SOUTH WINDSOR –- Bob Hurley Sr. tends to be more optimistic when evaluating the UConn men’s basketball practices he watches than his son, Coach Dan Hurley, only because it isn’t his team.
The legendary coach at St. Anthony in Jersey City, the third of only five high school coaches inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Bob Sr. has been observing his son coach since the beginning. When Dan was leading his first teams at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, his dad would be off to the side watching practice before returning to Jersey City to coach his own team. He, and sometimes his wife, Christine, would make it out to Staten Island to watch Dan’s practices at Wagner, and later to South Kingston, Rhode Island, when they could see his teams at URI.
By the time Dan took the UConn job, Bob Sr. had retired and St. Anthony shut down for financial reasons. He still opens the gym three days a week, as part of the mission of the Hurley Family Foundation, but it is easier for him and Chris to make the drive into Connecticut and watch Dan’s teams play, only offering his thoughts when he’s asked. When he can’t make it, he’ll often get the exclusive practice film sent to him.
Bob and Chris made the trip to Storrs on Thursday to get an early look at the 2026-27 Huskies and came away impressed with how the team looks early into the first summer session.
“They never stopped,” Bob told The Courant – an unintentional plug for Dan’s book, “Never Stop” – while seated in front of his son’s locker from Gampel Pavilion, which is one of the many memorabilia items being auctioned off at CollectUConn.com and the Gampel Collection storefront, located at the Promenade Shops at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor. He was there for a meet-and-greet and autograph session following a free, hour-long and wide-ranging discussion hosted by WFSB’s Joe Zone on the green.
“They run a system that’s like playing chess while other guys are playing checkers,” Bob Sr. said. “It’s very complicated. From the neck up is the game.”
UConn brought in nine new players this offseason – seven transfers and two freshmen – after losing five to expiring eligibility and five more to the transfer portal. The Huskies only have about five months until the national championship rematch against Michigan in Boston on Nov. 6, which kicks off what will likely be the most challenging nonconference schedule the program has ever played.
“It’s not my team, so I would have a tendency to be more optimistic than Danny. But I like the experience on the perimeter, (Silas) Demary, (Braylon) Mullins and (Jayden) Ross. Those three, you start with that. Then (Nik) Khamenia is a very polished, complete player – a version of Alex Karaban? I don’t know, but I liked what I saw,” Bob Sr. reported.
“And then the center position, the kid from Stanford (Oskar Giltay) I thought looked good, and then if they can get the kid from Arkansas (Elmir Dzafic), if they can get this dude in shape, he’s like as big as the doorway and he’s not immobile, until he got tired I thought he played well. The two freshmen look good.”
He didn’t need to mention New Jersey native Najai Hines, the projected starting center who comes over from Seton Hall. He’d heard about him two years ago from coaching friends and watched him play during his senior season at Plainfield High, before the ex-football star opted against a year of prep school and committed to the Pirates.
Bob Sr. was impressed up and down the roster, including combo guard Junior County, a freshman who the Huskies see as an immediate contributor as a ball handler off the bench.
“After seeing him today, he was more fluid and stronger than I thought he would be. Because a big guard who’s going into college quite often is skinny and can get pushed around; he didn’t. He had a physical confidence that he knew how to play at his size. They’re some physical kids and he was fine, he adapted to it and looked pretty good,” he said.
The Hall of Famer spoke on everything from his days coaching his sons in Jersey City to his opinion on referees (which isn’t much different from Dan’s), and why he no longer attends games at Seton Hall because of the way he’s been treated by fans. Of course, the conversation got around to Mullins’ game-winning shot against Duke and the rising sophomore’s focus this offseason on getting stronger and showing more versatility.
It was clear that he’ll miss talking with Karaban, who, since the end of his sophomore season, spoke more like a member of the coaching staff than a player on the team. Bob Sr. believes Karaban will eventually end up alongside Dan on his staff at UConn.
But the overriding feeling was that the Huskies have another good year in store.
“(Dan’s) very demanding, but the group connects with him because he’s a very good basketball coach, but he connects with the guys because he’s a little wacky,” Bob Sr. said. “The staff and everybody enjoys that part of him.”
