Hurley looking forward to offseason, chance to further invest in himself and UConn

Dan Hurley engages fan as UConn leaves hotel prior to Sunday’s game against Florida. Huskies now adjust to offseason, one Hurley is hopeful will help revamp his team and his own skill set. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)

Three years ago, when UConn was bounced out of the NCAA Tournament by a 12th seed in New Mexico State, Dan Hurley used the loss to take stock in not only his program, but himself as a coach.

“It changed the way we put together our roster,” he said last year after the Huskies defeated Illinois to return to the Final Four. “The personalities, the skill sets, a long look in the mirror at me as an offensive coach. I’ve always done a lot of things right, but there were blind spots for this program to become elite. That sucked, man.”

UConn went on to win the next two national championships, and 13 straight NCAA Tournament games, two streaks that came to an end Sunday as the Huskies lost to Florida in the second round of March Madness. A visibly emotional Hurley remarked about how much he loved his team and the honor with which it fought and competed, but also embraced the opportunity to once again tweak his own performance just as he did in 2022.

“I would say going into the year, there’s a lot of rewiring and things I gotta do in the offseason because you just get caught up in this tidal wave of success that we’ve had,” he said. “You lose perspective. You struggle with the ego at times, because you’ve been on this incredible run.”

Being the coach of the reigning champion came with media obligations and responsibilities that deterred Hurley from doing what he would rather do, working on reconstructing his roster and attacking the transfer portal as it opens and not halfway into the open season on what has become the free agency period of college basketball. The portal opens Monday, and UConn is set to lose at least two players to graduation in Hassan Diarra and Samson Johnson, plus freshman Liam McNeeley to the NBA Draft, where he is a projected lottery pick. Junior forward Alex Karaban has one more season of eligibility, but has not made a decision about his future one way or the other. The Huskies also welcome a four-member recruiting class to Storrs next season, headlined by a trio of McDonald’s All-Americans in Darius Adams, Braylon Mullins and Eric Reibe.

“It’ll be nice to get to a normal offseason and just get back to myself as a coach, and not have to throw out first pitches,” Hurley admitted. “You should only be ringing stock market bells and throwing out first pitches when you win a major championship. I won’t have to do things like that. I’ll be able to just focus on the upcoming season and make better decisions with all aspects of coaching.”