UConn coach Dan Hurley embracing role as main character in men's college basketball

HARTFORD, Conn. — UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley feels a responsibility to embrace his position as one of the main characters in this new age of college basketball.

The power in the sport has shifted with legends like Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams and Jay Wright all retiring from coaching within the last three years, largely avoiding the demanding new terrain with NIL and a free-flowing transfer portal. A casting call has gone out for the lead role in men’s college hoops, and Hurley, after winning everything, as he likes to say, is perfect for the part.

As one of only three active coaches to win multiple national championships, and the only active coach to do it twice in a row, Hurley and his staff have built what many are calling a modern dynasty in the sport. Along the way, the “bulletproof” nature of his scheme and roster construction — the blueprint — has drawn praise from long-time NBA players like LeBron James and Philadelphia’s Nicolas Batum, in addition to just about every opposing coach. And the Jersey City in him, the scrappiness and the sideline fire that, at times, can go too far, provides a depth in character that fits right in at the center of a movie poster.

Since he cut down the net in Glendale at the 2024 Final Four, screaming “Let’s go!” as he whipped the nylon around in circles above his head for the second year in a row, he hasn’t been hard to find on any TV screen.

The media tour, on a bit of a larger scale that it was in 2023, began with “Today,” “Good Morning America,” and “The Pat McAfee Show,” putting the Huskies’ head coach on three of the largest weekday shows on national television. He’s been on a number of podcasts as well, speaking vulnerably with JJ Redick, Jim Rome, Dan Patrick and others.

He also joined Krzyzewski on his Sirius XM show “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K,” where he received some advice from his brother Bobby’s former coach, the winningest in men’s college basketball.

“You’re at a different level now, not just in the history of the game, but in the game right now,” Krzyzewski said. “You’re recognized for being a great coach and leader, maybe the best one. I would tell you, at certain times in my career I was in that seat, and I encourage you to use your voice. The game and college sports is not in a good place, and you have good stuff, you’re smart and you represent a great, great school. Use your voice.”

“I just probably need a filter,” Hurley responded.

He’s expressed a similar gripe about the current state of the sport all year long, noting a marketing problem he sees hurting its popularity, wasting opportunities to capitalize on interesting figures like himself and his players.

“I just think college basketball on the men’s side has done a horrible job marketing the characters, the coaches, the players. We do a lot of things to hurt ourselves,” he said, shortly after coming down from the stage where he spoke to 60,000 people gathered for the championship parade in Hartford.

He rattled off areas where the college game has “ruined” good things: the transfer portal taking away from March Madness, programs like the NBA’s G League Ignite and the privately funded Overtime Elite encouraging different paths to the pros (NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Ignite would be shut down after the 2023-24 season). College basketball, Hurley believes, needs a commissioner of its own.

“The best sporting event that our country has on a yearly basis that captures the imagination of everybody, we just do a horrible job marketing it whole year,” he said, noting the inconveniently late 9:30 p.m. tipoff for the national title game on TBS. “So, you know, I think we all have a role to take advantage of the marketing of our sport and I’m gonna be authentic and myself in all of these things.”

The men’s title game drew less viewership (14.8 million) than the women’s (18.7 million) for the first time ever. The difference?

Women’s basketball is on a rocket ship. It was full of tremendous storylines, like Iowa superstar and NCAA all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark facing unbeaten South Carolina in the title game. Iowa got there after redeeming themselves against Angel Reese and LSU and edging out superstar guard Paige Bueckers and UConn in the national semifinals. Women’s basketball players’ fame has gone to another level with the way athletes are using social media and NIL opportunities, all of it growing the sport.

More can be done on the men’s side to create marquee matchups like those in the regular season, playing those games in front of raucous home crowds instead of at watered-down neutral site environments, and adjusting the formula for March Madness selection. The transfer portal and instability of rosters across the board hasn’t helped fans become more invested, either.

Hurley isn’t sure if he enjoys this new casting, but he recognizes the importance of the part, and that he is the best right now to play it. And it comes with benefits, too.

“You enjoy the success, you enjoy what we’ve built and I think you do have a responsibility if right now you have a top program, we obviously have got to put ourselves out there and continue to grow our brand and make UConn basketball as big as we could possibly make it,” he said. “In the NIL place that we’re at in this sport, I think it’s critically important that we grow everything about our program across the board.”

Perhaps the final stop in his line of media appearances could be Saturday Night Live, which had Clark on a week after the Final Four, just before she was selected No. 1 in the WNBA draft. The comedy show may cast him solely off his Coach of the Year acceptance speech at the Naismith Awards brunch, which was a day before the title game. That set included more jokes about his dragon underwear, the sturdiness of net-cutting ladders, his tough-loving Hall of Fame father and, of course, a Jersey City swear here and there.

“I think I’d be good up there,” he said of SNL. “If they’ve got the curse button.”