GLENDALE, Ariz. — You always wondered what Bob Hurley Sr. could do at the next level. You imagined the now retired corrections officer becoming an even bigger star coaching college kids one day, doing what he did at St. Anthony of Jersey City on a much larger scale, which meant getting every ounce of effort out of his players.
Hurley was a dominant figure in talent-rich New Jersey for over four decades, winning 26 state titles, four nationals championships and 13 New Jersey Tournament of Champions crowns in 45 seasons and producing more than 150 Division 1 players until the school closed its doors in 2017. The Naismith Hall of Famer, considered one of the great high school coaches of all time, never did give college a shot, passing on several opportunities to remain in Jersey City.
Lately, though, you don’t have to use your imagination. Just watch Connecticut. Watch his son Dan’s Huskies plow through the competition like the St. Anthony Friars often did. Sure, UConn has plenty of talent, projected lottery picks Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle, high-level college players Cam Spencer, Tristen Newton and Alex Karaban who will make a lot of money in the sport, too. The overall top seed, however, does remind you of St. Anthony with the ferocity with which it defends, how it shares the ball and how hard it plays.
It’s one thing to be more talented than the opposition. It’s another to outwork the other team, too, which is what UConn does, and St. Anthony so frequently did on the elder Hurley’s watch.
Bob Hurley Sr. won 26 state titles and four national championships when he was the head coach at St. Anthony’s in Jersey City. Getty ImagesExplore More
This run Connecticut is on is unprecedented, 10 straight NCAA Tournament victories by double figures, four wins in this tournament by an average of 27.8 points. It has already set a school record for wins with 35 and is two wins away from becoming the first team to repeat since Florida in 2006-07.
And, really, this would be a more impressive accomplishment.
Those Gators, led by Billy Donovan, Joakim Noah and Al Horford, returned their entire starting five and were ranked first in the preseason. This group added three new starters in Castle, Clingan and Spencer. Five of the Huskies’ top eight scorers moved on after last year’s dominant run. They weren’t even picked in the top two of the Big East, slotted behind Marquette and Creighton, and were ranked sixth by the Associated Press before the start of the season. In retrospect, those projections greatly undersold the Huskies.
Dan Hurley is looking to lead UConn to back-to-back national championships. Getty Images“What he does at the college level right now, the culture and everything about it, it’s just amazing,” Hurley Sr., 76, said after Connecticut crushed No. 3 Illinois in the Eight Eight, highlighted by a 30-0 run, to return to this weekend’s Final Four. “I thought last year, what was accomplished was unbelievable, and then five of the top eight scorers are gone. This is a different team, and they’re playing so well again. They’re really good, but in a different way.”
As Dan has built Connecticut back up to where Jim Calhoun once had it, it is easy to forget the journey he took to get here. He spent nine years as a high school coach at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, a combined eight years rebuilding lower-level programs Wagner and Rhode Island before landing at Connecticut in 2018. He worked his way up the proverbial mountain. Now that he’s been to the top, Dan isn’t ready to give up that lofty perch.
You can tell merely by how his program has responded after winning it all: by having an even better season. There has been no let-up, from him or his players. It’s always about the next game. Last year’s championship has made him even more driven.
Bob Hurley Sr. coached 45 seasons at St. Anthony’s and produced more than 150 Division 1 players until the school closed its doors in 2017. Denis Gostev Bob Hurley Sr. AP“It was important for me to show my fan base and my players that they’re not gonna get some guy that’s gonna rest on his laurels after winning one, and he’s just gonna go and ring the bell at the [New York] Stock Exchange and go hang out with [President] Biden, and then he’s gonna take a year off and do the honeymoon s–t,” Dan said. “I’m an obsessed coach, and I’m gonna be more maniacal the next couple days than I was in the ones leading up to this, I promise you. And when this season’s over, it’s gonna get worse.”
Dan believes that if his father ever made the leap to the college ranks, he would’ve established himself as one of the greats at any level. That didn’t happen. Instead, Dan is carrying that mantle quite impressively, closing in on the rare repeat, establishing himself as one of the best in the college game.
If you want to know what a Bob Hurley Sr.-coached team might have looked like at this level, tune into the Final Four Saturday night.
