UConn head coach Dan Hurley addressed his interaction with referee Roger Ayers.

After Braydon Mullins hit a three-pointer to give UConn the lead with 0.4 seconds left, Hurley was seen bumping heads with Ayers before walking back to his bench. For many, it was unclear why this happened and if it meant anything.

Hurley told ESPN that he thought Ayers was looking to chest-bump him after the shot. This explains why no technical foul was called. Normally, making contact with referees results in a technical foul.

Ayers also confirmed the story. Seth Greenberg of ESPN contacted Ayers to ask him about the incident. It was so forgettable, Ayers reportedly didn’t even know what Greenberg was talking about at first.

One reason this incident turned heads is that Hurley has a history of arguing with referees.

In February, he was ejected from a game against Marquette after making contact with referee John Gaffney. However, this time it turned out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding. 

Hurley started his coaching career in 2010 with Wagner. He went 25-6 in his second season with the team and was hired by Rhode Island. He made the NCAA Tournament in his last two seasons with Rhode Island. 

UConn hired Hurley before the 2018-19 season. They missed the tournament for two straight years under former head coach Kevin Ollie. It took Hurley a couple of years to rebuild the program, but by 2020-21, they were back in the NCAA Tournament.

UConn won back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024. Future NBA starters Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle were vital parts of the championship teams. 

UConn will play Illinois in the Final Four on April 4. The winner of this game will play the winner of the Michigan-Arizona game on April 4.

Analyst and former NBA player J.J. Redick will formally interview for the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job this week, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Redick has been an unofficial candidate for the position for weeks but could reportedly move to the top of the candidates list with a strong performance.

Rumors around Redick died down somewhat last week when the Lakers turned their attention to UConn men’s basketball coach and reigning back-to-back national champion Dan Hurley. Despite offering him a $70 million deal, however, Hurley ultimately chose to stay with the Huskies. Redick is now squarely in the conversation once more.

Much of the early speculation involving Redick, who has never coached before, came as a result of his close relationship with Lakers star LeBron James. With Bronny James declaring for the draft, James has his own off-season decisions to make, but his analytical podcast with Redick has been immensely popular and many wanted to put the pair together in Los Angeles.

Despite frequently appearing on television, Redick has been quiet about the potential promotion, and it is unclear how far talks have progressed to this point. Wojnarowski is now reporting that the former NBA journeyman is a serious coaching candidate.

It’s hard to classify Redick as anything but a gamble for the Lakers. Though he may respected among NBA fans for his knowledge of the game, the fact remains that he has no coaching experience. In the past, coaches on James’ teams have sometimes been accused of taking a backseat to the veteran leader, but Redick would still be expected to lead the team in an unfamiliar role.

The Lakers are coming off an underwhelming season, in which they failed to successfully build around James and fellow star Anthony Davis. Los Angeles posed no challenge to the Nuggets in the postseason, losing in the first round in five games, and parted ways with former coach Darvin Ham at the end of the season.

After traveling to Los Angeles and hearing a sales pitch from the Laker brass, back-to-back national championship head Coach Dan Hurley turned down the 6-year $70 million deal offered by owner Jeanie Buss. The contract would have made him the sixth highest-paid coach in the league without spending a second on an NBA sideline.

The UConn headman decided to stay because of family ties and unfinished business. His wife is from New Jersey, and both parties have lived on the East Coast their entire life. Hurley’s brother and father coached in high school and college basketball but never made the jump to the NBA.

Along with personal connections, Hurley wants to etch his name in the sport’s lore as the Huskies attempt a three-peat, the first since UCLA won seven straight titles from 1967 to 1973. Key pieces to their roster left for the pros, including C Donovan Clingan, but Hurley reloaded in the portal while three of his top six in his rotation last year returned. Fan Duel puts UConn’s odds to win the national title at +1000, the betting favorite.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are left to pick up the pieces as their coaching search drags on for its sixth week since firing Darvin Ham. They are still the only team in the NBA without a sideline general after being publicly turned down.

Many expect Los Angeles to reevaluate JJ Reddick or James Borrego, who they interviewed before the pursuit for Hurley became public. It is unclear whether being the clear second favorite affects how either candidate views the position. The uncertain future of LeBron James hangs over the job as the superstar can opt out of his contract when free agency begins at the beginning of July. The Lakers made the playoffs by winning their first play-in game but lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round.

The most prolific coach in recent college basketball history could soon make the jump to the NBA. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday morning that the Los Angeles Lakers are targeting UConn’s Dan Hurley to fill their current coaching vacancy.

Hurley, who has coached the Huskies since 2018, has seen historic success during his short tenure at the University. After completing a short rebuild, he led the team to back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024, becoming the first since former Florida coach Billy Donovan to do so. After demonstrating a superior basketball IQ and rapid adaptation to a changing NIL-driven landscape, he has garnered attention and respect from the entire basketball world.

If he decides to take his talents to the pros, Hurley will join a short list of college coaches who went on to run an NBA squad; from there, he would hope to be a part of an even shorter list who saw success in the league. Of the eight coaches who went from the NCAA to the NBA, it can really only be said that two of them were “successful.”

Following the titles in Gainesville, Donovan joined the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015 where he coached for five seasons, boasting a win percentage just north of 60% and a playoff berth in each season. He has since served as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, where he has experienced a less memorable tenure, leading the Bulls to just a lone playoff appearance in 2022 and a win percentage under 50% in 3 of 4 seasons since taking over.

More notably, Brad Stevens followed up his Cinderella seasons at Butler and traveled to Boston, where he took over the Celtics’ coaching staff in 2013. He turned the Celtics back into an NBA powerhouse, leading them to the playoffs each year beyond his first season. Following the 2020-21 season, Stevens chose to step down as head coach and has since served as the president of basketball operations for the team.

While Hurley has transformed the UConn basketball program and installed a high level of play, outstanding work ethic and sense of comradery at the college level, history questions whether this effect will translate over to basketball’s biggest stage.  The ability to teach, coach, and lead 18-year-olds who are playing because they love the game of basketball is a very different world than having to control the emotions and personalities of NBA stars, grizzled veterans and young players looking to make a name for themselves.

Many fans would like to think that most NBA players are adaptable and will buy into a coach’s system and style. The reality, however, can be vastly different. NBA players have occasionally made a habit of playing as if they are above the staff around them.  Fans and insiders alike often complain about those who play for the names on the back of the jersey. It’s not completely unjustified to think in such a way.

In the NBA, players’ livelihoods are entirely dependent on what they do on the court; the meaning of team accomplishments can become diluted. Hurley may come to the same realization that many former college coaches have made in the league — they’re no longer in control.  

Hurley’s game plan and execution at UConn was reliant on outsmarting other teams. This is no knock on him or his teams at UConn, but taking a similar approach in professional basketball would be immensely difficult. The vast majority of players Hurley’s hypothetical Lakers would face on any given night in the NBA are better than any player he had to coach against during his tenure at Connecticut. 

If any coach can adapt to this challenge, it’s Hurley, who has come a long way since his days coaching high school ball. Still, it is going to take a lot more than Hurley simply drawing up the X’s and O’s; the players are going to need to buy in and execute them, which is unfortunately not guaranteed in the league’s current state.

Dominance. That word can perfectly sum up the Connecticut Huskies’ championship run this NCAA tournament.

A second consecutive national title was never really doubted during this year’s edition of March Madness. On Monday night, the Huskies capped off the impressive run with a 75-60 victory against Purdue Boilermakers in the National Championship.

Before they beat the Boilermakers, the juggernaut from Storrs beat Stetson, Northwestern, San Diego State, Illinois and NC State on their way to becoming the first back-to-back championships since Billy Donovan led the Florida Gators to the same feat in 2006 and 2007.

They became the sixth team to win every game in the tournament by double digits. They pulled the same feat in the 2023 tournament, which means Connecticut is the only school to win 12 straight tournament games by ten or more. The team’s +140 point differential through the six games is the highest in the history of March Madness. In the Elite Eight against Illinois, the Huskies ripped off 30 straight points in the second half to break a close game wide open.

Center Donovan Clingan was arguably Connecticut’s heart and soul. The 7’2″ center was a force on both ends of the floor, making life miserable for opposing teams. Senior guard Tristen Newton scored 12 points or more in five of his team’s six tournament games and was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. Cam Spencer, Alex Karaban and Stephon Castle rounded out a core that was made to succeed in March and April.

Winning the NCAA Tournament is notoriously tricky, given the lack of repeat winners. Despite making it look easy, Connecticut coach Dan Hurley emphasized humility and teamwork were the key to the team’s success.

“We just recruit really talented NBA players that are willing to not make it about themselves,” Hurley said after the National Championship to CBS Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson. “To be part of a winning group, to go for all the championships, and while doing that their draft stock is still really really high.”

“We both win,” he said. “UConn wins and the players do.”

As the Huskies look toward the 2024-2025 season, a three-peat won’t be out of the question. However, they are projected to lose all five starters to graduation or the draft. Hurley must assemble a championship-caliber roster through the transfer portal to defend their title and properly develop freshman recruits. These are all things Connecticut has done well recently—but in the world of college basketball, that can all turn on a dime.

In the meantime, the Huskies and the rest of Storrs will bask in what could be the sport’s most dominant playoff run.

Dan Hurley has agreed to become UConn’s new men’s basketball head coach, the school announced Thursday.

UConn hires Dan Hurley News

The 45-year-old spent the past six seasons with Rhode Island — where he led the Rams to each of the past two NCAA Tournaments. Hurley now joins the Huskies on a six-year deal.

Hurley will replace Kevin Ollie, who was fired from UConn earlier this month after a fourth weak season. Hurley reportedly weighed a higher-paying offer from Pittsburgh before taking the job in Connecticut, as well as a long-term offer from Rhode Island.

Hurley will bring assistant Tom Moore — who worked under Jim Calhoun at UConn — with him, per sources. However, the rest of the Huskies’s staff will depend on whether his top assistant, David Cox, is elevated at URI.

UConn’s men’s basketball squad has long been one of the best in the nation. They are the only program in the country to have won four national championships in the past 20 years.

The Huskies last won the national title in 2014, Ollie’s second season in charge. However, UConn has reached the NCAA Tournament just once since then: in 2016, when their season was saved by a 70-foot shot from Jalen Adams in the American Athletic Conference tourney. UConn finished 14-18 this past season.

Hurley will take on a squad that has become depleted in the wake of defections in poor recruiting. Adams — the team’s top player — has been non-committal about whether he will return, and junior guard Terry Larrier has announced he will leave to turn pro.

Nevertheless, Hurley — son of legendary high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. and the brother of current Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley — is accustomed to rebuilding.

It also appears Hurley made a sound choice in joining UConn over Pittsburgh, as the Panthers were winless in the ACC this past season. Nine Pittsburgh players have reportedly requested their releases and will consider transferring.