University of Connecticut head coach Dan Hurley’s wife Andrea revealed that she was in tears at one point during her husband’s meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers, who are looking for someone to replace Darvin Ham as the team’s newest head coach.
“They sent their plane,” Andrea Hurley told WFSB. “They — literally attention to detail, they made us feel welcomed and they wanted to be a part of our family, and they wanted us a part of their family. And it was just so sincere and the way that they were talking to us, it was — I sat there, and all I did was cry, of course. And actually why I was there — I just — as I was looking — every time I looked at the owner’s face, I saw another one of our players.
“And I was just like, ‘No, this is amazing, but we have our kids at home. How do we leave kids that just won back-to-back championships? How about all these new babies that are coming in that could have went anywhere, and they chose to come here to play for Danny?'”
Andrea Hurley recently hinted that there would have been a negative ramification if Dan Hurley opted to leave UConn for the Lakers.
Additionally, Dan Hurley said that he never spoke to Lakers star LeBron James during the recruiting process, but coaching him would have been a “thrill.”
“It’s been wild…it would’ve been a thrill to coach him.”
– Dan Hurley shares what the last few weeks have been like for him as well as reveals that he and Lebron never actually spoke during this process.
📺 https://t.co/QWMagwuZcy pic.twitter.com/6z5Y75LnG2
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) June 13, 2024
The 51-year-old made the decision to take his name out of the running and remain the head coach of the Huskies earlier this month. He began his career as a head coach at the collegiate level with Wagner College and led the team to a 25-6 record in the 2011-12 season.
Once Dan Hurley’s two-season stint at Wagner came to an end, he then spent the next six seasons as a head coach at the University of Rhode Island. Under Dan Hurley, the Rams made two straight NCAA Tournament appearances and reached the second round of both tournaments.
Ever since leaving Rhode Island following the 2017-18 season, Dan Hurley has been the Huskies’ leader from the sidelines, and it’s at UConn where he has experienced the most success of his coaching career. The Huskies own a 141-58 record ever since Dan Hurley took over the head coaching reigns, and as Andrea Hurley alluded to, UConn won NCAA titles in 2023 and 2024.
Earlier this year, the Huskies beat Purdue University in the title game by a score of 75-60. A balanced scoring effort guided UConn to a victory, as four Huskies reached double digits in scoring. Tristen Newton dropped a team-high 20 points on 6-of-13 from the field and 2-of-5 from 3-point range.
While Dan Hurley will not be the head coach of the Lakers anytime soon, it’s fun to imagine what Los Angeles would have accomplished during the upcoming 2024-25 campaign if Dan Hurley became the 29th head coach in franchise history.
