The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Hurley’s return to Big East ‘a dream come true’
Dan Hurley went to bed Tuesday night still a head coach in the American Athletic Conference.
He woke up back home, in the Big East.
“It really is like a dream come true,” the UConn coach told reporters during a Zoom conference call on Wednesday. “It’s almost like getting hired again. That euphoria with that first press conference, when you get announced as the head coach, today’s almost like getting introduced again. It’s like you guys fired me or something, and I got rehired when I woke up.”
Hurley has already benefitted on the recruiting trail, where Andre Jackson of Albany, N.Y. and Adama Sanogo of New Jersey, even Javonte Brown-Ferguson of Toronto have expressed their excitement for UConn returning to the Big East. Ticket sales are already well ahead of last year’s pace. The excitement is palpable.
“It’s all about going from losing, struggling to continuing to create positive momentum and keep having small victories along the way to continue that momentum,” Hurley said. “Going back to the Big East wasn’t a small win. It was a huge win. It brings UConn basketball back to its identity, at least from the men’s side. It puts us in a position, I think, to realistically make a run at being that elite program again.”
Of course, that’s all incumbent upon there being a college basketball season this winter. As of right now, that’s still very much up in the air. COVID-19 cases among college athletes who have returned to campus voluntarily have been fairly numerous, particularly in states like Texas and others where social-distancing, wearing masks and other preventative methods have been lax, at best.
Nine of UConn’s 13 scholarship players are back on campus, and all have tested negative for the coronavirus. Their first week back, they worked in group of two in both the weight room and in the practice gym. They are now allowed to work in groups of four in both places, not integrated together but rather working out in groups of two at opposite sides of the facility.
Asked whether he believes there will be college basketball this season, Hurley wasn’t brimming with his usual confidence.
“It’s obviously concerning to me when the NCAA extends the no-recruiting, on or off campus, all the way through August. So, we’re not allowed to recruit or have prospects come and
spend even a couple of hours with us on campus. But then we expect to play games in November? That, obviously, seems like something that’s hard to comprehend. In August, we can’t leave campus, no one can visit us, yet two, three months later, we’re traveling around the country, playing games. At this point, I’m not ready to make an assessment on where things are gonna be. Maybe in a couple of weeks, I’ll have enough information.”
On Wednesday, Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino (who has returned to coach Iona this season) suggested on Twitter that the NCAA’s best move may be to delay the start of the season and play only league games. Again, Hurley wasn’t about to make any predictions of
what’s going to happen. But he did point out that he wasn’t comfortable with the idea of playing games in front of no fans at the AAC tournament, which would have been the case before the tourney was canceled in mid-March.
“The data on this is scary,” Hurley noted. “When data suggests that this virus affects men of color more than other members of our society, and you’re coaching a team and coaching with members of your staff that are predominantly Black men, I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable, unless this thing changes pretty significantly.”
Sobering thoughts on an otherwise dream-like day for Dan Hurley and UConn basketball.
RIM RATTLINGS
Hurley stated all reports on Tyler Polley (ACL) are positive, and that Akok
Akok (Achilles) is “shooting, moving well, he looks great. He’s an elite athlete.” Incoming freshman Andre Jackson is recovering from a minor knee issue, but it doesn’t appear to be anything serious.
Hurley said that BrownFerguson is the lone concern when it comes to getting athletes back on campus. The Toronto product needs to be registered in a course that is not completely online before obtaining his I-20 form to get to America. That means finding a course and a professor at UConn that would fit that need. Brown-Fergson would only need to have one in-person session with the professor, and the rest could be done online. Hurley is hoping the 7-foot-1 center is on campus by Aug. 1.