For Hurley, UConn’s best days are ahead

STORRS — Andrea Hurley laughed Friday when she was asked if she had a grasp of how big UConn basketball is in Connecticut.

It was the laugh of someone with a story.

Her name was Andrea Sirakides, a Seton Hall student and Jersey girl, and her late dad Ken was a big basketball fan.

“He got me season tickets and I used to hang them on my bulletin board,” Andrea said the afternoon her husband was introduced as the UConn basketball coach at Werth Champions Center. “I wasn’t interested. We did go to the last game that season. It was Danny’s Senior Night.”

Andrea hadn’t met Dan Hurley, the star guard for the Pirates yet, that would come later that month. This was March 2, 1996 at the Meadowlands. This was against UConn. Jim Calhoun was on one bench. George Blaney was on the other.

UConn had Ray Allen. Seton Hall did not. UConn won big.

“I will never forget looking around that arena,” Andrea said. “As a non-

sports fan, I’m like, ‘These UConn people are insane.’ I can’t believe how they travel.

“I’m like where are all the Seton Hall fans? Why is everybody wearing UConn stuff? U-Conn! U-Conn! U-Conn! I was so impressed. It was my first taste of how big it is.”

There are people who will argue that the UConn Huskies’ great basketball days are behind them. Those who will argue that the AAC isn’t the ACC and the Big East. Those who will argue that the four national championships in the past 19 years will grow more and more distant in college basketball’s taillights.

None of them are in the Hurley family.

“Look at those banners,” Bob Hurley Sr. said. “This is an elite program.”

Dan Hurley stepped to the podium shortly after 1 p.m., amid the significant applause of family, friends, UConn supporters and players he had inherited. He looked around at those national championship banners and the banners of All-Americans and players who went on to the NBA. He opened with one word.

Wow.

“It’s humbling to lead this storied program,” Hurley said.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Hurley said.

“This is the place is I always hoped I had a chance to coach,” Hurley said.

“This is a dream job for me,” Hurley said.

For all the fire and high intensity Hurley has demonstrated on the sidelines at St. Benedict’s, Wagner and Rhode Island, it is fascinating what a pensive, low-volume talker he is in a suit and tie. “Very thoughtful, analytical, very intelligent,” were the words athletic director David Benedict used.

Hurley talked about the success of the men’s and women’s programs and how UConn is as great as any brand in all of college basketball. He talked about how as a fan UConn had been his favorite program. He talked about how Jim Calhoun’s teams attacked on both ends of the court, how tough and attacking Calhoun was, and how that was a model for him.

“He deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore with the greatest who ever walked the sidelines in college,” Hurley said. “You’re the college version of my dad. And that’s the ultimate compliment.”

Bob Hurley Sr., the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer from St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, sat in the front row of the press conference.

Jim Calhoun, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame from UConn, leaned against the wall with his arms folded.

The kid had their attention. The kid won the press conference. Now he has to win games.

There is no doubt Hurley can rebuild a program. He did it at Wagner. He did at Rhode Island. As much angst and anger as there with the fans, Kevin Ollie did not leave behind a program nearly as downtrodden. Hurley came right out and said that. He also knows the stakes are much higher.

He insists that UConn’s history and tradition “transcends any conference.” He said walking around in the summer recruiting period with UConn written across your shirt is a powerful thing. His plan is to have the hardest-working, hardest-playing, most-connected team in the country. That’s not a long-range goal. That’s the goal by opening night in November.

“That’s the kind of culture I create,” he said. “I understand the standard here.”

He also understood how much he was in demand. He met Benedict for the first time on Monday. Hurley said he knew “deep down inside” that he wanted just one more job in coaching.

“If he was going to leave Rhode Island, he wanted to go somewhere he could compete for national championships and Final Fours,” said Benedict, who outmaneuvered Pittsburgh to sign Hurley to a sixyear deal worth about $3.1 million a year. “A lot of our conversation was centered around that.

“Let me put it this way: We were not going to offer the job to anybody without meeting with him.”

If Hurley fails or if he wins a little, there will be another coaching job. If Hurley gets UConn back among the top couple of teams in the AAC, there were will be a sense of momentum that, yes, this can be done. If Hurley wins big, really big, he’ll never have another job. He will own the state. Andrea got a taste of that, too. She went to Dunkin’ Donuts. There was Geno’s face on the board.

Andrea, a mom of two boys and for all her husband’s players, is happy. Their older son is at Seton Hall. Her mom is in Jersey. It is important to her that she can get in a car to go see them. Connecticut? Except for the traffic on I-95, she said, “This is perfect.”

Her husband, meanwhile, has taken to meditation and yoga to become a more composed leader. He admits he is an emotional man by nature, obsessed with winning.

“I’m a very demanding coach,” he said. “The players will experience tougher, more up-tempo practices … Our practices are legendary. Once they throw themselves into it, they’re not going to want to train any other way.

“On game night, I’m a supporter. During practice, I’m a little bit of a butt kicker.”

UConn’s best player Jalen Adams, who is still weighing his options, said he is working on building a relationship with Hurley. If he stays and buys in to the butt kicking, he will be a high NBA draft pick. If he doesn’t, well, he’s on his own.

“Guys who have played for him, rave about him,” Adams said. “He pushes you to the limit. I think that will be great for me and even better for the whole team. Our team needs to be pushed.”

Especially if UConn basketball wants to return to what Andrea Hurley saw that night in March of 1996, especially if UConn is to return to what Dan Hurley believes it can again be.