Dan Hurley Reacts to Being in GOAT HC Conversation After UConn's Win vs. Duke in New Video
On the heels of a historic comeback win over Duke to reach the Final Four for the third time in four seasons, Connecticut head coach Dan Hurley is humbled to already hear his name being mentioned among the greatest coaches in the history of the sport.
Speaking to ESPN's Mike Greenberg on Monday's episode of Get Up (starts at 5:30 mark), Hurley called it "flattering" to be talked about in such esteemed company even though his focus right now is on seeing if the Huskies can win their third national title since the 2022-23 season.
"I'm gonna coach as long and as hard as I can, and I'll start thinking about those things at the end of my career when you start trying to add up your accomplishments, you know, when it's all said and done. Right now, I think our program and our team, we show up with the confidence of a program that's championship-caliber. But we also show up nightly, you know, with the desperation of people that feel like they haven't won anything with that chip on their shoulder because it's always UConn vs. the world."
Among the people arguing for Hurley to be in the class with the greatest coaches in college basketball history, especially if Connecticut goes on to win the national title, is Duke legend Jay Williams.
In this current era of men's college basketball where sustained dominance and championship success hasn't existed for a long time, Hurley is building Connecticut into the closest thing the sport has seen to a dynasty in a long time.
The 2022-23 and 2023-24 Huskies became the first team to repeat as national champions since Florida in 2005-06 and 2006-07. They are two wins away from becoming the first team to win at least three titles in a four-year span since UCLA from 1971-72 to 1974-75.
Sunday's thrilling 73-72 win saw Connecticut erase a 19-point deficit against a Duke team that was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. The Blue Devils also led 44-29 at halftime, marking the largest halftime blown lead by a No. 1 seed in tournament history.
UConn entered the tournament coming off a 72-52 loss to St. John's in the Big East tournament final. The Huskies still earned a No. 2 seed for their entire body of work, but their win over Duke in the Elite Eight was the peak for this team so far.
Hurley, who is in his 16th season as a college head coach, has a 348-179 overall record in stints at Connecticut, Wagner and Rhode Island. His .727 winning percentage with UConn (197-74) would rank 35th all-time among men's coaches.
When you combine that with Hurley already having two national titles and the chance for a third this season, which would tie Roy Williams, Jim Calhoun and Bob Knight for fourth-most all-time, he's certainly heading in the right direction to becoming one of the greatest coaches in the history of men's college basketball.
Hurley and Connecticut will look to keep the positive momentum going against Illinois in the first game of the Final Four on Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET.
