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UConn Basketball: Dan Hurley is already a slam-dunk hire

By Jacob Matteson

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 15: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 15: Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley reacts as the Connecticut Huskies bench celebrates after the Huskies rebound in the first half of the game against Syracuse Orange during the 2k Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden on November 15, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 15: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 15: Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley reacts as the Connecticut Huskies bench celebrates after the Huskies rebound in the first half of the game against Syracuse Orange during the 2k Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden on November 15, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /
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UConn basketball is seemingly in an early resurgence under head coach Dan Hurley. How has the coach been able to make such a big difference?

Withhold your personal opinion of his demonstrative sideline demeanor and say what you may feel towards the UConn Huskies and say it with me: The Dan Hurley hire has already paid dividends for the once-maligned Connecticut program.

At the moment, at 6-1, Hurley has already brought a new life to the UConn program.  Sure, five of those wins are against KenPom 245+ ranked teams, but to use a cliche…sometimes a win is a win. Once a sure-fire national threat, the Huskies rapidly spiraled downward just a couple of years into the Kevin Ollie experiment.

They were doomed.  But along came a savior who was just 90 minutes away.

As a native Rhode Islander, I had a front-row seat to the Dan Hurley era at the University of Rhode Island. He inherited a team that was one of the lowest points in the modern era for the program and went 8-21 in his first season.

Four short years later, he took the Rams to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, the first since 1999. In 2017, the Rams won the Atlantic 10 championship, likewise their first since 1999, and in 2018 won the Atlantic 10 regular season title, which was the first since 1981.

That’s the Hurley factor.

Cooler than the dropping temperatures in Storrs, Connecticut and never short in swagger, Hurley out-recruited schools such as Iowa, Arizona, Creighton and USC for EC Matthews in 2012. In 2014, when four-star recruit Jared Terrell de-committed from Oklahoma State, Hurley was able to out-recruit Boston College and Pittsburgh and would eventually help turn Terrell into an NBA player.

He achieved this while at a mid-major program with respectable, yet albeit lacking resources in the grand scheme of things compared to other basketball schools.  This isn’t even factoring in his ability to work the transfer market by landing noted trouble makers Stanford Robinson and Kuran Iverson en route to turning them into professional basketball players.

Imagine what he could do with a bigger budget, bigger facilities, and a bigger stage?

As of this moment, Hurley and the Huskies are viewed as front-runners for three Top-50 prospects in the 247Sports 2019 class with Precious Achiuwa (9th), Akok Akok (31st) and Kofi Cockburn (33rd) all being potential Storrs residents.

Should we ignore the “what if” side of recruiting, it’s hard to deny the impact already on display with the current Huskies roster.

Senior guard Jalen Adams is netting a career-best 18.4 points per outing on .565 FG% so far thisyear. In comparison, as a junior, Adams averaged 18.1 points on .430 shooting.  For the analytics crowd out there, per Sports-Reference, Adams currently boasts a .635 TS%.  Last year?  His TS% was .511.

Another factor in the success of UConn thus far? The re-emergence of Alterique Gilbert.  The Atlanta native is putting up 13.1 points per game. This is a significant upgrade after he averaged just 9.0 last season in what was viewed by many as a lackluster sophomore year. What’s even more impressive is that Gilbert is currently putting up four more points compared to last year on fewer shot attempts.  Even more intriguing is that Alterique is shooting higher from three (.469) than he is from inside the arc (.400 2pt%.)

Call it players finding their stride. Call it a group of kids being happy the black cloud has left from overhead.  Or you can sum it up as the Hurley factor.

Even if the Huskies come back down to earth a bit, there’s a real shot that this team sees the 20-win range. This is a team that has been sub-.500 the past two seasons with a very similar roster and could legitimately compete in the depleted American Athletic Conference.

Seemingly with his players being “all-in”, and the conference in a slump this season, the stars have aligned for UConn and Dan Hurley.  If Hurley can flip this program in 2018, something not many expected right away, and land the previously mentioned recruits then we are looking at the next illustrious chapter in the program’s history.

Welcome to the Renaissance of UConn basketball.