Five has arrived
Uconn’s long road back to the top complete after incredible tourney run Just the beginning? Huskies look primed for a possible dynasty
Dan Hurley knew what he was doing when he propped the program’s four national championship trophies up in front of recruits. They served as the most powerful force of attraction and doubled as a message.
But 18 months ago, he didn’t need them anymore. He had a group that understood the message and was ready to take on the challenge. Those trophies served their rightful purpose and got him started on building his own toolbox, but they weren’t really his.
He had his team, this team — a group he knew could make a run at a fifth, that could restore and rebuild the foundation of the storied program that spent nine years out of the spotlight.
The prizes of Jim Calhoun and Kevin Ollie were removed from the offices upstairs in the practice facility and brought back down to the stuffed case opposite Geno Auriemma’s 11.
Then, with his players, he got his own.
An even more powerful, shiny new tool that would be forever attached to him and the group he built. He joined the Uconn championship-winning coaches’ club and, just as important, made good on the promises those four trophies implied.
Now he can proceed in authoring his own chapter in the program’s lore. Now, as he looks to continue adding on, Hurley can show off the trophy he and his players earned and point to what he’s done and what he’s capable of doing again.
“I just feel like it’s all about being able to honor what you said you would do,” Hurley said with his championship hat on backwards and a net around his neck. “The program was in a bad way and they needed somebody that could come in here and prove themselves to be an elite coach that could get the program back to this level …
“Now we start to build our own trophy case.”
There were certainly times during this tournament run where it looked like Hurley had assembled some sort of super team in Storrs.
Looking unbeatable, Uconn strung together six dominant performances to claim No. 5.
Hurley continued making promises after a joyride on the team bus that, behind a police escort, cruised past waves of elated fans, and was eventually welcomed back to a campus in Storrs that had spent all night celebrating.
“We strived for five and we got that fifth (championship). And I promise you, just let us get a little bit of sleep and we’ll start working on No. 6 and we’ll be right back here,” he told an elated crowd at Gampel Pavilion Tuesday, less than 24 hours after climbing the ladder and cutting down the net.
The challenge and the approach will be different than it was after Uconn bowed out in the first round of last year’s tournament and Hurley called the “Big Three” of Andre Jackson Jr., Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins into his trophy-less office, promising he’d build a championship-caliber group around them.
The one trophy was enough for at least two starters in Jackson and Alex Karaban to want to return and get another, while Tristen Newton and Sanogo have capitalized on their own dreams and haven’t made any commitments to return or go pro. Hawkins, however, announced Friday he’s entering the NBA Draft. Hurley has a class coming in, ranked No. 6 in the country by ESPN, that watched the fruits of his labor play out on college basketball’s biggest stage — one they were promised they could get on if they chose Hurley to help get them there.
Other than Joey Calcaterra, who crossed the country to Storrs as a graduate student with dreams of becoming a champion and exhausted the final year of his eligibility, every other player on the roster has the option to return. To run it back and set out for another.
Newton and Nahiem Alleyne each bought in to the vision as transfers longing to get to the next level, Uconn’s level, and made a significant impact. They both were honored on Senior Night in February but could opt to use their fifth year that was granted during the pandemic.
Jackson has closely aligned his path with Hurley’s and said he wants another title, that he’s not leaving unless Hurley tells him to go. Karaban, still in shock, implied he wasn’t going anywhere. And Donovan Clingan, the 7-foot-2 center from Bristol who knew a championship was possible at Uconn more than anyone but didn’t expect it in Year One, has plans to live in the gym over the summer and pick up an even greater role for his sophomore season.
Sanogo, like Hawkins, could test pro waters, and others could get opinions while maintaining college eligibility, but no commitments have been made. Hurley would love to retain Hassan Diarra and Samson Johnson and the others who, because of the log jam of talent, saw limited minutes.
In a perfect Dan Hurley world he would be able keep everyone who wants to return, but reality is, he has five freshmen coming in who were promised a scholarship and only so many spots.
If, and when, those spots open up, Hurley and his staff will test the powers of their new, not-so-secret weapon. They’ll flaunt trophy No. 5 as they peruse the transfer portal and dive into high school recruits for future years.
As much as those trophies served as a critical recruiting tool, they fueled Hurley’s winning-obsessed imagination. His mentors, like Calhoun and Auriemma and most impactful, his legendary father Bob Sr., had plenty of prizes and established their legacies over time.
Now Hurley has started his own. “This was our vision. This was our dream. This is what we talked about when we recruited these guys, that we could get together and do something big like this,” Hurley said.
And now, if there was any question, he has a massive banner staring into his office from the other side of the gym to keep him going. Something to point to along with the four he adopted.
The process of hanging that banner began with the group, and the tradition, he inherited five years ago. It continued with the core he established last season, whose DNA miraculously intertwined with his through the intensity of practices and the belief in his genuine will to develop and win.
And it all started with Jackson and Sanogo, the longest-tenured players on the roster, each who felt a personal tie to Hurley and the program and were named captains after experiencing the grind and the heartbreak in consecutive seasons.
“I’m going to experience this and embrace this, and then once it’s time (to get ready for next year) I’m definitely going to lock in on that. I think Coach is definitely going to make me a part of that like he did last year,” said Jackson, who made helping newer players adjust to their new coach a top priority when they arrived on campus for summer session.
“They’re trying to build the legacy as well and they didn’t come to Uconn for no reason.”
When Hurley walks into the Werth Center practice facility and sees jam-packed trophy cases, when he looks out his window and sees all of the banners hanging, he desperately itches for more. Now that he’s hung his own, he wants to add interior decoration to his newfound artistic arsenal.
“Coach Calhoun, he’s had his hand in this one as well,” Hurley said, never afraid to embrace the past and always able to appreciate it. “It’s just when you’re in a place like that, it’s a little bit empty until you feel like you can join the club. I feel like now we’ve held up our end of the bargain that the women’s team has been carrying for so long — since forever, it seems like. And Coach Calhoun and Kevin Ollie, Geno, it feels good to accomplish what they’ve done.”
“This was our vision. This was our dream. This is what we talked about when we recruited these guys, that we could get together and do something big like this.” — Dan Hurley, Uconn head coach