Dan Hurley, arguably the best coach in college basketball, considered stepping down from his job earlier this year.
This according to a first-person account in his forthcoming book, “Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes To Be Great.”
True to the title, Hurley hasn’t stopped — but he almost did in the spring. The news was first reported Wednesday by The Athletic. After ascending to the top of college hoops by guiding UConn to back-to-back national titles in 2023 and 2024, the pressures of trying to win three straight — and failing to do so — led Hurley to briefly consider quitting the profession. The pondering came on the heels of a dramatic 2024-25 season that was frequently accompanied by detrimental headlines.
“I thought about leaving,” Hurley writes in the book, due out Sept. 30. “Taking a gap year. Resigning as head coach of the UConn Huskies.”
CBS Sports reached out to Hurley, who was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
The Huskies ’24-25 season started infamously with an 0-3 catastrophe at the Maui Invitational after debuting as a preseason top-five team. CBS Sports was given exclusive access to the Huskies amid that tournament flameout, which included Hurley’s first notorious encounter with officials last season.
UConn rebounded from that Maui slump by consecutively beating Baylor, Texas, Gonzaga and Xavier — all eventual NCAA tourney teams — in December and reaching 12-3. But UConn went went 6-6 through a seven-week stretch of Big East and ultimately landed an 8-seed in the NCAAs. The Huskies finished 24-11 after nearly upsetting eventual national champ Florida in the second round. That loss gave way for one more Hurley misstep, when he was caught on camera leaving the court saying to a Baylor team that was waiting to play in the next game, “I hope they don’t f— you like they f—– us.”
The 52-year-old Hurley has largely since atoned for all of that, publicly and privately. He spoke informally for nearly an hour with CBS Sports earlier this summer, while on the road recruiting, and recounted the highs and lows of last season. More than three months removed from the end of the season, Hurley said he was in a much better headspace, found time to recharge and renew his purpose. He’s excited and optimistic about his roster for 2025-26. That’s now.
But here was his mindset at one point early in the spring. An excerpt from the book, via The Athletic:
“I knew my mind, and I knew my body, and I could feel that I was completely cooked,” Hurley writes. “Just burnt. I didn’t even know how I was standing. I stared at the office walls, muttering, conducting a brutal review of our season. I didn’t build a strong enough roster. I wasn’t a good leader. I let everyone down in Maui. I lost control, emotionally, at various points. I came in here some days sad and defeated, when I needed to be positive and inspiring. Then I went through the self-lacerating what-ifs: What if we’d played a little bit better in Maui? What if we hadn’t blown that game against Seton Hall? What if we’d been a better seed than an eight seed and hadn’t needed to face a number one in the second round? Who knows?
“It was unhealthy to be ruminating this way. I was unhealthy. I desperately needed to get out of town, flee to my standard hideaway, Dorado Beach in San Juan. I needed to do some healing, not think about basketball for a few days. But that wasn’t possible in this new era. The transfer portal and NIL deals made every college player a free agent, so right after the tournament I needed to be in my office, in Storrs. If I left town right then, I wouldn’t have a team for the 2025-26 season.
“At that point, I wasn’t even sure that I would return for the 2025-26 season.”
Hurley’s former coaching agent, Jordan Bazant, has been a high-ranking TV executive with Fox Sports for years, and per the book, the two engaged in a conversation “about doing some commentary.” Ultimately, Hurley moved off the thought and bought in again with UConn. By revealing this, however, Hurley makes clear that for two consecutive offseasons he did have thoughts about leaving UConn. In 2024, he famously turned down overtures to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.
His moment of pause is hardly shocking. College basketball has seen the likes of Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, Roy Williams and others — including Nick Saban in college football, most notably — leave on an accelerated timeline due to the massive changes in the sport and the tumult that has come with transfer portal freedom and NIL empowerment for players.
Hurley’s predicament is like many other coaches in college sports. But at least for now, he seems reinvigorated and ready to try and get UConn back to the top of the sport. After some impressive portal pickups, the return of forward Alex Karaban and guard Solo Ball, plus the addition of the No. 11 freshman class in 2025, Hurley’s Huskies are poised to be ranked in the top 10 this preseason and should vie with St. John’s for Big East supremacy.
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