Hurley has developed tight bond with Geno, Edsall

BRANFORD — Dan Hurley knew Duke Edsall long before he met his brother, Randy.

Duke Edsall is a longtime NCAA men’s basketball official who did at least a few of Hurley’s games when Hurley was head coach at Wagner and Rhode Island. Hurley can’t remember the exact game or games, but given his well-known issues with refs over the years, the new UConn coach figures it probably didn’t go too well.

“I think Randy’s gonna give me a fresh start, a clean slate,” Hurley said, with a smile, on Tuesday evening. “Talking to him, I don’t think he always loves the refs, either. So, he knows.”

Yes, it appears Edsall, the UConn football coach, has forgiven any potential past indiscretions Hurley may have committed toward his family.

“Good guy, I really like him,” Edsall said, prior to the second segment of a four-part, “UConn Coaches Road Show” at Stony Creek Brewery. “I know he’s a good coach, you see what he’s done. He’s got that intensity and toughness about him that, to me, you need to have.”

Geno Auriemma was so happy to have Hurley on board as UConn’s new coach that he congratulated Hurley a couple of days before he had even accepted the job.

“He was a little premature,” Hurley noted. “He got me on Wednesday or something. I was still in my process.”

After Hurley officially took over the job, Edsall, who shares an agent (Jordan Bazant) with Hurley, walked over to the Werth Family Champions Center and gave the new coach a 45-minute lay of the land. Hurley also spent several days with Auriemma, picking his brain.

“Everything from program-building to just suggestions about mistakes you can make at UConn — obviously a much bigger media I’m dealing with than at URI,” Hurley recalled. “A much more rabid fanbase than I’m used to.”

A fanbase spoiled by four national titles in the past 20 years, yet coming off the worst back-to-back seasons the program has suffered in more than 30 years.

“The expectations are so unrealistic,” Auriemma said. “(Understand) that this can’t be done in one year. It may not be able to be done in two years. Yet we live in a world and a program where we expect — ‘right away.’ We want it done right now. And it’s not gonna be easy. He’s got a tough job ahead of him.”

Aureimma, the owner of 11 national championship rings himself, believes Hurley is just the guy to get it done. He even compares him favorably to Jim Calhoun — and despite Au-

riemma’s long-standing icy relationship with the Hall of Fame coach, that’s a compliment.

“I think he, more than anybody, believes, ‘I got this,’ probably not unlike Jim did when he came,” Auriemma said. “Except they weren’t at the heights we have been when he got here. I think Danny’s whole makeup is kind of geared towards a fighter’s mentality. And that’s exactly what they need right now.”

Edsall got to know Hurley a little better early last month during an alumni event out in Monterey, Calif. While he knows expectations will be tough

for Hurley to meet, he also thinks the new coach is coming into a somewhat advantageous situation.

“You don’t want to be the guy replacing the legend,” Edsall said. “You want to be the next guy after that. It’s easier to go in and replace the guy who isn’t the Jim Calhoun. When you go in and replace a legend, that’s hard. But when you go in, and the program is down a little bit, that’s a little bit easier. I think he’s coming into a really good situation. Yes, you have the history, the tradition, the brand. But now, it’s down a little bit, and he gets to come in and everything he does is gonna be his way and not have to worry about being compared to Jim, or coming off a national

championship.”

The Coaches Road Show — which also featured field hockey coach Nancy Stevens and baseball pitching coach Josh MacDonald on Tuesday — rolls on into New York City on Wednesday at Hearst Tower and concludes on Thursday in Stamford. Hurley, Edsall and Auriemma are the three main attractions at each stop. It’s clear they have mutual admiration. And it’s clear that all three — including Hurley himself — believe that Dan Hurley is the right man for this job.

“I think I’m an impact coach,” Hurley said. “I feel like the players that we brought in are gonna be impact players — three guys that we know can go right into the rotation in various roles. I think we have a lot of depth. We’ve got Jalen (Adams), who’s clearly the best player. Then, I think we have a lot of pieces that can do a lot of different things around him. We can probably play 10 or 11 bodies this year, which is exactly the way I like to play.”

“He’s confident,” Auriemma added. “I’m sure his confidence is gonna be tested at times. But there’s no reason why we can’t get into the NCAA tournament and get a high seed every single year. It’s being done by other teams in our conference, and it can be done here.”

Hurley