The UConn men’s basketball program is hiring.
The university is expected to post a job opening as early as Tuesday morning for a new assistant coach to join Dan Hurley’s staff ahead of the 2025-26 season. Tom Moore had been serving in a dual position as assistant coach and general manager, and will shift to focus on GM duties full time. Moore’s role will be clarified further at a later date.
According to multiple sources, former Villanova assistant Mike Nardi is the leading candidate to fill the open position. Nardi played for the Wildcats from 2003-07 and served as an assistant under Jay Wright and Kyle Neptune from 2018-25. A New Jersey native, he was named the interim head coach as Villanova competed in the College Basketball Crown after firing Neptune this spring, but it was reported earlier this month that he will not remain on Villanova’s staff under new head coach Kevin Willard.
Hurley was able to keep his other two assistants, Luke Murray and associate head coach Kimani Young, intact despite an active coaching carousel this offseason. Murray and Young each signed new three-year contracts last summer, after Hurley declined the head coaching offer from the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I’m just so careful about who I hire, I always have been,” Hurley said last July, after those contracts were announced. “We share the same obsession with our work… It’s always hard for me to put together a staff because I think there’s not a lot of people that can work with me, just the intensity of how we go about our business, the way we run the program, it’s a different intensity level. I’m tough on the people that play for me and work for me, I’m demanding, so it’s always hard for me to find people to hire. They have to share that same kind of obsession and they can’t be looking for life balance.”
Nardi played for legendary coach Kevin Boyle when he was at St. Patrick’s High School in New Jersey. At the same time, Hurley was coaching at rival St. Benedict’s. Nardi began working for Wright at Villanova as the Director of Student-Athlete Development in 2015-16 and transitioned into a role as Video Coordinator (2016-17) and then Director of Basketball Operations (2017-18) before ultimately joining the staff as an assistant coach.
Originally Published: April 21, 2025 at 4:17 PM EDT
