Business matters How Hurley and UConn are managing the transfer portal while focusing on title run
BOSTON — As Dan Hurley and the UConn men’s basketball team focus on a national title run, the transfer portal conveyor belt is already moving.
The college basketball portal opened for business on March 18, much to the chagrin of coaches like Hurley with teams in the throes of March Madness. Hurley said this week that he wished the portal
would not open until the conclusion of the season, comparing the current setup to professional leagues that punish success teams with a lower draft pick.
But with potential portal targets available while the Huskies compete in the NCAA Tournament, UConn’s staff much has one eye on next year’s roster.
That job, Hurley said, falls on assistant coach Tom Moore. Hurley said Moore is a “pseudo-GM” who “projects what the roster’s going to look like,”
“We’re kind of having casual conversations about that, but we really are just trying to focus on next practice, studying the heck out of this Illinois team, staying in the moment,
staying present with that,” Hurley said. “It hasn’t hurt us in the past. That’s the way we’ve always handled things.
“We’re not good at tampering or cheating. We’ve never tried that and we’ve still been very successful. So we want to play out the season and, obviously, we’ll deal with our roster situations. But we just, as a program, we want to have a high-level culture and the respect of our peers to not be one of those programs that’s trying to steal players off other teams in season.”
As UConn moved through the tournament en route to a national title last year, members of the coaching staff were talking to transfer target on Zoom calls. Moore is managing that this year.
“Maybe make an initial