Dan Hurley admits bad behavior during UConn’s disappointing season, hints at changes: ‘I’m not a victim’

NEW YORK – A year ago in this building, Dan Hurley made the media rounds at Madison Square Garden and pitched why UConn should have been No. 1 heading into the season.

After back-to-back national titles, the Huskies were No. 3 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. Nevertheless, Hurley stood at the top of the sports world, proudly and unapologetically chasing a third consecutive national title and eager to ferret out any doubters about Connecticut’s chances of pursuing the near-impossible in the modern age of college sports.

And then, the most taxing and controversial season of Hurley’s life toppled his ego and was such a shock to his senses that it prompted the 52-year-old to reflect on moving away from coaching in the wake of UConn’s 24–11 season that ended without a Sweet 16 appearance, as a No. 8 seed.

“Having a year like we just had, which was very challenging, it got me to a point where I was thinking about taking a gap year or being done,” Hurley told CBS Sports on Tuesday. “I had a bad year. I didn’t coach at my best, I didn’t lead at my best. I didn’t put a group together that could compete for the things we wanted to compete for.”

The story of the 2024-2025 Huskies has been revived, but that doesn’t mean reflection is unwarranted, especially on the abyss of the ’25-26 season. Reflection is why Hurley is here and why I am writing this column. Hurley being at the center of controversy and trying to claw his way back to good behavior further cements his position as one of the most interesting people in college sports. He is as accessible to the media as any other high-profile coach in America. He will debate the specifics with you, but is always willing to admit his mistakes when it is clear he is going too far.

It hasn’t stopped him and his program from building what appears to be another Final Four contender.

So here’s Hurley again, just like last year and the year before, with his team occupying a spot in the preseason top five. Only this time, he seems determined to approach his behavior as differently as he mentally and physically can.

It’s not just the magnitude of the losses he doesn’t want to experience again – it’s the shame on his players and family which he would like to avoid. He knows it won’t be easy. Speaking to Hurley both on Tuesday and in an earlier lengthy conversation over the summer, he owns up to his behavior and is not looking for excuses. It all stemmed from the 0-3 disaster in Maui last November, which led to UConn becoming just the second team ever to go from a top five ranking to being unranked in a week.

“What I gave the cameras today was… Oppenheimer,” Hurley told me, dazed under the Hawaiian morning sun outside the team bus after the Nov. 25 loss to Memphis, which included a sideline meltdown at the end of the game. His self-inflicted travails only worsened after Maui, with a variety of clashes with officials and fans, and even the occasional behind-the-scenes conflict with certain members of the media.

“It got personal for me at times,” Hurley said.

Friendly advice from a familiar face

One of Hurley’s most crucial advisors is Geno Auriemma, who can be dogmatic in his own way but has mastered basketball coaching at a level few have ever matched. He can call Hurley out on his actions and has the resume that commands the respect of virtually every coach in the country, basketball or otherwise. Auriemma’s women’s coach was perhaps the most important person besides Hurley’s wife in keeping him from going completely sideways last season.

“Geno was able to get me out of a bad mental state I was in a few times,” Hurley said. “I coached that team angrily, I coached them with too much ego. When we weren’t performing at an NCAA championship level, instead of helping them get better and maximize their potential, I just got angry at my team all winter long.”

Some of that anger manifested itself in public and at odd times, like when TV cameras caught him during the game against Butler in mid-January. swearing at a referee: “Don’t turn your back on me. I’m the best coach in the damn sport.”

In the aftermath, Hurley hated himself for even thinking it, let alone saying it in the heat of a game. So he’s trying to make up for this kind of behavior before the season arrives. Because he knows that a new season brings with it the potential for a new sea of ​​emotions to travel across.

It sounds like he’s almost over last year’s problems.

“There’s a tax you pay for the success you’ve had over the last few years,” Hurley said. “Then we end the year with an emotional loss, and we have one last incident to end the year, which takes all the focus away from everything we’ve done over the years.”

He is referring to the second-round thriller against Florida, a nail-biting 77-75 loss. The Gators took as hard a hit against the Huskies as any team on their way to winning the national championship. But the story after that wasn’t that the Huskies and Gators played one of the best games of the 2025 tournament. It was about Hurley again, who was captured on camera telling Baylor players, “I hope they don’t like you fucking us” as the Bears were about to jog to the field.

“It was all my fault,” Hurley told CBS Sports. “I’m not a victim. We have enough victims in the world. I did it to myself and I did it all year long. We couldn’t really celebrate the run we had because all the attention was on the idiot I was acting in the tunnel. I think all those things combined put me in a state where I had to think about what I wanted to do next.”

That unfortunate moment came two months after a win at Creighton, when Hurley was emphatically booed by Bluejays fans as he took his time leaving the field. A Creighton fan caught Hurley’s attention so much so that he shouted back, ‘Two rings! Two rings, bald!’

“If I can avoid the fan thing at the end,” Hurley said. “I would love to be able to just take myself to the tunnel and back to the locker room after the game this year. I would love that.”

Seems easy enough. Almost any other coach can handle it. By his own admission, Hurley has himself to blame. Will he be able to withstand one word and one gesture all season to every drunk or outrageous fan just trying to goad him for a response?

This would be the moment when most other coaches would simply say yes.

Hurley isn’t that simple.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve been working a lot on myself this season to prepare for that. I just want to get to and from the field more smoothly at the end of the games and avoid that. That’s the part that deserves criticism. If fans are yelling at you in the tunnel, no matter how obscene, dirty and personal it is, just go to the locker room, man. Just go to the locker room.”

Unless you think this is a personality makeover, hardly. Hurley is just trying to shrug off his worst instincts and keep everything within the lines. There are certain things about his coaching style that won’t change. In the spirit of some personal growth, I asked Hurley if this would also lead to a change in the game’s activities as it pertains to the ebb and flow of a 40-minute battle. Will a docile Hurley suddenly appear on the sidelines?

“No,” he said. “You’re going to see the same me. But for me, going back to my values ​​as a coach. There’s always going to be, as a coach at UConn and as a Hurley in basketball, a life-or-death urgency in the pursuit of championships and greatness and excellence. There’s an energy and intensity that you bring to the sidelines that won’t change. But even while that’s going on, I’m enjoying the relationships and getting the most out of my team.”

Hurley insists that the Groundhog Day-like issues he, his staff and his players struggled through for months last fall and winter won’t be a reality for the next five months. That was buoyed by the release Tuesday of the preseason All-Big East team, which recognized three Huskies (on a seven-man team, which is strange and inappropriate) as senior forward Alex Karaban, junior shooting guard Solo Ball and senior center Tarris Reed Jr. all of whom earned first-team honors.

There are about 360 coaches who are willing to trade two or three of their good players for just one guy with four years in the program, who has won at the highest level and is fully committed to the school and staff. That’s Karaban. UConn’s leader. Hurley appears determined not to waste Karaban’s senior season after missing a big opportunity to join the club N.B.A in 2024, only to have a frustrating and inconsistent junior year.

“We have the attributes, we have the talent, we have the depth,” Hurley said. “I think I will be a better leader for my team.”

Hurley made himself a Hall-of-Famer by refusing to stick to his principles. That doesn’t mean he can’t change. Both can be true at the same time. Balancing the cerebral with the emotional has taken him to the top of the sport and could very well take him back to the top.

If you know Dan Hurley, you know he can’t change, he can only try to get better. If he makes good on his intentions, Connecticut will likely become one of the best teams in the country again.