Dan Hurley considered walking away from the UConn men’s basketball coaching job after last season, the two-time national championship winning coach wrote in a new book set to be released later this month, according to The Athletic.
“I thought about leaving. Taking a gap year. Resigning as head coach of the UConn Huskies,” Hurley reportedly wrote. “I knew my mind, and I knew my body, and I could feel that I was completely cooked. Just burnt. I didn’t even know how I was standing.”
Hurley said the angst of losing in agonizing fashion in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to eventual champion Florida, plus the lack of a chance to reset in today’s transfer portal and NIL-driven college sports landscape ate at him.
“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.”
The book, titled “Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes To Be Great,” was co-authored by Hurley and sportswriter Ian O’Connor, now with The Athletic. It’s set to be released Sept. 30.
The 52-year-old coach also had preliminary discussions about becoming a TV analyst with Fox Sports, according to The Athletic.
“I even talked to a TV executive about doing some commentary,” Hurley reportedly wrote in the book. “The previous summer, I talked to Jay Wright about life after basketball. He said he was actually happy, sleeping. He wasn’t sick to his stomach nine months of the year.”
Wright retired from college basketball after the 2022 season and has been working as an analyst with CBS Sports since.
Hurley has been open about issues with mental health in the past. He described suffering a panic attack just days after winning the national championship in 2023, and even discussed having suicidal thoughts during a particularly hard time in the past.
Despite winning back-to-back national titles, Hurley said this past season took a toll on him, as he had high-profile blowups with referees, including a meltdown at the Maui Invitational and a viral video moment captured after UConn’s 77-75 loss to Florida in which Hurley berated officials as he walked to the locker room.
The team finished 24-11, a disappointment by Hurley’s standards despite nearly upsetting the top-seeded Gators in the NCAA Tournament second round.
“The way this year went for me personally and how tough it was on UConn – all of us, the staff, the players, the fans, everyone that supports us – I mean, as soon as this year was over, your total mindset was like, try to regroup mentally because this year was a lot,” Hurley said back in June.
Ultimately, as he had the previous summer when he considered leaving UConn to coach LeBron James and the L.A. Lakers, and this summer when his name surfaced as a candidate for the New York Knicks job, he decided he wanted to come back. He is in the second year of a six-year, $50 million contract with UConn, which he signed after turning down a reported six years and $70 million from the Lakers last summer.
“Listen, I cherish my job, my players, our school, our fans, and our boosters,” Hurley wrote in the book. “I’ve got the very best job in the country with the very best program in college basketball over the last quarter century. All of that is hand-on-the-Bible true. But what’s also true is the massive toll that coaching takes on you and your family. The whole thing is exhausting. The seasons are excruciating even when they are going great. You rarely get to the national championship game and win it, so if the season ended the way I wanted it to end only two years out of my coaching life, then I was tortured for twenty-eight years. That’s a hell of a way to look at it.
“I’m not some unbreakable machine programmed to seek and destroy opposing teams and officiating crews — over and over and over again. I’m human.”
Originally Published: September 3, 2025 at 12:11 PM EDT
