UConn’s Dan Hurley is navigating NCAA’s winding road. But he fears it leads to ruin

STORRS — Dan Hurley was a 72.5 percent free throw shooter in college, one could look that up, but could he have done it if the basket was a moving target and the floor was shifting under him?

At UConn, Hurley is 104-23, an .818 winning percentage over the last 3 1/2 seasons, with two championships, and he has done it with the rules perpetually changing; the sidelines and baselines ever blurring. On the latest development, Hurley could not wait to weigh in. Last week, James Nnaji, 21, who bypassed U.S. college basketball to enter the NBA Draft in 2023 and was picked 31st, and has been playing professionally overseas, was determined eligible to play college basketball and will join Baylor for the spring semester, a midseason acquisition.

“We need leadership, we need a commissioner,” Hurley said Monday, as the Huskies wrapped up practice for their game at Xavier on New Year’s Eve. “We need somebody that is just directing the sport. College basketball is special, college basketball is an awesome sport, college basketball has the second-biggest sporting event this country has, and we just can’t take something that is great and ruin it because there is no leadership, no one knows the rules to the game.”

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Hurley is the latest in a line of veteran coaches to question what has been going on, as Nnaji, a 7-foot center, figures to be only the first of such players entering college in the middle of this season and suiting up to play in January.

Arkansas’ John Calipari expressed concerns for the mental health of players as they transfer from one school to another without any penalty or having to sit.

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has repeatedly called for the NCAA to draw a line and not be afraid of lawsuits, criticizing coaches for finding loopholes to make these additions.

Gonzaga’s Mark Few called for congress to get involved in defining amateurism and college eligibility.

When news of the Nnaji’s move to Baylor came out on social media last week, Hurley posted on his X account, “Santa Clause is delivering midseason acquisitions. This (bleep) is crazy.”

In his 18-minute talk with state reporters, Hurley expanded. He didn’t criticize Baylor coach Scott Drew for taking Nnaji; coaches can be expected to do whatever they can within the rules to improve their teams. “That’s our job,” Hurley said.

But his concern for the direction of the game that has been his life’s work came through loud and clear.

“I was told weeks ago there was going to be a ruling, potentially, in mid-December about players getting a fifth year, awarded a fifth year,” Hurley said. “That Dec. 15 date has come, it’s gone, and we have no idea if players are going to get a fifth year. Being as clueless as I am, players that forgo and go to the NBA, ‘I forgo my eligibility and I’m turning pro, I’m going to the NBA, I’m forgoing my college eligibility and now I’m coming back to college and play?’ We just don’t want college basketball to turn into the G League.”

The G League, the NBA’s developmental circuit, plays in smaller arenas, fewer amenities and, in many cases, lower pay than players can now get in college, with name-image-likeness and revenue sharing income available. Nnaji was drafted by Detroit, his rights eventually traded to the Knicks, who still hold them, and he has been playing in Spain and Turkey.

Louisville has landed London Johnson, 21, who played in the G League from 2022-25, and will start playing college basketball next season. The NCAA, using age, years since graduating high school and how much money a player has made in the pros as a basis, allowed Thierry Darlan, 21, to join Santa Clara.

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What’s next? Trentyn Flowers, who de-committed from Louisville in 2023, has been in the G League and actually played a few games in the NBA in 2024, is drawing interest from college teams, according to reports.

“Can we just make the travel better in the G League? Can they stay at nicer hotels?” Hurley asked. “Can they get more per diem, pay them more money. It’s obvious what the G-League players are coming back for, they’re coming back for the money you can make in college, and we also travel well, with a $40 million practice facility, play in front of big crowds. I just don’t want to lose our donors, you lose your fans, you lose your students, what I  think has been a great connection, those are the people who drive our sport, buy tickets, support the programs.

“If we lose them, if they think this is some mercenary thing, if education just goes completely out the window, we’re just basically, college basketball is the G League. I just don’t know if ruining college basketball is the right direction.”

Last spring, the NCAA lifted its rules preventing hockey players coming from Canadian junior leagues, where they were paid a stipend. Once that line was crossed, players in U.S. minor leagues, including the AHL, a step below the NHL, were allowed to return to college. Basketball is following the same scenario. Overseas players have always been part of the equation; the UConn women have a freshman standout, Blanca Quinonez, who has played internationally from a young age, and with a professional program in Italy, but she is 19, and has never been drafted by the WNBA.

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Hurley said he agreed with the points Few, Izzo and Calipari have made. His long-time cause celebre has been the need for a commissioner, a college hoops potentate with the power to bring clarity to the rules, define eligibility and amateurism.

“Listen, if this is just pro sports now, we need a commissioner that just sets the rules for the game we’re now playing,” Hurley said. “People say. ‘adapt, adapt, you guy’s got to adapt.’ What are we adapting to? We don’t even know the rules. When I saw that (post about Nnaji) over Christmas, I thought it was a joke, one of those fake accounts. We’re still in compliance meetings here at UConn talking about the letterhead you can’t send on mailers, we can only call a recruit once a week, we’re still in those types of meetings. Now you’re seeing that guys who played in the NBA are going to play college in January. Player empowerment? Awesome, love it, it’s long overdue. Coaches doing what’s in their best interests? That’s great, too.

“But who’s looking out for the shield of college basketball? That should be a commissioner who is running our sport, figuring out how to put things in place. Limit on transfers, contracts for players, we need leadership. Right now, it’s a game with no rules.”

So who could fill such a position? Hurley wasn’t volunteering.

“I’m a ball coach,” he said. “We still want to work in the model that we work. We still want to recruit high school players, develop them. I always want to be a college coach. I love being a college coach. The art of being a college coach is cheapened a lot, you can just buy a team. Now, you can have a team that you don’t like to start the year and just change your team mid-year.”