UConn’s Dan Hurley on the intensity he brings to coaching, his superstitions, and living up to the family name

When the NCAA basketball tournament, better known as March Madness, starts in nine days, the University of Connecticut will try and do something that no men’s team has done since Richard Nixon was president: win a third straight national title. You might think this would infuse UConn’s man in charge with blazing optimism and swollen confidence and sunny exuberance, but, you got the wrong guy – especially in what’s been a topsy-turvy Huskies’ season. Dan Hurley, only 52, is a generationally-accomplished basketball coach. He is also, by his own admission, alternately a brash braggart, a first-team doom-and-gloomer, and a top-tier eccentric. But say this, there is a method to his madness.

This is not a participation trophy coach: Dan Hurley is a human furnace of intensity, hellbent on wringing every ounce of potential from his latest roster of UConn players.

Dan Hurley: It’s a zero sum game. The one that wins is gonna have temporary relief. The one that loses is going into a hell hole of suffering. I mean, that for me is– is– is how I look at these sports competitions.

And then there’s this side of him: A championship coach burning sage the night before the season opener, hoping to ward off bad juju: at the free throw line, the three-point line, and dead spots on the court.

Next in Hurley’s ritual: spritzes of holy water.

Finally, out come bags of garlic bulbs. He’s not playing for the camera here, folks, that’s the man of the moment in college hoops, on hands and knees appeasing the basketball gods by placing offerings under the home bleachers.

That was November. Four months later…. 

Jon Wertheim: This season so far has been blank.

Dan Hurley: Unlike the last two. (laugh)

Jon Wertheim: Meaning what?

Dan Hurley: Just, I mean, at times very frustrating. You know, gratifying, relief, suffering, relief, suffering (laugh).

The suffering began early. On the team’s first road trip, UConn—then ranked second nationally—headlined the field at the Maui Invitational Tournament — a chance for three games and some island R&R… unless you’re Dan Hurley

Jon Wertheim: We gotta talk about Maui. (laugh)

Dan Hurley: Oh no.

Jon Wertheim: Tie game, overtime. Who gets a technical foul under those circumstances? 

Dan Hurley: This guy right here.

92 all, the clock dwindling in overtime, UConn’s ball — a missed jumper and, on the rebound, a foul is called on UConn’s number 30, Liam McNeeley…

Left side of your screen, that’s Hurley so apoplectic, he’s floored in more ways than one.

Dan Hurley: The force of the blown call literally knocked me to the ground is how I’m trying to justify it.

Unamused, the officials tagged Hurley with a game-changing technical foul. UConn lost that game, and two more in successive nights. Hurley was, by turns, irate and inconsolable.

Jon Wertheim: I gather after that Geno Auriemma, the women’s coach here, 11-time national championship winner reached out to you. Remember what he said?

Dan Hurley: You know, ‘If the only outcome that makes you a successful coach or a successful season is whether you hang up the national championship banner, then you should get out immediately.’

Jon Wertheim: That register?

Dan Hurley: Not at the moment, because I think in the back of my mind, I was saying, ‘Well, what the hell else am I in this for?’ (laugh) But then he stayed at practice and he kept coaching me from the sideline like, barking at me (laugh) a little bit. ‘Hey, hey, Dan, you know the joy of relationships with your players. The joy of getting the most out of your team. If you’re only in it for the championship pursuit and none of that other stuff means anything to you anymore and it’s just banners and rings, then you, you should get out. Because it ain’t gonna happen every year, Buddy.’

UConn steadied to win eight straight after Maui, but this season has been riddled with inexplicable lapses.

It’s made Hurley wistful for the two previous seasons, when his Huskies didn’t just win the title each year, they ran roughshod over the March Madness fields. 

No opponent came within 13 points of UConn in any of the tournament games. Hurley offered us a glimpse of how a championship coach goes about the job.

Dan Hurley: Most colleges are stealing ball screen, offensive ideas from the NBA. Whereas, for us it was taking off-ball movement, less dribbling, more passing, more cutting, more screening that would represent more of a European professional model.

Jon Wertheim: The other guys can borrow from the Lakers and the Celtics. You’re goin’ to Turkish league.

Dan Hurley: We’re goin’ to Turkey. We’re goin’ (laugh) to Israel. We’re goin’– (laugh) we’re goin’ to France, England. We’re goin’– we’re goin’ all over the place.

Hurley showed us his playsheet from UConn’s national championship win over Purdue last April, every play affixed with multiple options.

It’s five-man chess, and Hurley is a grandmaster, all but fated for the role.

His father, Bob Sr., was a hardass, hall-of-fame high school coach in Jersey City who won 28 state titles. 

Dan’s older brother, Bobby, an iconic college player at Duke, won back-to-back national championships of his own. Dan, on the other hand, struggled as a point guard at Seton Hall. 

Jon Wertheim: You’ve talked about being the third Hurley. 

Dan Hurley: You know, just how I failed to play up to, live up to, succeed up to, you know, the Hurley standard in basketball was, it caused a lotta pain.

Fans piled on, sometimes chanting “Bobby’s better.”

Dan Hurley: It gets to the point where you’re– a shell of yourself. You’re not shooting the ball the way you have your whole life. You have a hard time catching the ball or even dribbling the ball. You know, you got the yips in a way.

In December 1993, it got so bad, he left the Seton Hall team after only two games to get his mind right. Dan rejoined the following year, but the joy from playing basketball had been drained. Coaching, though, has offered a second chance.

Dan Hurley: I gotta make up for what I didn’t achieve as a player, and I gotta make up for that right now as a coach. ‘Cause the– my career eats away at me still.

Jon Wertheim: Still?

Dan Hurley: It bothers me. If I see a picture of myself with a Seton Hall uniform or a clip, there’s an embarrassment about– how that went.

With his success at UConn, he finally feels worthy of the family name. 

Dan Hurley: It’s not me versus my dad as a coach or, you know, what I’ve accomplished relative to Bob in basketball now. It’s just this– this– this bucket that we’re all just gonna contribute to and– and we’ll see if we’re one of the best basketball families of all-time.

Jon Wertheim: That’s what the goal is now?

Dan Hurley: For me, and that’s been a shift and it probably didn’t happen for me until I had my moment.

During his moment, Hurley’s been the toast of Connecticut. The Los Angeles Lakers tried to poach him as their coach last summer.

Hurley declined, reckoning that he’s better built for the college game, excruciating as this season has been at times, as evidenced by this coaches’ meeting dissecting a February loss to St. John’s.

But he knows better than to bring the agony of his work home.

Andrea Hurley: Oh, no. Don’t come home like that. Please, like I’m not in the mood.

Andrea Hurley has a standard pep talk for the college sweetheart she married in 1997: I love you, but get over yourself.

Dan Hurley: She’s very tough on me.

Andrea Hurley: Because he’ll get himself so down, and he’ll get in such a funk, that if I get in a funk with him, we’re gonna be no good. So I have to almost kind of, like, I don’t wanna say shame him. But, like this is ridiculous. It’s a stupid game and snap out of it.

Dan Hurley: One team wins and…

Andrea Hurley: One team loses. What’s the big deal? It’s like a, I always said, ‘It’s a 50/50 shot.’ 

Jon Wertheim: There’s so many wins, so many losses.

Andrea Hurley: Come on, there’s not, like, 12 options you could have.

Jon Wertheim: I suspect it’s very helpful to have someone in this household who doesn’t necessarily rip her hair out when–

Dan Hurley: Oh man.

Jon Wertheim:–the team misses a screen, or someone misses an–

Andrea Hurley: I don’t even know what a screen is.

Jon Wertheim: –open jumper.

Andrea Hurley: I don’t even know what that is.

Dan Hurley: With the way that I’m wired.

Jon Wertheim: You don’t know what a screen is?

Andrea Hurley: I have no idea.

Dan Hurley: She doesn’t know, and that’s– and she’s not playing for the camera. She has no idea.

Andrea Hurley: I have no idea.

Dan Hurley: And if I was comin’ home to somebody that wanted to talk about a new lineup, a new defense, rehash the game, my personality type–

Andrea Hurley: I would never do that.

Dan Hurley: –and the way I’m wired, it would never work.

Jon Wertheim: This sounds really healthy.

Andrea Hurley: Yeah. (laughter)

Jon Wertheim: It sounds like your perspective balances his intensity.

Andrea Hurley: Oh, yeah. Very well, very well.

To ease Dan’s churning mind, Andrea designed a private basement sanctuary. First thing every morning, he comes here to clear his head.

Dan Hurley: This is it. This is it. We got a little bit of everything in here.

It’s part shrine…

Dan Hurley: I’ll take my Bible out. I’ll pray. And then I’ll– I’ll do some meditation.

Art studio…

Bat-cave-meets-man-cave…

Dan Hurley: You know, I have an affinity for– for superheroes. I wear the socks. I wear the underwear.

The animal kingdom is represented, too.

Dan Hurley: I keep the referee in the corner over there. 

Jon Wertheim: You yell at your zebra the way– you– you do the three guys at midcourt —

Dan Hurley: I do. I admonish. That’s why he’s in the corner.

Not all of Hurley’s rough edges have been zenned over in his basement. In January, Hurley harangued a ref. And internet lip readers filled in the blanks.

Jon Wertheim: You talk openly about the role of– of doubt and self-doubt, and then there was also the viral video of you during a game this season (laugh) telling a ref– you– you know where I’m goin’, saying you’re the best coach in the– in– in the bleeping sport–

Dan Hurley: Yeah.

Jon Wertheim: Hel– help us reconcile that.

Dan Hurley: I’m complex- um. Now listen, I had no idea that– if I knew the camera was on me, there’s no way I woulda said it. But I’m embarrassed. So yeah, when I get into it– at sometimes I will say or do anything that I think may give me some type of an advantage either with an official or with firing my team up– or with carrying myself with– with a confidence and a swagger that– is gonna give my team the ability to– to play better. (laugh)

Hurley harkens back to an era when college basketball celebrated its larger-than-life coaches…hardly the biggest change in a sport where players now can enter a transfer portal and shop for the highest bidder, a disruptive force for even the best teams.

Jon Wertheim: Do you have players right now that are fielding offers and considering playing for other teams next season?

Dan Hurley: Fifty percent of my roster or more.

Jon Wertheim: Fifty?

Dan Hurley: Fifty percent of my roster or more is at least, you know, considering going in the portal if not already knows what school that they’re going to.

Jon Wertheim: So wait. Half your team is already thinking in terms of whether they want to transfer to another program or not?

Dan Hurley: Yeah. And in a couple of those cases they’ve already talked to the coaching staff at, at future school and have an idea of what their NIL is gonna be there and…

Jon Wertheim: The money.

Dan Hurley: Yeah.

Jon Wertheim: What does it do to a culture of a college basketball team when half the guys are fielding offers for next season to go elsewhere?

Dan Hurley: Well, I mean, look at the volatility this year. The level of volatility in college sports, this has now become a year-to-year proposition. The game has changed completely.

But Dan Hurley still, is firmly committed to this team—one that did pass the 20-win threshold yet again. and he’s approaching March Madness with optimism—the guarded variety.

Jon Wertheim: Can you win three in a row?

Dan Hurley: Yeah. There’s a path to it.

Jon Wertheim: Can this be a successful season if you don’t win a third straight title?

Dan Hurley: Brrr. Geno, Geno, Geno, Geno (laughs). I, I, not, not, no, not totally, because I didn’t put together a team that could do it. So once you’ve done it, anytime that you don’t do it, you know, deep inside you’re, you’re not gonna look at those years the same way. There’s gonna be a feeling of failure that comes with that.

Jon Wertheim: Even if you leave it all out on the floor? If you don’t hang a third banner?

Dan Hurley: Fail. Fail. I mean, it’s fail. I could live with it. It won’t be this off season of, of pain and suffering and, you know, it’s just killing you the whole summer and off season. That’s why I’ll be able to live with it, but it, it will still be a failure.

Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Warren Lustig.

Jon Wertheim

L. Jon Wertheim is an accomplished journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent.