hurley didn’t come outright and say “no way,” his response seems to be an indication that he has no intention of departing UConn for the professional level. At least not right now.
And why would he? Hurley is building himself quite the reputation on the collegiate level. In his first seven seasons at Connecticut, the 52-year-old has gone 165-69 and has made five straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including arguably the most dominant two-year run in college basketball history between 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Most recently, the Huskies went 24-11, narrowly falling to the eventual national champion Florida Gators in the second round of the Big Dance this past March.
Hurley is a Jersey City, N.J. native, so perhaps the idea of coaching New York is more alluring than heading all the way out to California to coach LeBron James, but at this point, it seems pretty obvious that Hurley is committed to UConn.
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