Report: Dan Hurley, UConn Agree to 6-Year Contract Extension After National Title Win

Connecticut has agreed to a new six-year contract with men's basketball coach Dan Hurley, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Mike Anthony of CT Insider reported the deal is worth $31.5 million and noted Hurley becomes the highest-paid head coach in the state's history.

The agreement comes on the heels of the Huskies winning their fifth national championship.

Hurley inherited a difficult situation when he was hired ahead of the 2018-19 season.

UConn fell off a cliff shortly after winning a national title under Kevin Ollie, and Ollie's tenure ended in June 2018 amid concerns he committed NCAA violations. He eventually settled with the school in September after challenging whether he was fired for cause.

Leaving those circumstances aside, the Huskies missed the NCAA tournament and had a losing record in each of Ollie's final two seasons. The program was trending in the wrong direction and desperately needed to hire the right coach to avoid a more prolonged slide.

Hurley didn't trigger an immediate turnaround as UConn went 16-17 in 2018-19 and likely would've missed the Big Dance if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament in 2019-20.

Still, the Huskies were making clear progress and finally got back to the tourney in 2021. The results continued to improve before culminating in this year's success. Whereas the 2014 title run was a false dawn in retrospect, Hurley has built a solid foundation at Connecticut that should yield consistent results.

A pay raise was inevitable considering his $2.6 million average salary ranked 45th in Division I, per USA Today. By now making nearly $5.3 million a year, he moves up to sixth on the list behind Auburn's Bruce Pearl.

Doubling his payout should ensure Hurley isn't tempted to bolt UConn for another premier college job or an NBA gig.