Dan Hurley to remain at UConn, turns down offer to coach Lakers for chance to pursue third straight NCAA title

The Huskies have won yet again.

Dan Hurley has turned down a career-altering job offer from the Los Angeles Lakers and will remain in college basketball as UConn’s coach, a source confirmed to CBS Sports. If ever there was an event to firm up Connecticut’s blue-blood status, this is it. Despite being presented with a mammoth contract that outsized UConn’s bidding price, Hurley nevertheless spurned the NBA’s most glamorous franchise to stay in Storrs, Connecticut, and will continue to oversee the best program in the sport.

Hurley traveled to Los Angeles for an interview Friday to meet with Lakers president Jeannie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka. He was sold a vision of overseeing a pro franchise that could operate in his image and with his influence at the forefront of the Lakers organization in the years to come. But what that job could not provide is the long-term stability and the comforts of Storrs and his beloved territory, the East Coast.

Hurley flew back East on Saturday, just in time to attend a Billy Joel concert at another NBA facility he’s all too familiar with: Madison Square Garden, AKA “Storrs South.” Huskies assistant Luke Murray attended the concert alongside Hurley and Hurley’s wife, Andrea, posting a short video clip of the three of them on Instagram (with Hurley in a New York, New York T-shirt, no less). In retrospect, the IG post functioned as a harbinger of the good news that was to come for UConn fans.

Hurley’s decision is a quake to pro and college hoops. On the college side, this keeps UConn highly ranked heading into the 2024-25 season, reigniting the Huskies’ hopes and dreams of a three-peat — something last achieved in men’s college basketball in the early 1970s by UCLA. The NBA fallout: Hurley’s pass on the Lakers brings more speculation and recalibration regarding the timeline and new leading candidate for a legacy franchise looking to capitalize in the winter years of…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/dan-hurley-to-remain-at-uconn-turns-down-offer-to-coach-lakers-for-chance-to-pursue-third-straight-ncaa-title/

Author : Matt Norlander

Publish date : 2024-06-10 17:41:32

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