Dan Hurley rolled into Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, fresh off the “Good Morning America” set in Times Square, as his car wash of media responsibilities continued throughout the day.
That’s life on college basketball’s mountaintop when you’re the king of the sport, having won 12 consecutive NCAA Tournament games by a combined 260 points and back-to-back national championships.
But Hurley, donning a sharp gray suit with a fresh haircut, black leather shoes, and a pair of socks that read “Certified Pain in the Ass,” wasn’t shying away from what a media scrum of dozens and dozens of reporters desired to know:
What about a three-peat?
“It’s the elephant in the room,” Hurley said of the feat, which only John Wooden and his legendary UCLA teams accomplished when winning seven in a row from 1967-73. “You can’t hide from this opportunity. If we don’t win three in a row, what are people going to say? That you suck as a coach because you could only win two in a row? But we realize the magnitude of this. You have to be a champion at UConn to be remembered and celebrated.”
Hurley is far from satisfied with the success his program has had over the past two seasons. In fact, when listening to Hurley and his players talk, it becomes abundantly clear that his approach heading into a new season has only intensified.
“If he has changed, he’s gotten a little crazier,” Huskies point guard Hassan Diarra said of Hurley.
Fellow starter and preseason All-Big East selection Alex Karaban pointed to Hurley’s intensity and desire to win reaching a new peak this offseason.
“Hurley wants another championship so badly, but he’s coaching us the same as he always has,” Karaban said. “The intensity has always been there. Now, it’s just leveling up.”
At this time last season, the Huskies were picked to finish third in the Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll, behind both Marquette and Creighton. The program responded by coasting to the conference regular-season and tournament crowns. Big East coaches were not going to make the same mistake two years in a row, as UConn was a unanimous pick to finish first in this year’s poll, receiving all possible 10 first-place votes and 100 points from the league’s head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own teams.
It could be easy for Hurley to get caught up in all the preseason hype. But instead, he was looking out for his players on Wednesday, as he was fired up about Karaban not being recognized as an Associated Press Preseason First-Team All-American.
“Alex does a s—ty job of drawing attention to himself,” Hurley said of his junior star, who has played a key role in the Huskies’ 68-11 record the last two seasons and will be looked at as the team’s leader heading into this year. “Maybe if he did more TikToks, he’d have solidified his All-American status. We value the wrong things in sports. We don’t value champions, but maybe that’s a societal issue.”
Karaban plans to use his exclusion from the first-team All-America team as a source of motivation.
“My entire career, I’ve been snubbed throughout everything,” said Karaban, who averaged 13.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game last year. “But at the same time, I want to continue to prove everybody wrong, and that’s what’s gonna happen this year.”
It plays right into what Hurley refers to as a “pathological, sick and obsessive” hunger to win a third consecutive crown.
But Hurley isn’t going to find much motivational material from other Big East programs this season, as the mutual respect among fellow coaches for UConn’s program couldn’t be higher. And how could it be after the Huskies’ 75-60 win over Purdue last April capped a run of six tournament victories by an average of over 23 points per game?
“I think they’re so far above us right now, that’s not a goal of ours,” St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino said of UConn. “Comparing programs is not what gets you to where you want to be.”
While those comparisons from the outside world in the rivalry-rich Big East aren’t going to go away, one thing was for certain on Wednesday: UConn is on top of the Big East, and the college basketball world.
Just as his socks said, Hurley enjoys running a program that’s been a total “pain in the ass” to every one of the Huskies’ opponents over the past two seasons.
That’s why Hurley is back in Storrs, Conneticut for another year – to embark on golden history.
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
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