Blue-chip stock
Huskies coach Dan Hurley rings opening bell at New York Stock Exchange
For the second year in a row, Uconn chants broke out at the New York Stock Exchange after men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley rang the opening bell on Wednesday morning.
Celebrating back-to-back national titles, Hurley was joined by Governor Ned Lamont, Uconn President Radenka Maric and Board of Trustees Chair Dan Toscano to speak before the bell-ringing, where the contingent grew to include Hurley’s wife, Andrea, as well as assistant coaches and other staffers.
Hurley followed Maric on the podium, who closed her remarks by telling Andrea to not let up the pressure on her husband because “we want to be back and we want this to be tradition.”
“I just can’t believe you people aren’t happy with back-to-back,” he joked ironically. “Back-to-back didn’t do it for you.”
The Huskies head coach, who just finished his sixth year in Storrs, was the first to use the phrase “three-peat” after the final buzzer on their 75-60 win over Purdue in the national championship game.
The stock exchange appearance came as the third major celebratory stop for the champs, who
brought an estimated 60,000 to Hartford for a victory parade on April 13 and visited with Connecticut lawmakers in the state capitol building for “Husky Day” last week. The probable White House visit with President Joe Biden and first pitches at Citi Field, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium are yet to be announced.
“The resources that we get to be able to perform and really strive for all of the championships and run the program at the level that we do, without the support of the Pres. and Gov. and Dan Toscano
and obviously (Athletic Director) David Benedict and his staff, they just give us everything we need to be the best in the sport. And right now, Uconn, the basketball program is the best program in college basketball,” Hurley said.
Uconn became the first program since Florida in 2006-07 to win back-to-back national titles and only the fourth, with UCLA (196465, 1967-73) and Duke (1991-92) also accomplishing the rare feat, in the last 60 years. The Huskies won all six NCAA Tournament games by double-figures and combined for the largest margin of victory in NCAA Tournament history (plus140).
“My wife Andrea over there, she’s my coach and she coaches me up every day, and then I do have the best staff in the country with Kimani (Young) and Luke (Murray) and Tom (Moore),” Hurley said. “There’s the continuity and the excellence of the people I have around me, it just attracts the right type of players and our brand of basketball that we’re playing right now, we just have the best combination of talent and good, hardworking people that are about all the right things.
“So we don’t really expect to go anywhere, but kind of stay where we are, just competing for championships. But yeah, it was a beautiful team, we’re gonna miss them. We said that the year before, how are we going to replace Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson and Adama Sanogo, and then we turned around and had an even better team.”
Replacing major losses, Uconn added a shooter and a fiery competitor in Cam Spencer who stepped in as the second-leading scorer and relied on jumps from returning players, plus five-star freshman Stephon Castle.
The bell ringing came the morn
ing after hosting Liam Mcneeley, the top Class of 2024 high school recruit available, on an official visit as the Huskies pursue a historic third title in a row. Hurley and staff, facing the potential of losing all five starters, already landed the commitment of former Michigan big Tarris Reed Jr. out of the transfer portal and are reportedly hosting Saint Mary’s guard Aidan Mahaney, who they got comfortable with in the second round of last year’s tournament, this weekend.
At least four starters, with Donovan Clingan and Castle each projected lottery picks and Tristen Newton and Spencer graduating, will look to take the next step at the NBA level. Alex Karaban is also set to test draft waters while retaining college eligibility.
Since UCLA won seven titles in a row from 196773, neither of the two other back-to-back champs have made it past the second round the following year. Florida went the next two years without a tournament bid.
“Our mindset right now is obviously enjoy these moments, but really working to put together another group of players that can help us do something really, really historic. We just did something historic though,” Hurley said. “So really, really historic — like stuff that hasn’t been done since UCLA and John Wooden and (expletive). That’s crazy, right?”