Dan Hurley joined elite company by leading UConn to a second consecutive national title on Monday night, and the coach says an earful he received from Jim Calhoun years ago helped get him to this point.
Hurley was hired as the head coach at UConn in 2018. The Huskies went 14-18 the year before, but all of those wins were vacated due to recruiting violations under Kevin Ollie. Hurley knew he would have work to do in Storrs, but things were even worse than he expected when he arrived.
After UConn beat Purdue 75-60 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Monday night, Hurley recalled an interaction he had with Calhoun. Hurley admitted that his first impressions of UConn were so bad that he felt like he made a mistake leaving Rhode Island. The real mistake was expressing those regrets to Calhoun.
Hurley said he walked into Calhoun’s office at the UConn campus in 2018 and sounded off about the state of the program.
“This is bulls—. Nothing is in place,” Hurley said he told Calhoun, via Brendan Quinn of The Athletic. “This is UConn. Where’s the infrastructure? What’s been going on here?”
Calhoun did not want to hear it.
“He said, ‘Are you sh—ing me? Maybe you’re not the person we should’ve hired. If you ever come in here like this again, I’ll never talk to you,’” Hurley recalled Calhoun telling him. “I mean, he ripped me.”
Hurley shared the same story once when he was a guest on the “Pardon My Take” podcast. He said Calhoun called him a “f—ing baby” and told him “get your head out of your a–.”
“Get your head out of your ass”-Jim Calhoun to Dan Hurley when he first took over the program pic.twitter.com/V1v9M29hAB
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) April 9, 2024
Hurley said Calhoun’s reaction lit a fire under the then-45-year-old. Five years later, Hurley has won two national championships with the Huskies and turned them back into the nation’s premier program.
Calhoun coached UConn from 1986-2012. He inherited a program that was nowhere near contention and built it into a national powerhouse by winning three championships and producing a ton of NBA talent. Without the 81-year-old’s influence, UConn would not be where it is today under Hurley.
The relationship between Hurley and Calhoun has clearly remained strong. The two shared a great moment on the court after UConn beat Purdue.
