Dan Hurley is opening up about some of his 3D chess moves en route to winning back-to-back championships at UConn.
Before UConn consummated its 75-60 victory over Purdue on Monday, Hurley sat down with “CBS Mornings” and was asked how he continues to recruit players who “buy into” the team philosophy amid the transfer portal and NIL.
Hurley, 51, said that he scouts the parents, too.
Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley cuts the basketball net winning the Men’s NCAA national championship game against the Purdue Boilermakers at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on April 8, 2024. Michael Chow/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK 
UConn head coach Dan Hurley revealed that he scouts recruits’ parents to keep a culture of accountability around the program. @aaronwilbur/ X “There’s measurable talents you have to have — the height, the speed, the skill set. But we spend a lot of time really focusing on the parents,” Hurley said, as covered by Football Scoop.
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“Are they going to be fans of their son or are they going to be parents? Are they going to hold them accountable, have an expectation that when something goes wrong that it’s not the coach’s fault? That their son’s got to work harder, he’s got to do more, he’s got to earn his role.
“We’ve got a real old-school culture here of accountability. I’m an old-school coach in terms of the tone that I take with my players in practice. The expectations I take with effort, the focus on winning and ‘we’ over ‘me.'”
Hurley continued to elaborate.
“Have they played on seven different travel teams? Have they transferred to four or five different high schools? When you talk to the parents in the recruiting process, are they constantly complaining about the coaches after a bad game or are you having a conversation where their son has got to do more, got to play harder, he’s got to work on his skills,” Hurley continued.
“They tell on themselves. They drop hints. [If] you’ve got the wrong type of people around the inner circle of your players, they’ll sink your program.”
